Legislature Poised To Attack MATC, Further Disenfranchise Milwaukee

In what could be the final vote Thursday, the State Assembly is set to remake the MATC board, taking away most of the local appointing authority at the Milwaukee-based school and turning over a majority of six of the nine MATC board seats to the business community.

Plus giving Ozaukee and Washington County county board chairs appointing authority equal to that of the Milwaukee County Board chair and County Executive - -  though 90% of MATC students come from Milwaukee County and almost as much of the local tax base support comes from Milwaukee County, too.

GOP politicians seizing control of the institution on behalf of their core business community supporters - - the business community was already guaranteed two of nine seats, so almost 25% representation was not enough; two-thirds was needed! - - are motivated by animus towards the teachers union at the school, and by a general stick-it-to-Milwaukee antipathy that always plays well come election-time outside of Milwaukee.

Local control? Forget it. This is big government at the Capitol meddling and stage-managing in the management of one among 13 tech schools statewide - - not unlike the multi-county SEWRPC regional planning commission, where the City of Milwaukee has zero representatives on the 21-member board,, and Milwaukee County, with the most residents and largest tax contribution among the seven member counties has the same number of board seats - - three- - as the smaller suburban and more rural counties, like Walworth, Washington and Ozaukee.

None of the other tech schools in the state are having their boards remade to suit the political agendas of the right-wing legislators: the MATC changes were engineered by noted anti-union and Walker valet Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), with an assist from State Rep. Mark Honadel, (R-South Milwaukee).

See a pattern there?

The bill has not had the same level of publicity as have other other pieces of GOP-attack legislation, and, yes, it's hard to keep up with multiple moves by Republicans and their business allies, as the session closes tomorrow, against progressive institutions, law, tradition and common sense.

One more day to make some calls, or Milwaukee is dragged one more step down the road to suburban control and private-sector domination.