Created in secrecy, nurtured by lies, Act 10 is ten years old

The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl ten years ago this weekend.

After which newly-elected Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Walker quickly destroyed the joyous, unifying statewide vibe when he 'dropped [his Act 10] bomb' on unionized teachers and other essential public sector employees to curry favor with anti-union donors.

And to fuel what would ultimately be his historically-short and flawed 2015 presidential bid.

But Walker was riding high in 2011 and had no use for modesty when caught bragging about Act 10 to a caller he thought was the influential anti-union billionaire David Koch:

This is an exciting time. This is — you know, I told my cabinet, I had a dinner the Sunday, or excuse me, the Monday right after the 6th. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, and that Monday night I had all of my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. Talked about what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it. We’d already kinda built plans up, but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. And I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air-traffic controllers. And, uh, I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward, the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover. And, uh, I said this may not have as broad of world implications, but in Wisconsin’s history — little did I know how big it would be nationally — in Wisconsin’s history, I said this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history.

And in the divisive aftermath he liked to share with donors, Walker came to display more character-free shallowness beyond grandiosity by cloaking his anti-union crusade in false narratives about campaign transparency, fiscal responsibility and other good-government goals to which he was not entitled:

* So he lied about having run on Act 10 in the 2010 campaign - a falsehood revealed by the record and by his own language - 'dropped a bomb - on state citizens. 

What kind of a chief executive treats his citizen workers as targets?

* And Walker repeatedly tried to camouflage Act 10's blatant union-busting for partisan advantage as mere deficit medication - an supportable claim which then-Cong. Dennis Kucinich, (D-Ohio), exposed at a Congressional hearing while Walker impassively 

took his beating - video, here. 

* It was a falsehood Walker also tried to paper over by treating a reporter perhaps to a Jonathan Swiftian metaphor by calling Act 10 a merely 'modest' proposal. 

OK - that's probably giving a politician who hadn't shown much interest in book-learning. 

* But if false modesty wasn't the right shade of lipstick for the Act 10 pig, how could Walker explain this more indelible shade Walker applied by the bucketful - that Act 10 was a union rights preservation bill.

A characterization so bigly and boldly dishonest that Journal Sentinel's fact -checkers  had to label it ridiculous:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says his budget-repair bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact” 

In arguing the changes would be modest, Walker cited the civil service system and said "collective bargaining is fully intact." However, Walker himself has outlined how his budget-repair bill would limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Indeed, it’s that provision that provoked daily demonstrations at the state Capitol and national media attention. To now say now say collective bargaining would remain "fully intact" is not just false, it’s ridiculously false.

And that means it is Pants on Fire.

And because the past is prologue, and you can't teach an old dog (or dog-whistler) new tricks, Walker reprised his super 2011 workplace slipperiness four years later by signing a 'right-to-work' [Sic] bill into law that shafted private-sector workers after he'd repeatedly said he opposed it:

"I have no interest in a right-to-work law in this state," Walker said in 2012. "We're not going to pursue that in the remainder of our term, and we're not going to pursue it in the future. The reason is private-sector unions are my partner in economic development."

And flash forward to today, Saturday, ten years after Act 10 was delivered and we find an out-of-office Walker still on his self-serving-one-note anti-union message. 

John Nichols: Now Scott Walker is exploiting the pandemic to — you guessed it — attack teachers and their unions

 

Walker's WI Act 10 destroyed the teaching profession

[September, 2, 2020 Update] - The dramatic cuts to public school funding in Wisconsin which Walker and GOP legislators still ruining things had inflicted on education may make the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic worse in freshly lean times, a new study has found.

"Because K-12 education is the single largest category of general purpose revenue spending in the budget, it may be difficult for state leaders to avoid contemplating cuts in this area," the report said. "However, as they do so, they should consider Wisconsin's spending trends relative to the nation over the last decade."

[Updated several times from 9/1/17] 

The Journal Sentinel today, 6/10/19, documents the devastating exodus of educators from Milwaukee Public Schools since Act 10. Remember this the next time you hear Walker or his drones tout Act 10, which was disingenuously pitched as cost-cutting when, in reality, it was an attack on collective bargaining rights for partisan, power-holding purposes, with damage to children's learning its consequences and his toxic legacy.

MPS has been particularly hard hit. It saw a net loss of 730 teachers between 2010 and 2014, according to a 2015 report by the Public Policy Forum. In addition, more than 1,600 resigned, retired or were dismissed in the last four years alone, the district said. The district has 330 vacant positions, 268 of them for teachers. 

The net effect, teachers say, is a hodgepodge system in which students are taught by fledgling teachers on emergency licenses, or teachers aides and subs — if schools can get them. And when they can’t, full-time teachers take turns filling in during their prep periods, or they bring those students into their own classrooms.

I have heard these accounts from teachers for years since Act 10; now we have the data. And while Republicans have restored some of the money they and Walker stripped from state public schools, none of the bargaining rights and other incentives that could attract and retain teachers have been returned. 

You wonder why the state's growth remained in the lower third nationally for Walker's eight years in office? Look no further than what he did to public education here.

For the record, this posting is the most-downloaded item I have posted among nearly 20,000 on this blog since 2007.  People can deeply about their children's education and are attracted to information that can move issues forward.
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The divide-and-conquer sneaky, partisan and giddily disrespectful Walker "dropped the bomb" on the teaching profession, and the consequences are unfolding:

After Act 10 was passed, [teacher] Ferrell-Huber found herself emotionally burned-out and unsure of the future in a state she tells TODAY'S TMJ4 she felt no longer respected her. That's when Ferrell-Huber walked away. She's just one in a trend of fewer teachers in Wisconsin.

"The problem is that the pipeline behind them isn't filled," said Alan Shoho, the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He said the school's enrollment is down from historical numbers. He tells us jobs that once had 120 candidates before Act 10 now fall closer to 20.

"We can talk about compensation, we can talk about working conditions, but I boil it down to this one word and it's respect," he said. He feels the lack of respect has caused detrimental changes in teacher education.

Is this where the Foxconn workforce wants to raise the kids?

Where government pits educators against parents, conservationists against business and blue-collar workers against public employees?

Here's a summary post with more than 325 links to Foxconn stories, items and commentaries.

9/4 Update: Walker has claimed that his proposed 2017-'19 state budget contains an historic increase in education funding - - a claim rated "mostly false" by Politifact - - and the sum for schools which he has proposed to add does not fully replace education dollars he he'd previously cut from state budgets as part of his attack on teaching and teachers:

In the second year of the biennium, the state’s share of K-12 funding will rise to 64.6 percent (the rest comes from property taxes and federal aid). That’s the highest since 2009 after dropping below 62 percent in 2012, when Walker cut $782 million from public schools — which was largely absorbed by teachers forced to pay higher pension and health insurance premiums.

9/6 Update - - Walker takes to Twitter to amplify an education record filled with whitewash and distortion. 

9/27/17 Update - - Walker vetoed from the budget an Assembly provision that would have added revenue to lower-income school districts. His real motivation was to punish Assembly leaders for having held up the budget. Talk about a vindictive politician.

Again, who pays the price?

Reposting this blog history about Walker's Day One wetland-filling record

Given all the flooding, and Walker's nearly-eight year attack on state waterways, it seems pertinent to repost this:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2011

Right On Schedule, Walker Wants Certain Wetlands' Protections Eliminated

I had been calling Scott Walker's radical environmental approach the Cut It, Gut It, Pave it, Fill It plan.

[Update: Walker has signed a special wetland-filling bill for one of his donors after he'd already suspended the DNR's permit review which had held up the development.] 

Take a look at Item #6 of Walker's Special Session directive to the Legislature in Executive Order #1, as it will impact 1.6 million acres protected of non-federal wetlands, or 30% of the wetlands in Wisconsin:

"Relating to a Special Session of the Legislature

WHEREAS, the State of Wisconsin is in an economic emergency caused by years of mismanagement;

WHEREAS, the business climate in Wisconsin has for too long been stifled by burdensome regulation, taxes, and costly litigation; and

WHEREAS, the people of Wisconsin elected me Governor to help create a new, healthy, and vibrant climate for private sector job creation;

NOW THEREFORE, I, Scott Walker, Governor of the State of Wisconsin, pursuant to Article IV, Section 11, and Article V, Section 4 of the Wisconsin Constitution, do hereby require the convening of a special session of the Legislature at the Capitol in Madison beginning at 10:00 a.m. on January 4, 2011, solely to consider and act upon legislation relating to the following:

"÷6. The authority of a state agency to promulgate rules interpreting the provisions of a statute enforced or administered by the agency and to implement or enforce any standard, requirement, or threshold as a term or condition of a license issued by the state agency; gubernatorial approval of proposed administrative rules; economic impact analyses of proposed rules and emergency rules; and venue in a declaratory judgment action seeking judicial review of the validity of an administrative rule and in an action in which the sole defendant is the state; exemptions from water quality certification and wetland mitigation requirements for certain nonfederal wetlands that are less than two acres in size; requirements for wind energy systems, providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures, and granting rule-making authority; "

As the Wisconsin Wetlands Association sees it:

Urgent: Wisconsin's isolated wetlands threatened Walker Administration proposes rollback in protection as part of special session January 4, 2011 Dear Wetland Advocate, On Day 1 of his administration, Governor Walker released an Executive Order that calls for "exemptions from water quality certification and wetland mitigation requirements for certain non-federal wetlands that are less than two acres in size" (see item 6 in the Executive Order). In other words, Governor Walker wants to make it easier for developers and industry to destroy isolated wetlands in hopes of creating jobs. We do not know the extent of what's proposed because the administration has not yet released the language, but the intent is clearly to remove protections for at least some, maybe all, isolated wetlands. This news is disheartening and alarming. In 2001Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to enact state protections for isolated wetlands (2001 WI Act 6) afterfederal protections were unexpectedly removed following a Supreme Court decision (SWANCC). The public strongly supported isolated wetland protections, and the bill passed both houses of the legislature with unanimous support. We will share the proposed wetland protection rollback language as soon as it is available; however, we expect the bill to move quickly upon introduction so it is critical that we mobilize now. The only way to slow this down is to make it clear that an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens oppose wetland destruction under most circumstances. In This Alert Who should care about destruction of isolated wetlands?Which wetlands may be affected and where? Here's how you can help Who to contact What to say Which wetlands may be affected and where? We won't know for sure how many wetlands are in jeopardy until we see the bill. What we do know from an analysis done by the Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in 2001 is that an estimated 30% of all wetlands in the state are considered non-federal or "isolated wetlands." Of even greater concern is that the distribution of isolated wetlands is uneven across the state. So, for example, the estimated percentage of isolated wetlands exceeds 30% of all wetlands in at least 26 counties and exceeds 50% in Ashland, Dane, Forest, Green, Iron, and Rock counties. To view WDNR's 2001 analysis of isolated wetlands by county, click here. Here's how you can help 1. Call and write Governor Walker and your representatives in the state senate and state assembly today to tell them you oppose removal of protections for isolated wetlands and expect them to solicit public input before passing any legislation that weakens wetland protection. (See below for contact info and additional talking points.) 2. Forward this alert (and the more detailed one to follow) to as many individuals and organizations as you can and urge them to do the same. 3. Consider making a special contribution to the Wisconsin Wetlands Association or other conservation organizations that are involved in efforts to protect Wisconsin's wetland heritage. Other wetland-focused organizations that helped enact our current wetland protection laws include: Ducks Unlimited,Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, and the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. A list of other state and local organizations that have or may stand up for wetland protections can be found on the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters' website here. Who to contact Click here to find contact information for your State Senator and State Representative. Click here to find contact information for Governor Walker* Submit "citizen suggestions" on how wetland protection and economic development can coexist to Governor Walker's office using this response form. * Note - as of this morning (1/4) the contact information posted is still for the Walker transition team and transition office. What to say Dear Governor Walker and Senator/Representative X: I use (e.g., hunt, fish, paddle, birdwatch), enjoy and value Wisconsin's wetlands and want to see them protected. I supported passage of state legislation to protect isolated wetlands in 2001 and still support that law today. The isolated wetlands law (2001 WI Act 6) passed both houses unanimously in a Republican controlled legislature and was signed by a Republican Governor. Overturning those protections today is akin to breaking a promise with the public. Because of the controversial nature of this proposal, it should not be pushed through without public input.At a minimum, legislative hearings should be held. It would be irresponsible of this administration and legislature to weaken state wetland protection laws without a full understanding of how many wetlands, of what type, and where, are likely to be destroyed. Time should also be allowed for an analysis of the potential environmental effects of the proposal. Your decision(s) should be based on the results of that analysis. Economic development and wetland protection can co-exist. Though some wetland loss is to be expected, in the vast majority of cases it is not necessary to destroy wetlands to create jobs. Who should care about destruction of isolated wetlands? Duck hunters Upland game hunters (75% of all wildlife species in the state depend on wetlands for some portion of their lifecycle) Anglers, paddlers, bird watchers, photographers Citizens living in flood-prone communities Families who care about clean water Farmers and others concerned about changing land use Amphibian lovers (frogs and salamanders depend upon isolated, fish-free wetlands for breeding) People who care about the fate of threatened and endangered plants and animals (33% of all threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin rely on wetlands) In short, all the citizens of Wisconsin should care about isolated wetlands, because no matter who you are or where you live, wetlands benefit your life. Join our mailing list! email: policy@wisconsinwetlands.org phone: 608-250-9971 web: http://www.wisconsinwetlands.org

Scott Walker's immodest attack on Wisconsin education

Cap Times Editor Emeritus Dave Zweifel's current column is a must-read primer on the many corrosive consequences on students, teachers and the learning environment tied to Gov. Scott Walker's signature attack on public policy in Wisconsin known as Act 10.

Zweifel cites a new study which underscores the first-hand accounts many of us have heard since Walker "dropped the [Act 10] bomb" on an unsuspecting public sector workforce statewide once he took office in 2011, and writes: 

Among the hardest hit have been the state's public school teachers. Not only were they required to pick up a significant portion of their health insurance and pension costs, Act 10 also significantly hamstrung local school districts from raising some revenue on their own even as the state cut $750 million from public education while enacting tax breaks for many of the state's big businesses.

To state the obvious, the act has significantly altered the relationship among teachers, administrators and school boards. Just how big this impact has been was detailed in a study conducted last year entitled: "In the aftermath of Act 10: The changed state of teaching in a changed state...."

[The] researchers...found that Act 10 has had a big impact on the teachers' relationships with their districts and the way they teach in the classroom and has also contributed to emotions that include feeling vulnerable, indifferent and sanguine...

One of the toughest problems for teachers, the study found, is that because Act 10 took away the requirement that teachers could be fired only for just cause, there's constant pressure to be extra careful. In other words, you never know when an official will visit your classroom, not like what you're doing and soon you're out the door. 

The study also revealed that class sizes have increased in most of the districts and there is now seldom enough time to "sit down with kids" and build relationships. 

The "churn" among the teaching force is significant, many have retired early, and others leave for better and, often, less-stressful jobs.

I'd taken a closer look in September at Act 10's continuing, negative impacts - -  

Walker's WI Act 10 destroyed the teaching profession

- - and Zweifel's focus on the study helps add data and context to Act 10 and its endlessly-unfolding trauma. 

One thing to never forget about all this is the dissembling Walker engaged in about Act 10, its reach, and goals when he launched and sugar-coated it. 

Remember Walker's assertion at a news conference that Act 10 was a set of mere "modest, modest  requests," as reported by then-Isthmus editor Bill Lueders on February 18, 2011? Talk about must-read/never-forget journalism: 

"These are bold political moves, but these are modest, modest requests," Walker asserted, of proposals that would completely strip public employees of their right to collectively bargain for anything except salaries (and to severely limit their ability to do even this), along with sweeping new rules that will make it difficult for their unions to survive.

And why do I say Walker dissembled? Because his own account of the reach and impacts that hoped would flow from Act 10 were captured in his own, self-serving braggadocio recorded by a Buffalo, NY blogger during an infamous February, 2011 prank call when Walker thought he was talking to heavyweight far-right funder David Koch.

Here is what Walker said during the call that he had told his Cabinet a few days earlier on February 6th, 2011 - - twelve days before he stood in the State Capitol, and, with false modesty, spun Act 10 to reporters as "modest, modest requests." 

This is how he framed Act 10 for his top advisers, and does any of it sound "modest, modest" to you? 

This is an exciting time. This is — you know, I told my cabinet, I had a dinner the Sunday, or excuse me, the Monday right after the 6th. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, and that Monday night I had all of my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. 

Talked about what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it. We’d already kinda built plans up, but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. 

And I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air-traffic controllers. 

And, uh, I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward, the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover. 

And, uh, I said this may not have as broad of world implications, but in Wisconsin’s history — little did I know how big it would be nationally — in Wisconsin’s history, I said this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history. And this is why it’s so important that they were all there. 

I had a cabinet meeting this morning and I reminded them of that and I said for those of you who thought I was being melodramatic you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.

For WI Gov. Walker, Earth Day is just another Saturday

[Updated] I'm not expecting much if anything from right-wing GOP Wisconsin Gov. and climate change denier Scott Walker on Earth Day tomorrow, or as it's also know in the Governor's Office - - Saturday.

I noted on Earth Day 2016 that Walker's office issued no statement.

And Walker used Earth Day 2015 in the run-up to the presidential primaries to send layoff notices to 57 scientists and others at the same state Department of Natural Resources that he had redefined from his first day in office through the next six years+ using corporate appointments and pro-polluter agendas with "a chamber of commerce mentality.

As US News & World Report put it at the time:

As the planet warms, candidates embrace oil, the economy and doubt, while Scott Walker takes the cake.

But if there were a special Conservative Anti-Earth Day Award, Scott Walker would be hard to beat this year. Just in time for the annual pseudo-holiday, the Wisconsin governor, presidential aspirant and Koch brothers fanboy executed a stunning display of timing, bravado and GOP principles with news of potential layoffs this week at the state Department of Natural Resources. Maybe going HAM on the DNR is strictly a budget thing: Books have to be balanced, so pink slips will begin to flutter over that low-priority workforce – especially the DNR’s science division, which researches environmental problems. 

After all, those tax cuts don’t pay for themselves (at least not like they’re supposed to). And Wisconsin’s mining industry needs love, too – something that can’t happen with all those pesky regulators looking over their shoulders. 

This is the same Governor whose awareness of a role in environmental protection seems to have stopped with Boy Scout training to put out his campfire (see video), but as Governor:

*  Set in motion right after his January, 2011 swearing-in a plan to weaken wetlands protections, then also blocked the appeal of a wetlands filing permit sought by a campaign donor/developer, then introduced and quickly signed a special Legislative bill to grant the permit. 

Which established his hostile-to-the-environement pattern: follow the money.

*  Benefited from a secret, $700,000 campaign donation routed through a third-party 'independent' advocacy group from a mining company which Walker wanted, through a sweetheart, insider-crafted bill, to be allowed to dig, for starters, a four-mile-long, half-mile wide open pit mine in a wooded, wetland-rich river shed in Northwestern Wisconsin.

*  Has blocked through legislation and administrative actions real progress on solar and wind power installations though wind and solar are the fast-growing energy sectors in the US and are creating hundreds of thousands of new, high-paying jobs - - mostly not in Wisconsin, where Walker pledged in 2010 and has still failed to create 250,000 new private-sector jobs.

*  Forced the closing at great expense to taxpayers through losing litigation of a passenger train assembly factory in Milwaukee, and cost the cities of Milwaukee and Madison an energy-efficient passenger train link and the jobs it could have provided through construction, operation and rail-station/spin off businesses.

*  Systematically evaded his obligations under the US Clean Water Act and piled up 75 deficiencies he delayed fixing, records show.

*  Has done nothing environmentally with his seat on the Council of Great Lakes Governors where he could have pushed for sound regional water-management.

And particularly for an end to the St. Lawrence Seaway's known gateway to invasive species that have already destroyed Great Lakes fisheries, cost utilities and other property owners millions in losses, and which are likely yo leak through Lake Michigan westward with further grave national implications.

Walker says he is a pro-business Governor, but his wasted time on the Great Lakes Council reveals the label as nothing more than a bumper sticker.

By the way, there's a great new book by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dan Egan on that very risk - - The Death and Life of the Great Lakes - - that delivers a lot of important information about the invasive species crisis and other Great Lakes issues. 

I just finished the book; Walker would do well to read it.

* Tolerated drinking water pollution in-older cities' lead pipes, looked the other way for years as large animal feeding operations he's encouraged to expand are known to be contaminating nearby wells - - while also draining the water table with more wells which the state may soon turn over without regulation in perpetuity to the owners.

And has signed pro-polluter legislation unleashing fresh loads of harmful phosphorous into rivers and streams that have freshly impaired hundreds of Wisconsin waterways and contributed to a huge dead zone in Lake Michigan.

Walker disdains Earth Day, as he also disregards the environment, also because Earth Day focuses attention on former Wisconsin Governor and its founder Gaylord Nelson.

Acknowledging Nelson's contribution would require Walker to validate Nelson's stature and legacy, which Walker has gone out of his way to systematically trash through numerous actions.

Including cuts to and an effort to suspend for the long-term the bi-partisan Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that provides important buffers against filling, cutting and paving, as well as open space statewide for people who do not own their own lakefront property or wooded sanctuary.

Like the state's recycling program Walker sought to defund, or the transit systems he ignores in favor of more costly major highways he now can't fund and complete, or the climate science and education programs his hand-picked 'chamber of commerce mentality' DNR Secretary/former developer Cathy Stepp deleted from the agency's web pages, Walker has no use for anything that Earth Day would reinforce.

And, likewise, has no use for any program or Wisconsin resource he cannot monetize for his  career perpetuation, as he did with Act 10 (which led to national fund-raising, and a mailing list he used to retire his presidential campaign debt), or his connections to the school choice movement and those issues ties to far-right ideologues.

The best ways for Wisconsin people to acknowledge Earth Day are to do something good for the environment, support the many groups and causes statewide that promote real stewardship of the land, clean air, and fresh water, and make election day 2018 Earth Day 2.0.