My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:
With the primary election a week away, most primary voters have made up their minds. Many of them have already cast their votes. In the Republican primary for governor, the voters are blessed with three great choices. Any of the three candidates would be a solid governor and far superior to Gov. Tony Evers. I continue to strongly think that Rebecca Kleefisch is the best choice both in terms of her ability to defeat Evers and her ability to move the conservative agenda as governor, but I can’t fault any Republican primary voter for making a different choice.
Whichever Republican makes it to the general election stands a good chance of winning in a red wave year. Should that occur and should the Republicans retain control of the Legislature (they should), it is another opportunity to move bold conservative ideas like the Republicans did in Governor Scott Walker’s first term. There are three big agenda items that the Republicans should pass in the first 100 days.
First, the Republicans must pass universal school choice.
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Second, Republicans should eliminate the state income tax
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Third, Republicans must swiftly reform the state’s election apparatus.
Wanna take a wager on the over/under for the effective date of universal school choice? Let’s set the line at September ’26 for full-on USC. I’ll take the FAR-over of Ain’t Gonna Happen.
Using the sales tax as a replacement for the income tax is good; it’s another way to phrase “Fair Tax” except for the part about deductions (rebates) for children and prop-tax. How should Pubbies structure it?
The only really, really, secure voting system is in-person WITH I.D. voting. 2-3 days of early, but same thing: must be IN PERSON. Exceptions can be made only for military. Sorry, if you’re vacationing or business-tripping, you don’t get to vote. Decide your priorities in advance since election dates are set FAR in advance!
Mandatory E-Verify. No DL for illegals. 10% reduction in state workers. No pensions for new employees or under age 30 (401k or 457 plan). 1% overall budget cut for each of the next 10 years. No new employees in Madison; spread them around the state. Fix unemployment system software (and others). Eliminate public unions. Yeah, I know. None of this will happen. I can dream, right?
Wait, wait!! You forgot to close at least TWO UW campuses due to lack of students!
Oh yeah. That would be the day pigs fly however. Not every campus needs an art degree or business administration degree. At the bare minimum, skinny down the campuses and have certain majors available only at select locations.
If “skinny down” means reduce faculty/staff by 50% or more, fine.
We already have school choice in Wisconsin – any parent who wants to home school or send their kid to boarding school or a private school are already allowed to do so….plenty of choices to choose from. The fact that the GOP has to blatantly mislabel this proposal speaks volumes.
What ya’ll are asking for is for the rest of the village to pay for your kids education yet not have any say in it what-so-ever…”taxation without representation”…and that’s just plain wrong. If you want to send your kid to a school where they teach that the world is flat and races should be segregated then you need to pay for that yourself., ’cause tax dollars should only go to those schools where the taxpayer has a voice.
>’cause tax dollars should only go to those schools where the taxpayer has a voice.
In home schooler homes, the taxpayer does not have a choice? Please clarify. Granted, they still have no choice on what the public school offers, but he/she has almost full control of what is offered their child, and they are still paying taxes for public schools.
In boarding or private schools, you have the choice of which school, so you have high control over what is taught your child. You should, you pay extra for it.
Seems to me, from what I have gone through, the only schools that taxpayers have no voice in are public schools. Doesn’t matter which one you send your children to the curriculum is sacred to the teachers and administrators and what they decide to spend money on or cut. There are certainly different qualities of public schools, but you are calling going to better public schools by choice a blatant mislabeling. Please explain how giving parents the power to choose a better public school is not choice. Or are you saying there is no or virtually no difference between public schools so ‘choice’ does not really enter the equation?
Where I think pubbies go too far is in offering large credits for the non-public choices. People with no kids don’t get partial credits under the excuse that public schools improve the common good. If someone does choose to spend more by either home school, private or boarding schools they should have the same responsibility that people with no kids have towards the common good. They are paying extra for their school choices and that is what it should be, extra.
Yah, well, both you guys are legally insufficient. “Choice” was declared Constitutional a long time ago on the basis that ALL schools serve the interest of the State–so tax dollars can flow to any of them. May I remind you that anyone living in Wisconsin pays property tax (funding schools) and most also pay income tax (also funding schools.)
Further, “Large” credit is a term lacking definition. Milwaukee Publik Screwels spend more than $12K/student for no results at all. “Choice” dollars are not greater than $8K/student.
Which is “large”, pray tell?