Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

M
Category: Education

Terrible school performance demands real action

by | 1100, 25 Sep 22 | , | 2 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week:

In this column last week, I lamented the abysmal performance of our government schools. At all levels, barely a third of our kids are at least proficient in language or math skills. In some cases, it is far less than a third. Such poor performance demands action. What would I do? I’m glad you asked.

 

Before we begin, we must understand a few things. We, the people, have a Constitutional and moral obligation to provide for the education of our children. An education is not only a valuable asset for an individual, but an educated citizenry is a prerequisite for sustained self-governance.

 

There is no requirement, however, that the government operate the means of delivering that education. In fact, as the data shows, the government is really terrible at delivering education. While we are compelled to pay for education with our tax dollars, we are also obligated to find the best means of delivering that education.

 

Also, kids are individuals. They are not cattle. They learn at different speeds, with different methods, and with different styles. It is unrealistic to expect any single school to cater to the individual needs of students. Our kids are better served if we encourage the development of an educational heterogeny and trust parents to choose the best option for their children. All that understood, first, we must implement universal school choice with equal funding for each child irrespective of the school they attend. In Wisconsin’s current School Choice programs, taxpayers get a bargain because they provide much less money for a kid who attends a choice school than if the kid attends a government school. We must equalize funding to equalize choice. The current rate in Wisconsin is $16,017 per child. The full funding should follow the child.

 

Next, we should implement rigorous, focused, testing of core subjects for all schools that receive funding. The taxpayers are paying for a quality education and deserve to know that their money is being well spent. The key, however, is that the testing must only test true core subjects and not impose any other strictures on the schools. If 70% of the children are proficient in reading, writing, math, and civics, then that is more than twice as good as the current government schools are delivering. We should use the power of the purse to demand very high standards in a very limited number of key subjects.

 

Once the funding and testing infrastructure is in place, Wisconsin should privatize all K-12 government schools. All of them. We should get government out of the business of delivering education.

 

When I have suggested privatization in the past, people tend to have one of two sincere reservations. Some folks worry about for-profit schools. We have been culturalized to think that profit is incongruous with education. It is not. Capitalism and the profit motive have improved the lives of more people than any other system in the history of humankind. They have lifted people out of poverty and cured diseases. Education is not immune from its benefits. From a taxpayer perspective, if a school can deliver 96% reading proficiency and make a profit, we should be delighted.

 

Some folks also worry about schools that may teach values with which they disagree. They usually ignore the fact that our government schools are already teaching values with which many disagree, thus instigating controversy. Privatization must come with getting government away from dictating values and relegate it to simply enforcing core standards.

 

With diversity of schools, we may have schools that teach values rooted in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Critical Race Theory, secularism, or any number of different value systems. We have a diverse society, and that diversity will be reflected in our schools. Families will choose and government will leave them alone to believe what they will. We should abandon the notion that we must have uniformity of beliefs in order to have uniformity in education funding. If we truly believe in diversity, then we must actually practice it.

 

In all actions, we must be obsessive about educational outcomes and unapologetic about demanding them. If we can double proficiency in reading, writing, and math, our children will be equipped to build better futures for themselves and our entire society will benefit. If we can triple proficiency (sadly, there is room to triple it), the individual and societal benefits are immeasurable.

 

That is what I would do. What would you do to improve education for our kids?

Terrible school performance demands real action

by | 0740, 20 Sep 22 | , | 20 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Readers of this blog won’t be surprised by the thoughts. Here’s a bit:

Also, kids are individuals. They are not cattle. They learn at different speeds, with different methods, and with different styles. It is unrealistic to expect any single school to cater to the individual needs of students. Our kids are better served if we encourage the development of an educational heterogeny and trust parents to choose the best option for their children. All that understood, first, we must implement universal school choice with equal funding for each child irrespective of the school they attend. In Wisconsin’s current School Choice programs, taxpayers get a bargain because they provide much less money for a kid who attends a choice school than if the kid attends a government school. We must equalize funding to equalize choice. The current rate in Wisconsin is $16,017 per child. The full funding should follow the child.

 

Next, we should implement rigorous, focused, testing of core subjects for all schools that receive funding. The taxpayers are paying for a quality education and deserve to know that their money is being well spent. The key, however, is that the testing must only test true core subjects and not impose any other strictures on the schools. If 70% of the children are proficient in reading, writing, math, and civics, then that is more than twice as good as the current government schools are delivering. We should use the power of the purse to demand very high standards in a very limited number of key subjects.

 

Once the funding and testing infrastructure is in place, Wisconsin should privatize all K-12 government schools. All of them. We should get government out of the business of delivering education.

 

When I have suggested privatization in the past, people tend to have one of two sincere reservations. Some folks worry about for-profit schools. We have been culturalized to think that profit is incongruous with education. It is not. Capitalism and the profit motive have improved the lives of more people than any other system in the history of humankind. They have lifted people out of poverty and cured diseases. Education is not immune from its benefits. From a taxpayer perspective, if a school can deliver 96% reading proficiency and make a profit, we should be delighted.

Step 1: Admit that you have a problem

by | 0736, 16 Sep 22 | , | 34 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News this week. It is particularly apropos in light of the state DPI releasing their budget request asking for more and more money.

The data is telling. The more we have spent on K-12 education, the worse the results have gotten. If we are to make data-driven decisions, there are only two conclusions. 1) There is no correlation between money spent and educational outcomes. The outcomes are a result of other inputs. 2) There is a negative correlation between money spent and educational outcomes. More money actually results in poorer outcomes.

Personally, I think the answer is #2. Here’s why: once basic needs are funded (we did that a long time ago), more money becomes a distraction from core education. Every administrator, department, specialist, etc. who is hired is looking for something to do. They create new curriculum, new programs, change standards, create study committees, have meetings, and on and on and on. All of that is time that is not being spent in classrooms teaching core subjects in proven ways.

This happens in corporate America too. When companies get fat, they spend a lot of time-wasting energy around the edges of their core businesses and profits erode. That’s why the market tends to love it when a company cuts fat in a deep layoff.

Anyway, here’s the column. Look at the data:

The first step in the renowned twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit that you have a problem. One cannot begin the path to recovery if one does not admit to having a problem. Well, Wisconsin has a huge problem. Our government education system is utterly failing our kids and it is getting worse every year. Our governor, Tony Evers, with a lifetime spent in government education, accepts such failure as normal and acceptable. It is not.

 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, every significant benchmark of student achievement is in freefall since well before the abysmal response of government schools accelerated the decline. Student proficiency on the ACT is down.

 

Between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021, the percentage of Wisconsin eleventh graders who were proficient or better on the English language arts part of the ACT, which measures understanding of English, writing, and knowledge of language, dropped from 39.5% to 33%. That is a 16.4% drop in scores in five years.

 

Math scores are even worse. Over the same time span, the percentage of Wisconsin’s eleventh graders who were proficient or better at mathematics dropped from 35.7% to 25.5%. That is a 28.6% drop in proficiency in just five years.

 

The story is the same for the ACT Aspire, which is given to ninth and tenth graders. Proficiency in English dropped from 41.2% to 32.4% between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021. In Mathematics, proficiency dropped from 37.1% to 29.8%. Those are declines of 21.4% and 19.7%, respectively.

 

Looking at the younger students between third and eight grades who take the Forward exams, the decline remains consistent and persistent. On the Forward exam over the same five years, the number of students who were proficient or better in English language arts declined 24.1% from 44.4% to 33.7%. In mathematics, their scores declined 21.5% from 42.8% to 33.6%.

 

But let us step back from the cold numbers for a moment and put them in perspective. The fact than only 33.7% of Wisconsin’s students between third and eighth grades are at least proficient in English language arts is abysmal. According to the DPI, the Forward Exam tests what, “students should know and be able to do in order to be college and career ready.” That means that barely a third of Wisconsin’s students are meeting grade-level standards to be ready to attend college or start a career. Only one in three of Wisconsin’s kids are proficient in English or math — two key skills for success as an adult.

 

What the heck are we doing? Is that really good enough? Two-thirds of our kids are falling behind and we collectively shrug and accept it? Have we been so cowed by the government education bullies that we are willing to accept that their failure is normal and satisfactory?

 

Our governor thinks it is. On his campaign website, he brags about his accomplishments on education. As proof, he noticeably fails to mention anything about student achievement. Instead, he cites the fact that the state spends more money than ever on K-12 education. If the spending is not resulting on better results for our kids, then what is the point?

 

In fact, the more we spend, the worse our student achievement is getting. According to DPI data, between the 2016-2017 and 2020-2021 school years, total state and local spending on government K-12 schools ballooned 14.8% from $11.5 billion to $13.2 billion. Over the same period, total enrollment declined 3.6% from 855,307 to 823,827 students. That is a whopping 19% increase in spending per student over just five years.

 

What are we getting for our money? Why are we continuing to pump more money into government bureaucracy who produces increasingly poor results every year? Governor Tony Evers recently announced that he wants to spend an additional $2 billion on K-12 schools. Given that a $1.7 billion increase in spending over the last five years resulted in a 24.1% drop in English scores on the Forward exam, will another $2 billion push scores down further?

 

Like any addiction, spending more money on it makes it worse because the spending obscures the real problems. In Wisconsin, we have been failing our kids and making ourselves feel better about it by spending more money on them. They do not need more money. They need a quality education and our government education establishment is increasingly unable or unwilling to give them that education.

 

It is time to stop. Stop the excessive spending. Stop the pretending that our government education system works. Stop accepting abysmal performance as normal or acceptable. Stop rewarding failure. Admit that we have a real problem and we are failing our kids at every grade level.

 

We cannot begin on the path to fixing our government education system until we admit that it has failed. As a lifelong insider of that system, Governor Tony Evers is never going to take the first step to recovery. We need a governor who will.

 

We need a governor who will focus on outcomes instead of inputs. We need a governor who will value our kids more than the system. Let me rephrase that … our kids need a governor who will value them more than government workers. Tony Evers is not that governor.

Step 1: Admit that you have a problem

by | 0739, 13 Sep 22 | , | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

The first step in the renowned twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit that you have a problem. One cannot begin the path to recovery if one does not admit to having a problem. Well, Wisconsin has a huge problem. Our government education system is utterly failing our kids and it is getting worse every year. Our governor, Tony Evers, with a lifetime spent in government education, accepts such failure as normal and acceptable. It is not.

 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, every significant benchmark of student achievement is in freefall since well before the abysmal response of government schools accelerated the decline. Student proficiency on the ACT is down.

 

Between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021, the percentage of Wisconsin eleventh graders who were proficient or better on the English language arts part of the ACT, which measures understanding of English, writing, and knowledge of language, dropped from 39.5% to 33%. That is a 16.4% drop in scores in five years.

 

Math scores are even worse…

 

[…]

 

But let us step back from the cold numbers for a moment and put them in perspective. The fact than only 33.7% of Wisconsin’s students between third and eighth grades are at least proficient in English language arts is abysmal. According to the DPI, the Forward Exam tests what, “students should know and be able to do in order to be college and career ready.” That means that barely a third of Wisconsin’s students are meeting grade-level standards to be ready to attend college or start a career. Only one in three of Wisconsin’s kids are proficient in English or math — two key skills for success as an adult.

 

What the heck are we doing? Is that really good enough? Two-thirds of our kids are falling behind and we collectively shrug and accept it? Have we been so cowed by the government education bullies that we are willing to accept that their failure is normal and satisfactory?

 

Our governor thinks it is. On his campaign website, he brags about his accomplishments on education. As proof, he noticeably fails to mention anything about student achievement. Instead, he cites the fact that the state spends more money than ever on K-12 education. If the spending is not resulting on better results for our kids, then what is the point?

 

[…]

 

Like any addiction, spending more money on it makes it worse because the spending obscures the real problems. In Wisconsin, we have been failing our kids and making ourselves feel better about it by spending more money on them. They do not need more money. They need a quality education and our government education establishment is increasingly unable or unwilling to give them that education.

 

It is time to stop. Stop the excessive spending. Stop the pretending that our government education system works. Stop accepting abysmal performance as normal or acceptable. Stop rewarding failure. Admit that we have a real problem and we are failing our kids at every grade level.

Push for Teachers that “Look Like Me”

by | 1825, 12 Sep 22 | , | 2 Comments

Here is a very long and very interesting article about the disparity between the racial diversity of teachers compared to students. The data and challenges are interesting, but this part troubles me:

Students benefit when they have teachers who look like them

 

[…]

 

When she got to middle school, Lor noticed teachers who looked like her for the first time. She wasn’t placed in their classrooms, but she wished she would have been; wished she would have had teachers she could relate to in that way.

 

[…]

 

“Having a diverse teacher in your classroom helps you realize that you can also become a teacher, you can become a doctor, you can do whatever you want,” she said.

I do think that diversity in teaching is important. I wish that we would take a more expansive approach to diversity to include things like ideology, sex, and background instead of just race. As a boy, I rarely – RARELY – had a teacher that “looked like me.” Since I went to school in Texas and Saudi, my teachers were overwhelmingly women, but were more racially diverse than in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, teachers are overwhelmingly white, middle class, liberal, and female.

BUT, while diversity is an important and laudable goal, we must purge this notion that kids can only learn, or learn best, from teachers that “look like them.” We are reinforcing that expectation in our kids, and it is damaging their ability to learn. If it is wrong to say that I learn better from white men (it is), then it is wrong to tell an Asian girl that she would learn better from Asian women. Teachers are individuals and should be treated as such.

Instead, we should be reinforcing the ethics of acceptance and respect for authority with our kids. We should be teaching them that they can learn just as much irrespective of the physical appearance of the teacher. By telling kids that they need teachers to look like them in order to learn, we are teaching them racism and bigotry.

Let’s continue to encourage racial minorities, conservatives, and men to join the ranks of teachers so that our kids will benefit from a broad experience, but let’s stop teaching kids that they should judge the quality of their teacher by the color of their skin.

Teachers Union Continue to Inflict Pain on Kids

by | 1749, 12 Sep 22 | , | 1 Comment

They. Don’t. Care. About. Kids.

SEATTLE (AP) — Students in Seattle on Monday will miss a fourth day of school as teachers strike over pay and classroom support.

 

The school district Sunday afternoon announced the cancellation of Monday classes and said negotiations with the union were ongoing.

 

“We are optimistic an agreement will be reached soon so that students can begin school,” Seattle Public Schools said.

 

The strike began Wednesday, what was supposed to be the first day of school for the approximately 49,000 students in the district.

The University Money Pit

by | 2050, 29 Aug 22 | , | 0 Comments

Yup

For all of the controversy over Biden’s decision, though, there’s one thing all sides agree upon: Erasing student loans balances won’t do anything to address the rising costs of higher education that caused all of that debt to pile up in the first place.

 

Over the past several decades the cost of attending college in the U.S. has skyrocketed. At the same time, average wages have stagnated, causing more and more students — and their families — to take on hefty loan balances in order to afford an education. In 1995, Americans held a total of $187 billion in federal student loan debt. By this year, that number had ballooned to $1.6 trillion. Today, the typical undergraduate student has about $25,000 in loan debt by the time they graduate, according to the Department of Education.

Teachers Strike

by | 2109, 24 Aug 22 | , | 2 Comments

These kids haven’t had a normal school year in three years and this year won’t be normal either. They are being robbed of their futures.

The tens of thousands of students in the district are now starting the school year with remote education, made up of lesson plans and videos they can access through their schools without a teacher to guide them. It’s a start that has some parents concerned. Remote learning has contributed to students falling behind academically and to mental health and behavioral challenges.

Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announced in a news release that the city is partnering with recreation centers and area nonprofit organizations to open “support centers” with reliable internet service for students affected by the teacher strike.

 

The centers began operating Wednesday and are providing spaces for students to access online lessons, however, they are “not intended to serve as a substitute for in-person academic instruction.”

Minneapolis Schools Defend Racist Layoff Policy

by | 0734, 17 Aug 22 | , | 5 Comments

If they think that laying off white teachers first is an appropriate remedy for past racism, imagine what they are doing to white kids in that district.

Minneapolis Public Schools is defending its deal with the teachers’ union to lay off white educators ahead of their less-senior minority colleagues, arguing that it is a necessary measure to remedy “the effects of past discrimination.”

 

The school district released a statement to the Washington Times on Tuesday, offering a full-throated defense of the groundbreaking deal with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, led by president Greta Callahan.

 

“To remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination, Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) mutually agreed to contract language that aims to support the recruitment and retention of teachers from underrepresented groups as compared to the labor market and to the community served by the school district,” the district said in an email.

WEAC’s priorities are not Wisconsin’s, but they are Tony Evers’

by | 0856, 25 Jun 22 | , | 14 Comments

Here is my column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week. With all of the amazing news this week, we need to fight against Evers’ anti-education agenda so that our kids are smart enough to read and understand SCOTUS’ opinions for themselves.

Governor Tony Evers is famously opposed to using emails, having once told a reporter, “if I do one email a day, that’s an extraordinary day.” His staff, however, is not as uncomfortable with the newfangled 20th-century technology. Empower Wisconsin, a Wisconsin conservative news hub, recently acquired 256 pages of emails between Evers’ staff and the leaders of WEAC, the state teachers union. The emails reveal a familial relationship that confirms much of what we already knew, but also portends some of the disastrous policies that Evers may push if he is reelected.

 

What we have always known is that Tony Evers is a puppet of WEAC. Evers is a creature of the state’s government education bureaucracy and WEAC has been a major rhetorical and financial supporter of the governor for his entire political career. The emails confirm WEAC’s continued ownership of the governor. The emails are from the period in late 2020 when the Evers administration was bungling their way through the state government’s response to the pandemic. Several times, the emails show that Evers was making sure to keep WEAC involved and informed of the policy negotiations. WEAC’s president was invited by Evers to a live phone call to discuss policy matters. Given Evers’ continued stubborn averseness to even pick up the phone and call the Republicans in the Legislature, it is telling that Evers is willing to engage detailed policy discussions with the president of the teachers union. One wonders if Evers recorded that conversation as he did when he spoke with Republicans several years ago.

 

Evers also gave WEAC preemptive information long before he told the public. He gave WEAC a heads-up about vetoes before announcing them. When Evers was negotiating public policy with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Evers forwarded the draft legislation to WEAC to get their input.

 

It is clear that Governor Evers is a wholly owned subsidiary of WEAC who does not make a move without their input and direction, but the emails also tell us something about WEAC.

 

In late 2020, WEAC strongly pushed then Secretary-designee of the Department of Health Services Andrea Palm and Governor Evers to use state power to close all government schools. WEAC was flabbergasted that, “School districts across the state are caving to community pressure to remain open.” WEAC cannot stand by while local school boards listen to their constituents.

 

By this time in the pandemic, we already knew that the virus is a minimal risk to children and could already see the terrible impact school closures were having on our children’s education and mental health, but WEAC pushed for it anyway. Their concerns were, and are, not for the children. Their concerns are for money and power.

 

Given that WEAC’s motives are sordid, and they own Governor Evers, it is worth looking at WEAC’s top priorities that Evers may advance in a second term. Conveniently, Evers asked WEAC for their top five policy priorities. WEAC responded with their top four priorities. Even WEAC is failing at math and following directions.

 

WEAC’s first priority is to “remove all restriction related to compensation issues.” Currently, Act 10 limits compensation negotiations to the rate of inflation. Given that we are seeing over 8% inflation in Biden’s economy, WEAC would push for even more spending with which to burden the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

 

WEAC’s second priority is to place all government employees in the state health plan. In theory, this could be positive, but the emails also show that WEA Trust, the corrupt health insurance company owned by the teachers union, was an insurer for the state plan. Prior to Act 10, unions would negotiate into their contracts that the district was required to use WEA Trust. Then WEA Trust would charge above market rates. The union owns WEA Trust and forced school districts to use them at inflated rates. WEAC’s priority was to funnel more taxpayer money into WEAC via WEA Trust. Thankfully, Republicans in the Legislature would not support such a mandate and WEA Trust, unable to compete on a level playing field, has since exited the health insurance market.

 

WEAC’s third priority is to put a “just cause” provision in state law for government employees. Under current law, Wisconsin is an “at will” state where employers can end someone’s employment for any reason, or no reason, as long as it is not discriminatory. WEAC wants school districts to only be able to terminate teachers with just cause in order to prevent the “possibility of employee layoffs tied to budget shortfalls.” In other words, in an era of declining enrollment and people moving their kids out of government schools that failed them during the pandemic, WEAC wants to prevent school districts from reducing staff to be in line with lower enrollments. WEAC wants taxpayers to continue paying for government employees when there is not enough work to justify their jobs.

 

WEAC’s fourth priority is to eliminate the annual recertification requirement. This was a requirement from Act 10 that requires the employees of a government school district to recertify the union every year. Before Act 10, a local teachers union was perpetual even if the employees of that district had never voted for it. Under Act 10, the employees of a district must vote to have a union every year. The law holds unions accountable to ensure that they are serving their members. WEAC would rather that local unions be more accountable to WEAC than their constituent members.

 

WEAC’s Wisconsin is one of higher spending, less accountability, and more taxpayer money being funneled into WEAC to fuel their leftist activism and Tony Evers shares WEAC’s vision for Wisconsin. Wisconsin cannot afford another term of Tony Evers.

WEAC’s priorities are not Wisconsin’s, but they are Tony Evers’

by | 0736, 21 Jun 22 | , | 8 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Given that WEAC’s motives are sordid, and they own Governor Evers, it is worth looking at WEAC’s top priorities that Evers may advance in a second term. Conveniently, Evers asked WEAC for their top five policy priorities. WEAC responded with their top four priorities. Even WEAC is failing at math and following directions.

 

WEAC’s first priority is to “remove all restriction related to compensation issues.” Currently, Act 10 limits compensation negotiations to the rate of inflation. Given that we are seeing over 8% inflation in Biden’s economy, WEAC would push for even more spending with which to burden the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

 

WEAC’s second priority is to place all government employees in the state health plan. In theory, this could be positive, but the emails also show that WEA Trust, the corrupt health insurance company owned by the teachers union, was an insurer for the state plan. Prior to Act 10, unions would negotiate into their contracts that the district was required to use WEA Trust. Then WEA Trust would charge above market rates. The union owns WEA Trust and forced school districts to use them at inflated rates. WEAC’s priority was to funnel more taxpayer money into WEAC via WEA Trust. Thankfully, Republicans in the Legislature would not support such a mandate and WEA Trust, unable to compete on a level playing field, has since exited the health insurance market.

 

WEAC’s third priority is to put a “just cause” provision in state law for government employees. Under current law, Wisconsin is an “at will” state where employers can end someone’s employment for any reason, or no reason, as long as it is not discriminatory. WEAC wants school districts to only be able to terminate teachers with just cause in order to prevent the “possibility of employee layoffs tied to budget shortfalls.” In other words, in an era of declining enrollment and people moving their kids out of government schools that failed them during the pandemic, WEAC wants to prevent school districts from reducing staff to be in line with lower enrollments. WEAC wants taxpayers to continue paying for government employees when there is not enough work to justify their jobs.

Regents Bring California Values to Wisconsin’s Flagship Campus

by | 2056, 16 May 22 | , , | 0 Comments

Disgraceful.

(Reuters) – Jennifer Mnookin, the longtime dean of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, has been named the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Officials announced her appointment Monday, saying she will take over the top administrative post at the state’s flagship public university on Aug. 4. Mnookin has led UCLA’s law school since 2015, during which time the school has expanded student financial aid, increased fundraising and student diversity, and added several academic centers.

“Professor” Biden Cashes $1 Million Check

by | 1921, 14 Apr 22 | , | 4 Comments

And you wonder why tuition is so high?

Biden also claimed that he used to be a ‘full professor’ at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

‘I’ve been at a lot of university campuses, matter of fact for four years, I was a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania.’

 

Biden collected nearly $1 million from the university after being given a vague role and teaching no regular classes.

 

The president was named Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor, the first person to hold the role, in 2017. He did not teach regular classes but made about a dozen public appearances on the campus, mostly at big-ticketed events, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. He collected a pay check in 2017, 2018 and early 2019.

Conservative Win in West Bend School Board

by | 0647, 6 Apr 22 | , | 21 Comments

After several years of conservatives losing in West Bens School Board races, two of the have handily unseated the incumbents. Hopefully the new board members can begin to stop the decline of that district. At the very least, hopefully we can have come transparency into their machinations.

WEST BEND — Challengers John Donaldson and Melanie Ehrgott received more votes than incumbents Paul Fischer and Erin Dove to earn spots on the West Bend School District Board of Education.

 

Ehrgott received 29.52% of the total votes and Donaldson received 29.44% of the votes. Dove received 20.62% while Fischer received 20.42% of the total votes.

 

Ehrgott stated she decided to run for a seat on the board as she “saw a need for board members that will respond to the concerns of parents, students and the community.” She stated she also has a desire to serve the community where her family grew up.

 

Her top priorities are transparency including parent and community communication, improving academic achievement and balancing the budget without overburdening taxpayers. Ehrgott previously told the Daily News that if elected, she hopes to make all materials taught to students available online for parents and community members to review. That way, they can ask questions and determine if what is being taught meets their family’s values. She also hopes to find a solution to facility issues without adding an additional referendum.

MPS Might Stop Abusing Kids Sometime in April

by | 0814, 26 Mar 22 | , | 3 Comments

So… a month from now the kinds at MPS might be able to take their masks off. Maybe. If the teachers don’t bully them into “opting” to wear it anyway. This is a perfect example of the screwed up priorities of MPS.

MILWAUKEE (March 24, 2022) – Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has announced that masks will be optional for students and staff in school buildings. The new policy will take effect Monday, April 18, 2022. The decision was made after a vote by the Milwaukee Board of School Directors during their monthly board meeting on Thursday, March 24, 2022.

 

The new mask policy is a change from the original mandate that required masks be worn in all MPS school buildings to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The district does have the option to revert back to a mandatory mask policy if it is determined that there is a significant transmission of the virus within the city of Milwaukee and/or the school district. Masks will continue to be available for students and staff in school buildings.

Women Protest for Education

by | 0743, 26 Mar 22 | , | 1 Comment

What courage…

About two dozen, mainly female, protesters gathered close to the Taliban’s Ministry of Education on Saturday morning, calling on the group to reopen girls’ secondary schools.

 

The Taliban have been widely condemned for issuing a last-minute U-turn earlier this week, ordering them to close, just hours after teenage pupils began to arrive for the start of the new academic year.

 

The protesters chanted, “Education is our right! Open the doors of girls’ schools!” while armed Taliban members looked on.

 

One female teacher attending told the BBC: “When it comes to standing up for freedom and the girls who want to go to school, I’m willing to die.

 

“We are here for the rights of our daughters to get an education. Without that right, we might as well be dead already.”

 

The Taliban has previously broken up demonstrations and detained those involved, but on this occasion the protest was allowed to continue.

First, what courage… these are women who are very likely to be brutalized or killed for speaking out. Yet there they are.

Second, while leftists in America can’t define what a woman is anymore, these women are fighting for basic rights that Americans take for granted.

Teachers hold Kids’ Futures Hostage

by | 1500, 21 Mar 22 | , | 2 Comments

It’s not about your kids or their education. It never is. It’s about yet another shakedown of taxpayers for more money for worse performance. Kids today are getting a much poorer education at the hands of government employees who stopped giving a damn about them.

In January, Minneapolis Public Schools students stayed home for two weeks as the omicron COVID-19 variant surged and schools shuttered. This month, schools have closed for another two weeks — and counting — because of a teacher strike.

 

With no deal reached over the weekend, classes will remain canceled Monday, the district said. Minneapolis teachers have been picketing for better pay and benefits, smaller classes and more student mental health services. They’re not alone. From Minneapolis to Illinois to California, teachers unions are actively on strike or preparing to have members walk off the job over many of the same demands.

 

[…]

 

Today, money is still at the forefront of concerns – although unions say they’re focused on supporting struggling students and addressing teachers’ workloads.

 

Superintendents understand teachers are underpaid and recognize how hard they’re working, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association. But strikes are adding additional stress, he said.

 

“Parents are upset over education, they want their kids attending school in person, and now here’s another thing coming that has nothing to do with the pandemic that’s going to keep kids out of school,” Domenech said.

Power v. Education

by | 1744, 4 Mar 22 | , | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran earlier in the week in the Washington County Daily News.

One of the most important issues on the ballot in April and November will be the education of our kids. This is as it should be because education is not only the key to a strong and prosperous nation, but also the single greatest gift than one generation can give to the next. The frustrations of parents have grown into a political movement that is being felt in polling booths all over the nation.

 

In what will hopefully eventually be seen in time as a positive outcome of the pandemic, parents were forced to take a hard look at what and how their kids were being taught. Many parents did not like what they saw. Instead of the axiomatic “three Rs,” they found the curriculum riddled with the latest leftist fads from climate change to gender ideology to critical race theory. As kids finally returned to school buildings, many parents were frustrated by the destructive, ridiculous, and contradictory covid mitigation policies. Many schools, including the West Bend School District, have seen an increase in violence and classroom disruptions as kids damaged by the isolation enforced during the pandemic return to complicated social situations. Through all of this, the anger and frustration of parents has been increasing because government schools have turned a deaf ear to their concerns. As parents have tried to use the political process to express their dissatisfaction and frustrations with school boards and government school officials, they have been increasingly rebuffed and ignored.

 

Democrat Representative Lee Snodgrass let the cat out of the bag by tweeting what many government school officials think when she wrote, “If parents want to “have a say” in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.” In other words, parents should just pay their taxes and shut up. Snodgrass’ tweet gave voice to the arrogant condescension that parents are feeling from too many government school officials.

 

Parents have an expectation and a right that their kids are educated in accordance with their values and priorities. When that is not happening, they get justifiably angry. The root of the problem is that government schools are not capable of accommodating the spectrum of values present in the out modern society. They are not designed that way. They are designed to regress to the mean.

 

Government schools are political organizations that are governed by people who are chosen through the electoral process. By design, the government schools represent the values of the majority of the voters. When there are broad shared values that are held by the vast majority of the community, this system works fine. But when there are a wide variety of values to be represented, an elected government can only really represent some assemblage that adds up to 51% of the electorate. This leaves a significant portion of the community marginalized, frustrated, and angry. We see this reflected in all of our elected governments right now from Washington to school boards.

 

While we do not have a fix for this political frustration for state or national government, we do have a fix with schools. School Choice is the answer for how we can focus on education while still honoring the broad array of values that parents want to be reinforced with their children in school.

 

School Choice is not a conservative issue. It used to be considered a liberal issue. Many of the early advocates for School Choice were liberals who were fighting to give families who were not being represented in the power structure a chance to choose a school that will serve them better. These marginalized subsets of the larger community were unable to exert enough political power to change the government schools. School Choice prevented their children from being pawns in a political power struggle.

 

That is what the School Choice debate is really about: power and entrenched power structures. The government school establishment, from the local school districts to the Department of Public Instruction to the teachers’ unions, is powerful. School Choice is a challenge to that power because it transfers power to parents. As Snodgrass so eloquently explained, parents who pay get a say. School Choice gives all parents the means to have a real say in how schools are run and what is taught.

 

School Choice changes the dynamic by forcing schools — government and private — to be responsive to the families they serve. The discussion can be about education instead of a struggle for power. If one family is unhappy about a school teaching CRT or having to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, they can have the means to choose a different school that more closely matches their priorities and values. One should not have to defeat their neighbors in a political battle for their school to educate their children in a way that supports their values.

Power vs. education

by | 0719, 1 Mar 22 | , | 13 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Parents have an expectation and a right that their kids are educated in accordance with their values and priorities. When that is not happening, they get justifiably angry. The root of the problem is that government schools are not capable of accommodating the spectrum of values present in the out modern society. They are not designed that way. They are designed to regress to the mean.

 

Government schools are political organizations that are governed by people who are chosen through the electoral process. By design, the government schools represent the values of the majority of the voters. When there are broad shared values that are held by the vast majority of the community, this system works fine. But when there are a wide variety of values to be represented, an elected government can only really represent some assemblage that adds up to 51% of the electorate. This leaves a significant portion of the community marginalized, frustrated, and angry. We see this reflected in all of our elected governments right now from Washington to school boards.

 

While we do not have a fix for this political frustration for state or national government, we do have a fix with schools. School Choice is the answer for how we can focus on education while still honoring the broad array of values that parents want to be reinforced with their children in school.

 

School Choice is not a conservative issue. It used to be considered a liberal issue. Many of the early advocates for School Choice were liberals who were fighting to give families who were not being represented in the power structure a chance to choose a school that will serve them better. These marginalized subsets of the larger community were unable to exert enough political power to change the government schools. School Choice prevented their children from being pawns in a political power struggle

 

That is what the School Choice debate is really about: power and entrenched power structures. The government school establishment, from the local school districts to the Department of Public Instruction to the teachers’ unions, is powerful. School Choice is a challenge to that power because it transfers power to parents. As Snodgrass so eloquently explained, parents who pay get a say. School Choice gives all parents the means to have a real say in how schools are run and what is taught

 

School Choice changes the dynamic by forcing schools — government and private — to be responsive to the families they serve. The discussion can be about education instead of a struggle for power. If one family is unhappy about a school teaching CRT or having to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, they can have the means to choose a different school that more closely matches their priorities and values. One should not have to defeat their neighbors in a political battle for their school to educate their children in a way that supports their values.

Cedarburg is Hive of Scum and Villainy

by | 2008, 28 Feb 22 | , | 15 Comments

From Senator Duey Stroebel

I have been in statewide public office for almost 11 years now. The vile, disgusting behavior I am currently witnessing in the Cedarburg School Board election tops anything I have seen in my tenure.

 

A slate of four liberal challengers, publicly endorsed by our county’s Democratic Party, are intent on destroying via any means possible the three other candidates—Rick Leach, a former Cedarburg police officer, Elizabeth Charland, a young mom, and Laura Stroebel, a 28-year resident, small business owner and mother of eight who happens to be my wife. There had been a fourth non-liberal candidate, Jen Calzada. She has already suspended her campaign due to the harassment of her family.

 

All this from the challengers that tout tolerance, acceptance and compassion. That’s if you agree with them—if you don’t agree with their core ideology and divisive beliefs, it’s character assassination and dirty tricks. Systematic vandalism of campaign signs (even at my own house!), nasty emails and outrageous social media have been par for the course so far. But there is more. It was recently brought to my attention that an open records request was submitted to the Cedarburg Police Department and Ozaukee County Sheriff inquiring about me personally, as well as any “calls to service” for various periods of time relating to my family’s home, our former family home, our small business office, my mother’s home and my in-laws’ home. Some of these requests go back to when I was 19. . . I am now 62 years old!

 

My family and I have nothing to hide. But the requester, from Washington D.C. of all places, doesn’t know that. My family’s extended time and involvement in the community speaks for itself. But really, Washington D.C., all over a local school board race?

 

What is the end game? To intimidate decent people they don’t agree with from running for local office? These are the hypocritical values of people seeking to be in charge of our children’s education. It’s about the kids, right? I have a wonderful family and eight great kids, but if they can advance the cause, who cares about the collateral damage.

 

In this race, and all the races like this, let’s keep the focus on the students and the education we will be providing them. Let’s pull back the mask on some of these people and in the process hope that the “destroy at all costs” mantra of many from the leftist persuasion becomes a distant blip in our history.

Login | Register

Archives

Categories

Pin It on Pinterest