Boots & Sabers

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Category: Politics – Wisconsin

West Bend Schools Ape Milwaukee Schools

by | 0636, 19 Jun 24 | , | 0 Comments

Heh.

WEST BEND — The West Bend School District (WBSD) announced on Monday the results of their recent community survey on facilities showed a majority of respondents support a capital referendum on the November ballot to address urgent needs in the district.

 

According to the release, 86.02% of respondents believe the district’s urgent facility needs must be addressed immediately, and 72.28% of respondents support a $100 million capital referendum to address a large portion of Phase 1 needs.

There are two possible explanations for these results in the current economic climate in conservative-leaning West Bend. Fist, it’s a BS survey. This is certainly true. They even say in the survey results, “by design, this data is not based on a scientific sample. Therefore, it should be treated as qualitative data.”

It’s also worth noting that the survey questions were long and intrusive. Rather than a simple survey, this one took some effort to respond to. What does that do to results? It ensures that only people motivated will fill it out. Who is that? People who really want the referendum and people who hate it. The indifferent or uninterested won’t take the time. But those people vote.

The second possibility is that even with the goofy survey structure, that the majority of people in the West Bend District do actually want to drop another $100 million into buildings. In this regard, they would be going the way of Milwaukee. There are many of the same factors at play.

Milwaukee’s educational performance has been bad and declining for years despite more money. West Bend’s educational performance is better but has been mediocre to declining for years despite increasing funding every year. Are Benders satisfied with less than half of their kids being able to read at grade level? I guess so.

Milwaukee’s school board has been opaque about the district’s finances to the point of outright fraud. West Bend’s school board has been opaque about the district’s finances. Go to the district’s website and try to find budget information. It’s there. Kind of. There are occasionally a couple of high-level slides in a board meeting if you know which board meeting to go look at. Years ago, the district published actual detailed budget information. That no longer happens. Every school board candidate for a decade has run promising more “transparency” and the board has gotten increasingly less transparent. Where is all of the money going? Your guess is as good as mine. Wherever it’s going, it’s not improving outcomes for kids.

Milwaukee has been facing declining enrolment for years. West Bend has been facing declining enrollment for years. A district that once served over 7,000 students with the same building structures is projected to serve just over 4,000 students by the end of the decade (table 12). That is a 40% drop in enrollment. Why is spending not decreasing with the decline in enrollment? Why does this school board want to spend another $100 million on top of their already bloated budget? If the taxpayers are stupid enough to let them, they will.

The West Bend School District is only different from the disaster of the Milwaukee School Board by a matter of degrees. Let us pray that the voters are not so stupid as the voters of Milwaukee to give them more money to waste.

 

 

Wisconsin Supreme Court Takes Case of Evers’ 400-year Tax Increase

by | 1946, 17 Jun 24 | , | 5 Comments

This will be interesting.

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto that locked in a school funding increase for the next 400 years, the justices announced Monday.

 

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Litigation Center filed a lawsuit in April arguing the governor exceeded his authority. The group asked the high court to strike down the veto without waiting for the case to go through lower courts.

 

The court issued an order Monday afternoon saying it would take the case. The justices didn’t elaborate beyond setting a briefing schedule.

 

At issue is a partial veto Evers made in the state budget in July 2023 that increased revenue public schools can raise per student by $325 annually until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.

By the law, it seems clearly unconstitutional. While the Wisconsin Constitution stupidly gives the Governor the power to veto individual letters, it is clear that the power to write laws and raise taxes lies exclusively within the power of the legislature.

Politically, the leftists control the court. One might instinctively think that they will rule in favor of Evers to support “their guy.” However, handing that kind of power to the governor in perpetuity is fraught with risk for the Liberals. Wisconsin is an evenly divided state and there is no certainty that the Democrats will control the governorship last Evers’ current term. If the court enhances the power of the governor’s veto, what will a Republican governor do with it?

Remember that the court just unconstitutionally redrew the legislative districts in the hopes of taking back one or both houses of the legislature. Will the shoot themselves in the foot by disempowering the legislature just when they are poised to take it back?

If I were a betting man, I’d bet that the court’s liberals will make the correct ruling that the governor exceeded his authority. It’s smarter politics to play the long game for legislative power. It also allows them to portray the court as balanced just before a pivotal court election next spring.

MPS Board Recall Gets Underway

by | 1138, 16 Jun 24 | | 0 Comments

None of this will matter unless the people of Milwaukee stop electing union-supported liberals to this board. They need people who care more about educating kids than they do about the system, buildings, or even teachers.

 

Enough is enough.

 

That is the message Milwaukee activist Dr. Tamika Johnson and other concerned citizens had for the Milwaukee Public School Board on Wednesday. The group calls itself the Recall MPS School Board Collaborative.

 

[…]

 

According to the group, “MPS’ gross financial mismanagement, irresponsible and unresponsive leadership, and inadequate governance by the elected MPS School Board Directors” led them to launch a recall of selected members.

 

Those members are Board President Marva Herndon, Board Vice President Jilly Gokalgandhi, Erica Siemsen, and Missy Zomber. The group says those four members have not been transparent over the last few years and have deceived the public.

Wisconsin Lawfare

by | 2106, 11 Jun 24 | , | 0 Comments

Realize where we are. The Democrats are willing to weaponize any office to punish their political opponents. In this case (setting aside the Scott Bauer’s comically rank bias by using the phrase “fake electors”), we had some honest people who were doing what they thought right, proper, and within the law in response to a tightly contested election riddled with issues. For their care for the rule of law and preservation of democratic rule, the state’s Attorney General is using every resource at his disposal to ruin their lives. Liberals are burning cities without consequence while dreary lawyers get prosecuted for having a legal opinion contrary to the ruling order.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended former President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin lawyer from a state judicial ethics panel a week after he was charged with a felony for his role in a 2020 fake electors scheme.

 

Liberal advocates have been calling for Jim Troupis to step down from the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee, saying he is unsuitable due to his role advising the Republicans who attempted to cast Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Trump after he lost the 2020 election in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.

 

Troupis, a former judge, Kenneth Chesebro, another Trump attorney, and former Trump aide Mike Roman were all charged by state Attorney General Josh Kaul last week for their role in the fake electors plot.

The Conley Column Ends

by | 0552, 11 Jun 24 | , | 2 Comments

If you were coming here today to read my latest weekly column for the Washington County Daily News, I’m sorry to disappoint you. My time as a columnist for Conley Media has come to an end. Last week’s column was my final one.

The reason is simple. Money. It is no secret that traditional newspapers have suffered greatly in the internet age. With so many outlets for news, people have moved away from traditional local newspapers and their revenue has, consequently, suffered. And so, Conley has cut back on their budget for freelance writers like me and my column has been cut.

It’s been a helluva run and I am immensely appreciative to Conley. Jed and I started this blog in 2003. It was before social media and at the beginning of the heyday of blogging and citizen journalism. It was a lot of fun and we built a substantial audience with some significant influence.

In 2006, Conley did something really smart. In order to capitalize on the popularity of blogging, they asked several prominent Wisconsin bloggers, including me, to write a weekly column for them. I initially chaffed at the notion of a deadline and an editor. After all, blogging offers unlimited freedom of content and form. But I accepted the offer and figured I could always quit if it became onerous.

The column proved to be a joy. I came to appreciate the discipline of writing every week. I really tried to keep the column focused on state or local issues. There are plenty of other writers who write about national and international issues. My thought was that the readers of Conley’s papers wanted to read about home. My editors over the years (sans one) allowed me immense latitude and kept me honest on facts. They occasionally nudged me on tone, but never on content. A special shoutout to my editor of the past several years, Brian Huber, for his guidance and support.

I also enjoyed the column because it afforded me the opportunity to have a conversation with a different audience than this blog. There is some crossover, but they are different audiences. As I have put less effort into the blog in recent years as I have other life priorities, the column remained a weekly commitment. I believe I am the last remaining blogger columnist from that era. The others dropped off long ago for various reasons. Perhaps the death of my column will breathe new life into this blog. Perhaps not. Don’t get your hopes up.

All told, I wrote every week except for two. Once I missed my deadline because I broke my collar bone. I forget why I missed the other time. In total, I wrote 954 columns, or roughly 670,000 words over 18 years and 4 months from February 7, 2006, to June 4, 2024. The column ran every Tuesday in the Washington County Daily News, nee West Bend Daily News, and was regularly republished in other Conley newspapers around the state as they saw fit.

Thank you to all of the people who read and enjoyed (or hated) the column for the last almost two decades. And thank you to the good folks at Conley Media for publishing my work for so long. It was fun to write. I enjoyed the conversation. I hope y’all did too.

Evers Calls for Audit After Failed Audit

by | 1121, 8 Jun 24 | , | 0 Comments

When can you tell that a politician doesn’t give a crap but knows that he needs to pretend for the sake of appeasing the people? When they appoint a Blue Ribbon Committee. This is the same thing. Evers was head of the DPI for ten years and governor for six years. MPS has been a disaster for all of that time and longer. Throughout, he did nothing. This is more of the same. Evers owes his political fortunes to the money and manpower of the teachers’ unions. He is not going to even attempt to stand in the way of the gravy train in Milwaukee. And no… he doesn’t give a crap about the kids. If he did, he would have done something about MPS long ago.

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Governor Tony Evers announced on Friday that he is calling for operational and instructional audits of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).

 

Officials say Governor Evers is proposing direct funding to support both audits. This proposal would give a more comprehensive review than the ongoing MPS audit, which focuses more on the district’s financial statements.

MPS is terrible at math

by | 0601, 4 Jun 24 | , | 6 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Not withstanding the resignation of the superintendent last night, MPS is rotten to the core.

The Milwaukee Public School District is absolutely awash with money. Already one of the highest spending districts in the state, the district received hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars from state taxpayers, COVID money, and a new tax increase. They have so much money that they cannot even tell anyone where they are spending it. And yet, the kids in their charge continue to receive a terrible education. Milwaukee’s voters do not seem to care, but the cost to the rest of the state is enormous.

 

One cannot discuss MPS without reminding ourselves how terrible the district is at educating kids. After all, all of the money is supposed to be for educating kids, right? According to the state Department of Public Instruction’s district report card, only 17.3 percent of MPS students are proficient or better in language arts. That means that less than one in five district kids can read or write at or above grade level. For math, it is worse. Only 11.1 percent kids can do math at or above grade level.

 

The district’s graduation rate is a pathetic 71.1 percent compared with a 91.8 percent state average. Considering how abysmal the performance scores are for MPS kids, the fact that they are graduating over 70 percent speaks to how pathetically low the standards are to graduate from MPS.

 

Keeping in mind the knowledge of how bad MPS is at their core mission of educating kids, the recent debacle over finances should enrage you even more.

 

A couple of weeks ago, federal officials suspended funding for the Head Start program (a program that has proven to be ineffective and should be shuttered, but that is not the subject of this column) over MPS officials slipshod management of the program. Last week, state officials at the DPI threatened to withhold state funding until MPS submits mandatory financial reports to the state. MPS is eight months late in submitting the financial reports.

 

It is clear that MPS has become so dysfunctional that they cannot even manage to submit routine financial reports that have been done for decades. The more cynical of us might suspect that they have not submitted their financial reports because they do not want people to know where they are spending all of the money. As a practice, however, I try to not ascribe to malice what can readily be explained by rank incompetence. And if there is any word that describes MPS’ leadership, “incompetence” is a word that is easily defensible.

 

Federal and state actions come as MPS has submitted its budget for this year. At $1.47 billion, MPS intends to spend about $1.5 billion to educate about 62,000 students. For those doing quick math at home, yes, that is over $24,000 tax dollars being spent per student to ensure that one in five can read and one in 10 can do math.

 

Bear in mind that MPS has been rolling in cash for years. During the pandemic, MPS received over $1 billion in COVID relief money despite the fact that their schools were closed much longer than most other schools in the state.

 

In the most recent state budget passed last year, state lawmakers increased K12 spending by $1 billion. The lion’s share of that went to MPS.

 

Just a couple of months ago, district voters idiotically passed a referendum that allowed MPS to jack up property taxes to spend an additional $252 million. During the debate over that referendum, MPS officials were unable or unwilling to even tell voters where the money would be spent.

 

Given how bad MPS officials are at math, it is no wonder that they are terrible at teaching kids how to do it.

 

If there was ever a case for ending the government monopoly on the delivery of education, MPS is it. While they spend an eye-popping amount of money, they are unwilling or unable to give details on where the money is being spent. And at the end of the day, they are dreadfully bad at executing their core mission to educate kids. How much longer will parents and taxpayers ignore the fact that MPS is a failed institution? If history is any guide, the answer is “forever.”

 

Democrats Oust Black Woman Lawmaker Over Trans Issue

by | 0642, 30 May 24 | | 0 Comments

The Alphabet Mafia is making it clear to Democrats who stray from the current orthodoxy. They will be purged.

A Texas Democratic lawmaker who broke with her party by supporting a ban on gender-affirming care for minors was ousted in a primary runoff that galvanized LGBTQ+ groups nationwide who then campaigned for her opponent in the race for the south Houston seat.

 

Rep. Shawn Thierry‘s defeat followed four terms in which the Houston lawmaker typically joined her fellow Democrats on major issues, including voting against aggressive immigration measures demanded by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and a ban on diversity programs on college campuses.

 

But she outraged Democratic colleagues when she gave a 12-minute speech on the Texas House floor last year defending a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Three other Democrats also voted for the measure, but none were as vocal as Thierry, who lost by double-digits Tuesday night to challenger Lauren Ashley Simmons, a union organizer.

“Her vote was why she had a race, but when she doubled down and went really down the rabbit hole of misinformation, it energized folks in the LGBTQ community,” said former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which supported Simmons’ bid.

Pro-criminal groups try to invalidate election results

by | 0715, 28 May 24 | , , | 10 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here you go.

Confronted with increasing and pervasive crime being driven by our open-border and soft-on-crime district attorneys and judges, the voters of Wisconsin overwhelmingly passed two state constitutional amendments to empower judges. Now there are two pro-criminal groups trying to overturn the will of the people.

 

The cost of crime on individuals and communities is immeasurable. Roughly fifteen years ago, organized groups — many of which were funded by billionaire George Soros — began supporting soft-on-crime DAs and judges throughout America who have been exceedingly lenient to criminals to the detriment of victims. This problem was exacerbated by the leftist effort to defund the police after the death of George Floyd and the importation of legions of criminals through Biden’s open-border policy. The result of all of these policy choices has been an explosion in crime. Even though much of the crime goes unreported (if we don’t arrest and convict people for crimes, then the crime rate will look better than it really it), we, the people, feel it.

 

In Wisconsin, judges had strict restrictions about what they could consider when determining bail for criminal offenders. They could not consider the offender’s criminal record, history of violent crime, or risk to the general public when determining bail. While one might think that such considerations are paramount when setting a cash bail threshold that will determine how easy it is for an offender to roam the streets while awaiting trial, Wisconsin’s judges were not allowed to use such factors in their judgment.

 

In normal times, correcting this fault in the criminal justice code would have been a simple matter of the Legislature passing a law and the governor signing it. But in Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers is part of the pro-criminal ideology who would veto any suggestion that we be stricter with criminals. To get around this, the Republicans in the Legislature passed two constitutional amendments to allow judges to consider an offender’s criminal history and threat to the public when setting bail. Wisconsin’s process for amending the Constitution does not require the governor’s assent, but it does require the voters to approve amendments in a statewide vote.

 

Wisconsin’s voters overwhelmingly approved the two amendments last year by a two-to-one margin.

 

Despite the clear and undeniable support for the bail amendments, a couple of pro-criminal groups have sued to overturn the will of the voters and a Dane County judge appears open to the argument. The case they are making is that the Legislature violated procedure when sending the proposed amendments to be put on the ballots, so the results should be thrown out.

 

By law, ballot questions must be “filed with the official or agency responsible for preparing the ballots” no less than 70 days before the election. The Legislature sent the ballot questions to the Wisconsin Election Commission 76 days before the election, but the WEC didn’t send the questions to local county election officials until 69 days before the election. The plaintiffs are arguing that the will of the voters should be turned over based on interpreting “official or agency responsible for preparing the ballots” as local election officials instead of the state agency responsible for overseeing elections.

 

The lawsuit is a farce and should be thrown out, but Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford has said that she will issue a written decision in the coming weeks. Lanford’s court has been a favorite destination for leftist plaintiffs. She was originally elected to the bench in 2013 with strong support from fellow leftists like Congressman Mark Pocan, AFSCME, SEIU, Madison Teachers Inc., and others. She said when running that, “I believe that the trial courts have inherent power to act in the interest of justice, and do not need permission from the Legislature.” Said another way, Lanford is exactly the kind of judge who thinks that her own judgment supersedes the judgment of the people as expressed through their elected representatives in the Legislature.

 

I strongly urge Judge Lanford to follow the law and allow the will of the people to be fulfilled. Not only is it the law, but it will help Wisconsin’s judges keep habitual criminals from victimizing more people while out on bail.

 

UWM’s disgraceful appeasement

by | 0722, 21 May 24 | , , | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here you go:

Most Americans have stood aghast as a wave of antisemitic and pro-Hamas protests swept through our universities. We thought that such hate was the stuff of 1905 Russia or 1938 Germany, but here we are witnessing it in 2024 America amongst those who are supposed to be our future. Many universities responded deplorably, but none more so than the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

 

Hamas has been clear about their goal to wipe out Israel and the Jews who live there since their inception. Everything they have done — including the October 7 massacre — has been to further that goal. While one can criticize Israel’s response to the attacks and wish for peace, the campus protests long since descended into the hateful rhetoric of, and support for, Hamas.

 

Some universities took immediate action to clear out illegal encampments and threatening protesters. Some universities offered minimal appeasement coupled with a firm rejection of hate. Then there is UWM, which decided to weigh in with full-throated support for Hamas and has encouraged a campus culture where Jewish students can no longer feel safe.

 

The protests and encampment at UWM was instigated by the UWM Popular University for Palestine Coalition (PUPC), whose coalition includes the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Muslim Student Association (MSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Un-PAC, and Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). These groups range in interests from communism to overthrowing capitalism to ending our republic to the destruction of Israel. All of their interests coalesced around supporting Hamas in their terrorism against Jews.

 

These groups are well-funded and well-organized. In return for ending an encampment that was already illegal, UWM Chancellor Mark Mone and the UWM leadership gave these communists and Hamas supporters a seat at the table. Mone agreed to have the UWM Foundation release financial statements to the PUPC and meet with them to discuss where the Foundation invests.

 

Mone also agreed to “study” whether UWM should end studying abroad in Israel and pressured the Water Council, on whose board Mone serves, to end relationships with two Israeli companies. Mone agreed to forgo any punishments for the protestors’ encampments despite the violation of state law. He agreed to further meetings and a working group with PUPC for a “series of campus conversations and educational opportunities.” That’s eduspeak for “spreading Hamas propaganda.”

 

Most egregious was Mone’s statement on behalf of UWM condemning Israel for responding to Hamas’ violent pogrom of October 7. Calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “plausible genocide,” Mone calls for a ceasefire in Gaza without any precondition for Hamas to release hostages or stop their violence against civilians. Mone voiced this condemnation with full knowledge that Hamas started the war, raped and killed civilian women and children, and has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire. Mone’s statement is indistinguishable from those issued by antisemites and Hamas supporters that were camping on the UWM campus.

 

Rightfully, Jewish groups Hillel Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and the Anti-Defamation League Midwest, condemned Mone’s UWM for appeasing PUPC. After reminding us that Mone has refused to meet with Jewish students despite a surge of antisemitic incidents on campus since October 7, they say, “Chancellor Mone gave protesters who fueled hate and violated school policies at UWM a seat at the table and even invited them to nominate individuals and faculty to serve on key university committees and working groups … the chancellor’s decision to grant immunity to individuals who mocked and broke school rules and the law sets a dangerous precedent for future incidents on campus.” Indeed, it does.

 

When given an opportunity to educate young adults and reject antisemitic, terrorist, and communist activists, UWM and Chancellor Mone chose to support and enable them. This choice is a disgrace that succors a culture of hate on the UWM campus.

Biden’s and Baldwin’s actions support Hamas

by | 0721, 14 May 24 | , , | 2 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s you go.

International affairs are inherently complicated with cross-currents of cultures, economies, religion, and philosophies in the deep ocean of history. The current war in the Gaza Strip in Israel, however, in a moment of moral clarity on which President Joe Biden and Senator Tammy Baldwin are demonstrating moral bankruptcy.

 

The fighting in the Middle East dates back to the very dawn of human civilization as a resource-rich and trading nexus of the ancient and modern world. The current war’s roots, however, are very modern.

 

When Israel came into its modern existence in 1948, the area known as the Gaza Strip was Egyptian territory and remained so for nearly 20 years. In 1967, a coalition of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan launched an unprovoked war against Israel that became known as the Six-Day War. Israel overwhelmingly won that war and seized the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights as the spoils of war and as a security buffer.

 

The Gaza Strip has been a part of Israel since 1967. In 2005, bowing to international pressure, Israel gave the Gaza Strip to the Gazans for them to self-govern and withdrew all forces, although Israel maintained border security for and with the Gaza Strip.

 

Promptly in 2006, the Gazans elected Hamas, an Islamist terrorist organization supported by Iran, to govern the Gaza Strip. Since 2006, Hamas has regularly launched rockets and small-scale attacks into Israel. Hamas has enjoyed widespread support by the Gazans for nearly 20 years.

 

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched a bloody attack across the border killing about 1,200 people of all ages and genders, and they took over 250 people back to Gaza as hostages. It was a bloody, bigoted, indiscriminate attack against civilians including babies and grandmothers. As bloody bodies were paraded through the streets in Gaza, the Gazans cheered. This is not the case of an unwelcome totalitarian government ruling over an innocent population. This is the case of a government acting with the overwhelming majority of their citizens supporting their barbarity.

 

Israel responded the same way I hope America would if the people of Tijuana attacked San Diego and butchered women and children. Israel fought back to eliminate the hostile threat while taking extraordinary measures to limit civilian deaths. The fact that some civilians are being killed is the direct result of Hamas’ policy to use them as human shields.

 

This is not a complicated war. Hamas is an Islamist terror group that is wantonly killing civilians from their power base and then hiding behind their own citizens when Israel pushes back. To support anything other than Israel’s right and duty to rid the world of Hamas is to support the perpetuation of hate, bigotry, murder, and terror.

 

Yet, that is where we find President Biden and Senator Baldwin. As always, we must watch what they do — not what they say. Biden has attempted to split the baby with his rhetoric vacillating between powerful support for Israel and appeasement to Hamas. His actions, however, lean heavily in favor of Hamas.

 

Biden has been calling for a ceasefire without the precondition of releasing all of the hostages which only benefits Hamas. Biden has condemned Israel for civilian casualties despite Israel’s extraordinary efforts to keep them to a minimum while Hamas pushes civilians into the fray. Last week, Biden unilaterally halted the shipment of ammunition to Israel and has threatened to halt more shipments if Israel moves to root out Hamas in their last remaining stronghold in Rafah.

 

Hamas never had a greater ally than President Biden.

 

Meanwhile, Senator Baldwin is in lock-step with Biden and Hamas providing rhetorical and legislative support whenever they need it. Baldwin has always been a loyal vote of support for whatever the Democrat leadership wants. This case is no different.

 

In a moment of crystal clear moral clarity, Biden and Baldwin have put themselves on the wrong side of history.

Wisconsin Supreme Court to Decide Fewest Cases in 40 Years

by | 0809, 10 May 24 | , | 3 Comments

Is this a problem? I rather like a minimalist court. Although it does seem that this particular court is usurping power and running roughshod over the Constitution where they choose.

It would be the first time the court has issued fewer than 40 decisions in a term in at least four decades.

 

According to Ball’s analysis, the court filed more than 130 decisions in its 1980-81 term and has generally fluctuated between 40 and 100 per term in subsequent years. Before the late 1970s and the creation of the court of appeals, the state Supreme Court often filed more than 200 decisions per term and sometimes more than 300.

 

[…]

The number of petitions for review has dropped significantly. The court received 658 petitions in its 2020-21 term, 624 in 2021-22 and 573 in 2022-23. According to a March 2024 report from the court, 332 petitions have been filed in the current term.

“In addition to a smaller number of petitions for review, the justices have clearly decided that fewer of the petitions merit acceptance. Why that might be is harder to say,” Ball said.

It is interesting that there are so few petitions. Does this indicate a lack of confidence in the court? Maybe. Maybe it’s just coincidence.

WIAA considers implementing NIL

by | 0724, 25 Apr 24 | , , | 1 Comment

My full column for the Washington County Daily News is below. I was delighted to see that the WIAA rejects NIL in its meeting yesterday. Well done.

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, the voluntary governing body for high school sports in the state, will take up the question of whether high school athletes should be allowed to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) as in college sports. I strongly urge the WIAA to reject this proposal.

 

To date, 31 other states have already allowed NIL in high school sports. Wisconsin’s high school athletic directors, who comprise the membership of the WIAA, have been reluctant to follow suit, but it appears that such reluctance may have been overcome.

 

At issue is the definition of “amateur.”

 

The simple definition is that if one is not directly paid to compete in a sport, then one is an amateur. For decades, high school and college sports insisted that their athletes be true amateurs to preserve the competitive balance of sports. We did not want rich schools to pay professional athletes to dominate a sport. The loophole in the system was that wealthy school supporters would give gifts or highly paid noshow/ low-show jobs to talented athletes to attract them to a particular school. To combat this, the WIAA, NCAA, and other athletic governing bodies banned athletes from profiting from the fact that they are athletes. These governing bodies tended to over-enforce the rules to the point that athletes were wary of even having a regular job for fear of losing their amateur status.

 

A push began several years ago to allow athletes at the college level to profit from their NIL. I was a supporter of this. The rationale is simple. College athletes are adults competing within a highly profitable athletic monopoly and it is unfair for everyone to make money off of their talent except them. The vast majority of college athletes do not receive scholarships and will never compete as professionals. If they can make a few bucks supporting the local car dealership because they are a popular track star at the local college, then we should not stand in their way.

 

The implementation of NIL is currently ruining college sports. Between the transfer portal and lucrative NIL contracts, the competitive and rooting nature of college athletics is being gutted. While I still support NIL for college athletics for the reasons above, it needs significant reform to preserve college sports. The National Collegiate Athletics Association should, for example, reinstitute the rule whereby college athletes must sit on the bench for a year if they transfer to a different school.

 

While I support NIL for college sports, high school sports are different for one significant reason. The athletes are minors.

 

They are dependents of their parents who are responsible for their care. Money made from the athletes’ NIL does not go to the athlete, but to the athlete’s parent or guardian.

 

This fact makes NIL at the high school level take on the attributes of exploitation of a minor rather than freeing the athlete from exploitation.

 

The other movement in sports that corrupts this issue is the spread of legal sports gambling. Americans have always gambled on sports, but it was relegated to shadowy corners of society. We shunned it from the light because of the corrosive nature of gambling on competition. The availability of online sports betting and a growing cultural acceptance has made sports betting a big business and many people participate.

 

The corrosive effect of gambling is already seeping into high school sports. Infusing NIL money and influences into high school athletics will only increase the incentives and abilities of bad actors to corrupt the games.

 

It is not difficult to imagine someone with a betting interest in a high school sport using NIL influence to change the outcomes. We have a long history of cheating on sports to win a bet.

 

It is important for high school athletes to be able to work a job or receive reasonable gifts without jeopardizing their amateur status and ability to compete. The WIAA should work to clarify those rules so that athletes can work and compete without fear. But the WIAA should reject implementing NIL in Wisconsin. The risks to the athletes and their sports are not worth the rewards.

Chancellor Porn Still Being Paid by Taxpayers

by | 1946, 24 Apr 24 | , | 1 Comment

Remember this guy? Wisconsin taxpayers will be paying him for the rest of his life.

The former chancellor, Joe Gow, said Wednesday that interim Chancellor Betsy Morgan filed three charges against him March 29, accusing him of unethical conduct, failing to cooperate with an investigation, and using UW-La Crosse computers to produce pornographic materials.

 

Gow declined to share a letter from Morgan detailing the charges, saying he didn’t want to look as though he is trying to play out his case in the media.

But he said the ethics charge may be connected to his writings in two pornographic e-books. He declined to go into detail. The allegation of failure to cooperate stems from his refusal to speak to an outside law firm investigating the matter without an attorney, he said. He denied using any UW state-owned equipment or state dollars to produce porn.

 

[…]

 

Gow said he has requested a hearing before a faculty committee, as is his right under state law. The committee would recommend to the Board of Regents, the UW system’s governing body, whether he can keep his backup job as a tenured communications professor. The board would make the final decision on whether he can stay on.

 

The regents fired Gow from the chancellor post in December after learning he and his wife, former UW-La Crosse professor Carmen Wilson, were producing and starring in pornographic videos. They also wrote two e-books titled “Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship” and “Married with Benefits — Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures” under pseudonyms.

 

Promising Poll in Wisconsin

by | 1956, 17 Apr 24 | , | 0 Comments

The election is a long way away, but this is promising.

MILWAUKEE – A new Marquette Law School Poll survey of Wisconsin finds Republican former President Donald Trump supported by 51% of registered voters and Democratic President Joe Biden by 49%. Among likely voters also, Trump is the choice of 51% and Biden of 49%.

 

In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is supported by 52% and Republican challenger Eric Hovde by 47% among registered voters. Among likely voters, the race is a tie, with 50% for both Baldwin and Hovde.

Evers Stamps Feet and Sputters Nonsense

by | 1947, 16 Apr 24 | | 2 Comments

Good for the Republicans. They put forth a reasonable bill to deal with this and Evers vetoed it. Evers has proven to be untrustworthy in negotiations and is just grandstanding now. His legacy of refusing to come to the table and negotiate in good faith is biting him in the butt. Good.

The moves are the latest twist in the ongoing stalemate between Evers and the Legislature over the best way to combat PFAS chemicals that have polluted groundwater in communities across the state. Evers and Republicans have both said that fighting the chemicals is a priority, but they haven’t been able to come together on what to do about it.

 

Evers invoked a rarely used power and called a meeting of the Republican-led Legislature’s budget committee, urging it to release the funding that was previously approved in the state budget. But Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee did not show up, with the GOP co-chairs calling Evers’ move “blatant political game-playing.

 

”Although no Republicans came, Evers made a previously unannounced appearance in the Capitol hearing room and joined three Democratic lawmakers in blasting the GOP inaction.

 

“The Republicans are missing in action on this,” Evers said. “This is one they whiffed on, big time.”

 

[…]

 

Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born, the Republican committee co-chairs, said in a letter delivered to Evers on Friday that although the governor can call a meeting of the budget committee, he can’t actually require it to meet or take action. The committee will not meet, they said.

 

“We are disappointed in your disregard for a co-equal branch of government, as well as the legislative process,” Born and Marklein wrote to Evers.

 

[…]

 

Evers said in his veto message that he objected to the bill because it would limit the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ authority to hold polluters liable. But Wimberger, the bill’s sponsor, said Evers wants to create a “slush fund” for the DNR and not protect landowners not responsible for pollution from possible costly enforcement actions.

West Bend School District eyes November referendum

by | 0759, 16 Apr 24 | , | 2 Comments

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

According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, 60.2% of the 103 proposed school referendums in Wisconsin passed this April. That is down from the 80.1% that passed in 2022 and 85.6% that passed in 2020. That last time that support for school referendums had this little support was in the wake of the Great Recession.

 

[…]

 

The core issue facing the West Bend School District is a decline in enrollment. After peaking about 10 years ago, enrollment has been steadily declining and is projected to continue to decline for the foreseeable future. It is a pervasive demographic trend throughout Wisconsin. According to the district’s figures, enrollment declined 18.6% over the past 10 years and will be down almost 40% off peak in another 10 years. The result is that the district has far too much physical space for far too few students. The district needs to right-size its physical footprint to match reality.

 

First, we must dispel the notion that any school district needs more money to shrink. When a business sees a downturn, they close stores and reduce staff. Nobody gives a business more money to get smaller. School districts do not need more money to get smaller either.

 

They can close and sell facilities, move and reduce staff, and change bus routes at no additional cost to taxpayers.

 

Voters must not allow “declining enrollment” to be conflated with “need more money.”

 

[…]

 

According to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction data, in 2011-2012, the West Bend School District spent $82.5 million to educate 7,010 children (DPI uses a three-year rolling average for student count, so actual student count is a bit lower), or $11,763 per child. In 20212022, they spent $121.9 million to educate 6,491 students, or $18,779 per child. That is a 59.6% increase in per-student spending in just ten years. Yes, inflation has been part of that story in the past four years, but not even that accounts for such an increase in spending.

 

Where did all of that money go? Clearly it did not go to updating facilities or they would not be about to ask for more money in a referendum. According to ACT and other test scores tracked by the DPI, educational performance has been flat or declining. The district spent a fair amount paying off old debt from previous referendums. The district also abandoned a proposed merit pay system for staff in 2020. It is difficult to justify that much additional spending in a district with declining enrollment while failing to properly manage the district’s facilities.

WMC Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Governor’s 400 Year Tax Increase

by | 2051, 15 Apr 24 | | 0 Comments

This court won’t strike it down, but they should. No governor should have the power to raise taxes – especially not for centuries.

Attorneys with Wisconsin’s largest business lobbying group asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to strike down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers‘ use of a partial veto to lock in a school funding increase for the next 400 years.

 

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Litigation Center filed the petition on behalf of two taxpayers. It will be up to the liberal-controlled Supreme Court to decide whether to hear the case before it goes through lower courts, which is where cases typically start.

At issue is a partial veto Evers made of the state budget in July that increased how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.

 

[…]

 

“The law is clear,” said WMC Litigation Center Deputy Director Nathan Kane in a statement. “Voters and their elected legislators are the ones empowered to increases taxes, no one else.”

Leftist Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Won’t Seek Reelection

by | 1810, 11 Apr 24 | , | 0 Comments

This was unexpected, but welcome. We will have an open seat with no power of incumbency in play.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced Thursday she would step down at the end of her term next spring, putting liberals’ majority on the pivotal swing state’s highest bench at stake.

 

The April 2025 election to replace Bradley promises to be an expensive and bitter race and will likely feature many of the same momentous issues — like abortion rights and redistricting — that defined a 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that ultimately gave liberals their first majority on the bench in 15 years.

 

In a statement, Bradley, 73, said she would not run for a fourth 10-year term on the court, saying it was a good time to bring “fresh perspectives to the court.”

“My decision has not come lightly. It is made after careful consideration and reflection. I know I can do the job and do it well. I know I can win re-election should I run, but it’s just time to pass the torch,” wrote Bradley, who was elected to the technically nonpartisan court in 1995.

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