Showing posts with label Governor Scott Walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Governor Scott Walker. Show all posts
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Wisconsin for-profit college accountability effort killed
The effort to hold Wisconsin for-profit colleges accountable for graduation and employment outcomes was killed last week in response to strong opposition from for-profit colleges, influential Republican lawmakers and Governor Walker.
The Educational Approval Board, which decides whether for-profit colleges can operate in the state, shut down a committee charged with developing standards for for profit colleges almost as soon as it had convened.
It is hard to miss the hypocrisy of a Governor who insists on greater and greater accountability from public schools, colleges and universities, opposing accountability standards for for-profit colleges, many of whom have become notorious for exploiting low-income students, illegally paying recruiters by the head, and other unsavory practices.
For profit colleges, like Everest College in Milwaukee, have been accused of manipulating students into taking out huge loans for programs and credits that do not transfer or lead to employment,leaving students with little more than onerous debt. Milwaukee's Everest College had a job placement rate of only 5% and a graduation rate of less than 50% when it suddenly closed its doors after only two years of operations.
Nationally, several for-profit colleges have been sued for fraud by state governments and former students. And recently several prominent for-profits including Kaplan, the University of Phoenix, Everest and Sanford Brown have closed campuses.
The committee had met just once, on Feb. 22, a meeting dominated by testimony opposing the standards by representatives from numerous for-profit colleges. Earlier that month, Gov. Scott Walker replaced three members of the seven-member approval board. There is one vacancy.
Then on March 12, Rep. Steve Nass, chairman of the Assembly higher education committee and vocal and acerbic critic of the University of Wisconsin system, wrote in an email to the approval board that it should suspend the committee and work "in a more cooperative atmosphere" with the schools. "I believe this process is very premature," Rep. Nass wrote. He called the regulation efforts — which would have required the colleges to show that at least 60 percent of students who started programs finished and got jobs in their fields — well-intentioned but needing more study and input.
National observers took a different view, noting that similar measures throughout the country typically meet the same fate against the well-funded for-profit college industry. "The basic narrative is pretty much the same," said Barmak Nassirian, a Washington, D.C. independent education policy analyst who's studied for-profit colleges for two decades. "The industry obviously put a full-court press on and killed the effort."
For-profit colleges told the board last month the accountability standards were unreasonable. "You are proposing performance expectations that very few of your own public institutions could meet," said Vickie Schray, a senior vice president at Bridgepoint Education, parent company of Ashford University and University of the Rockies.
David Dies, the executive secretary of the EAB, said it's beside the point. EAB doesn't oversee public schools and Dies said the economic consequences of students not succeeding at for-profit schools can be far more dire since students tend to take on much bigger debt loads.
A federal report last August looked at 30 for-profit higher education companies and found they charge students up to four times the cost for some programs as publicly funded community colleges, resulting in heavy debt loads and spotty graduation and job placement outcomes. "Those individuals become a drag on the state's economy," Dies said.
In his email, Nass cited the concerns of colleges, saying the new measures came unexpectedly and without adequate input. He also referenced Walker's new appointments to the EAB. In early February, the governor announced three new appointees — Robert Hein of Janesville, a UW-Rock County math professor, William Roden of Grafton, an educational consultant, and Katie Thiry of Prescott, an online college teacher.
By removing three board members who backed establishing accountability standards, Walker effectively killed the effort to hold for-profit colleges accountable for their exploitation of Wisconsin residents.
The Educational Approval Board, which decides whether for-profit colleges can operate in the state, shut down a committee charged with developing standards for for profit colleges almost as soon as it had convened.
It is hard to miss the hypocrisy of a Governor who insists on greater and greater accountability from public schools, colleges and universities, opposing accountability standards for for-profit colleges, many of whom have become notorious for exploiting low-income students, illegally paying recruiters by the head, and other unsavory practices.
For profit colleges, like Everest College in Milwaukee, have been accused of manipulating students into taking out huge loans for programs and credits that do not transfer or lead to employment,leaving students with little more than onerous debt. Milwaukee's Everest College had a job placement rate of only 5% and a graduation rate of less than 50% when it suddenly closed its doors after only two years of operations.
Nationally, several for-profit colleges have been sued for fraud by state governments and former students. And recently several prominent for-profits including Kaplan, the University of Phoenix, Everest and Sanford Brown have closed campuses.
The committee had met just once, on Feb. 22, a meeting dominated by testimony opposing the standards by representatives from numerous for-profit colleges. Earlier that month, Gov. Scott Walker replaced three members of the seven-member approval board. There is one vacancy.
Then on March 12, Rep. Steve Nass, chairman of the Assembly higher education committee and vocal and acerbic critic of the University of Wisconsin system, wrote in an email to the approval board that it should suspend the committee and work "in a more cooperative atmosphere" with the schools. "I believe this process is very premature," Rep. Nass wrote. He called the regulation efforts — which would have required the colleges to show that at least 60 percent of students who started programs finished and got jobs in their fields — well-intentioned but needing more study and input.
National observers took a different view, noting that similar measures throughout the country typically meet the same fate against the well-funded for-profit college industry. "The basic narrative is pretty much the same," said Barmak Nassirian, a Washington, D.C. independent education policy analyst who's studied for-profit colleges for two decades. "The industry obviously put a full-court press on and killed the effort."
For-profit colleges told the board last month the accountability standards were unreasonable. "You are proposing performance expectations that very few of your own public institutions could meet," said Vickie Schray, a senior vice president at Bridgepoint Education, parent company of Ashford University and University of the Rockies.
David Dies, the executive secretary of the EAB, said it's beside the point. EAB doesn't oversee public schools and Dies said the economic consequences of students not succeeding at for-profit schools can be far more dire since students tend to take on much bigger debt loads.
A federal report last August looked at 30 for-profit higher education companies and found they charge students up to four times the cost for some programs as publicly funded community colleges, resulting in heavy debt loads and spotty graduation and job placement outcomes. "Those individuals become a drag on the state's economy," Dies said.
In his email, Nass cited the concerns of colleges, saying the new measures came unexpectedly and without adequate input. He also referenced Walker's new appointments to the EAB. In early February, the governor announced three new appointees — Robert Hein of Janesville, a UW-Rock County math professor, William Roden of Grafton, an educational consultant, and Katie Thiry of Prescott, an online college teacher.
By removing three board members who backed establishing accountability standards, Walker effectively killed the effort to hold for-profit colleges accountable for their exploitation of Wisconsin residents.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Walker promises more of the same
The evidence is clear that tax cuts do not create jobs or drive economic growth.
Yet last night Governor Walker boasted :"I want to cut taxes over and over and over again until we are leading the country in economic recovery."
That means Walker will be cutting taxes over and over and over and over and over again, as long as he is Governor.
Eight years of the Bush tax cuts, the largest in the nation's history, or the Walker corporate tax cuts of two years ago, demonstrated conclusively that tax cuts do not lead to economic growth.
Businesses don't invest in capital or hire workers in response to lower tax rates. That is in the words of George Herbert Walker Bush "voodoo economics."
Business invest and hire in response to an increase in demand for their products and services. Yet Walker has pursued policies that have reduced demand and stymied economic growth. A quick review. Waker:
1) Raised taxes on the working poor;
2) Rejected billions in federal Medicaid dollars;
3) Rejected a federal investment of more than $800 million in federal high speed rail;
4) Slashed the discretionary income of the state's 300,000 public employees.
Walker loves to talk about job creation and economic growth. But the state's anemic job creation performance, 42nd worst in the country, is a refutation of his failed economic polices.
Yet last night Governor Walker boasted :"I want to cut taxes over and over and over again until we are leading the country in economic recovery."
That means Walker will be cutting taxes over and over and over and over and over again, as long as he is Governor.
Eight years of the Bush tax cuts, the largest in the nation's history, or the Walker corporate tax cuts of two years ago, demonstrated conclusively that tax cuts do not lead to economic growth.
Businesses don't invest in capital or hire workers in response to lower tax rates. That is in the words of George Herbert Walker Bush "voodoo economics."
Business invest and hire in response to an increase in demand for their products and services. Yet Walker has pursued policies that have reduced demand and stymied economic growth. A quick review. Waker:
1) Raised taxes on the working poor;
2) Rejected billions in federal Medicaid dollars;
3) Rejected a federal investment of more than $800 million in federal high speed rail;
4) Slashed the discretionary income of the state's 300,000 public employees.
Walker loves to talk about job creation and economic growth. But the state's anemic job creation performance, 42nd worst in the country, is a refutation of his failed economic polices.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Walker’s “Beer and Brat Summit” – a state-sanctioned campaign event
Following his successful victory in Wisconsin's recall election, Governor Scott Walker called on Wisconsinites to "work together" and announced a beer and brat summit.
Badger Democracy's review of the events' sponsors reveals that the Walker Administration is holding a camapign event disguised as a cookout.
Check out the list of the Summit's sponsors. It is a who's who of Walker campaign contributors.The Badger Democracy link is here.
Monday, June 4, 2012
For the sake of public education (and Wisconsin's future) vote to remove Walker on June 5th
Conservative education expert and former private school voucher advocate, Diane Ravitch, writes:
If you are concerned about the future of public education in Wisconsin, vote to oust Gov. Scott Walker.
Since his election in 2010, he has proved himself to be a steadfast enemy of the public schools. In the world according to Walker, the best way to reform public education is to demoralize its teachers, attack the teachers' union and hand over more taxpayer dollars to privately managed charters and voucher schools...
Walker thinks that he will improve education by getting rid of the union, which is the collective voice of the state's teachers.The nation's highest performing states-Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut-have strong unions, while the lowest performing states-in the Deep South-have weak unions or none at all. Very likely, what Walker really wants is to remove the teachers' voice when legislators are cutting the schools' budget. The best way to silence the strongest voice for public education in Madison is to weaken the teachers' union.
...No high-performing nation in the world demoralizes its teachers and creates alternatives to public education. The best performing nations in the world have built a strong public education system. They respect their teachers. They do not judge them by student test scores. They do not launch public campaigns against their unions (in high-performing Finland, all the teachers and principals belong to the same union). The most successful nations recognize the importance of having teachers and principals who are dedicated professionals, not a revolving door of young college graduates. They understand that successful schools establish a culture of collaboration, not a culture of competition.
The entire op ed is linked here.
If you are concerned about the future of public education in Wisconsin, vote to oust Gov. Scott Walker.
Since his election in 2010, he has proved himself to be a steadfast enemy of the public schools. In the world according to Walker, the best way to reform public education is to demoralize its teachers, attack the teachers' union and hand over more taxpayer dollars to privately managed charters and voucher schools...
Walker thinks that he will improve education by getting rid of the union, which is the collective voice of the state's teachers.The nation's highest performing states-Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut-have strong unions, while the lowest performing states-in the Deep South-have weak unions or none at all. Very likely, what Walker really wants is to remove the teachers' voice when legislators are cutting the schools' budget. The best way to silence the strongest voice for public education in Madison is to weaken the teachers' union.
...No high-performing nation in the world demoralizes its teachers and creates alternatives to public education. The best performing nations in the world have built a strong public education system. They respect their teachers. They do not judge them by student test scores. They do not launch public campaigns against their unions (in high-performing Finland, all the teachers and principals belong to the same union). The most successful nations recognize the importance of having teachers and principals who are dedicated professionals, not a revolving door of young college graduates. They understand that successful schools establish a culture of collaboration, not a culture of competition.
The entire op ed is linked here.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Walker representative: MATC is a tremendous asset
In October of 2011, Reggie Newson, Wisconsin Governor Walker's Secretary of the Department of Workforce Development, sang the praises of the Milwaukee Area Technical College in an interview on Milwaukee Public Television calling it s tremendous asset.
Now that his boss is in a tight recall election and his own job is on the line, Newsom had a radically different take on MATC. To justify his politically motivated annoucement that the state was investing $100 million in a new central city training center, Newsom claimed that MATC is not placing students in jobs or meeting employers needs.
Not only is this news to MATC - that had an 83% graduate placement rate even during the depths of the Great Recession - but one has to wonder why Reggie has had such a change of heart?
Instead of using scarce state dollars to establish a new training center within a stones throw of MATC, why not use the $100 million to restore the $70 million Walker cut from Wisconsin Technical College's state funding in the last budget?
Now that his boss is in a tight recall election and his own job is on the line, Newsom had a radically different take on MATC. To justify his politically motivated annoucement that the state was investing $100 million in a new central city training center, Newsom claimed that MATC is not placing students in jobs or meeting employers needs.
Not only is this news to MATC - that had an 83% graduate placement rate even during the depths of the Great Recession - but one has to wonder why Reggie has had such a change of heart?
Instead of using scarce state dollars to establish a new training center within a stones throw of MATC, why not use the $100 million to restore the $70 million Walker cut from Wisconsin Technical College's state funding in the last budget?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Walker's policies make Wisconsin Number 1 in job loss
Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to lose jobs over the last year.
We lost 23,900 jobs from March 2011 through March 2012 because of Scott Walker's policies of:
We lost 23,900 jobs from March 2011 through March 2012 because of Scott Walker's policies of:
- slashing public employee salaries.
- rejecting over a billion in federal investments.
- cutting shared revenue and investments in education.
- killing job creating wind farm investments through developer friendly regulations.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wisconsin dead last in jobs
Wisconsin is the only state that had "statistically significant" job losses over the most recent 12-month period, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
From March 2011 to March 2012, Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs. That was the largest decrease in percentage terms in the country. Those job losses came from both the public and private sector, but the public sector job losses (17,800) were larger than the private-sector job losses (6,100).
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs when he campaigned for office. Once elected, he slashed corporate and investor taxes. The result-Wisconsin has lost jobs in seven of the last nine months, 4,300 in March, and is facing a deficit next year.
From March 2011 to March 2012, Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs. That was the largest decrease in percentage terms in the country. Those job losses came from both the public and private sector, but the public sector job losses (17,800) were larger than the private-sector job losses (6,100).
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs when he campaigned for office. Once elected, he slashed corporate and investor taxes. The result-Wisconsin has lost jobs in seven of the last nine months, 4,300 in March, and is facing a deficit next year.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Republican Whipping boy Illinois creates jobs while Wisconsin continues to lose them
Earlier this week Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker traveled over the Illinois line to argue that the tax increase backed by his Democratic counterpart Pat Quinn is killing jobs even as the Midwest rebounds from recession.
“Is it any wonder because of choices that were made right here in the state’s capital?” Walker said in an April 17 speech to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Springfield. “When you raise taxes on businesses, that wealth and opportunity and those jobs more often than not go somewhere else.”
A broader snapshot tells a much different tale.
Illinois ranked third while Wisconsin placed 42nd in the most recent Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States index, which includes personal income, tax revenue and employment.
Illinois gained 32,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. Wisconsin, where Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs with the help of corporate and investor tax breaks, lost 16,900.
Quinn was ready for the cross-border critique from Wisconsin, which led the nation in job loss in 2011. Quinn scheduled a news conference less than hour after Walker spoke to announce that LaFarge SA (LG), the Paris-based building materials maker, would move its North American headquarters to Illinois.
“They have the worst job record in the whole country, dead last,” Governor Pat Quinn, said of Wisconsin. “We certainly don’t want to follow his prescriptions when it comes to economic growth.”
Two days after Walker's trip to the land of Lincoln. the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development announced that Wisconsin had lost another 4,300 private sector jobs in March.
.
“Is it any wonder because of choices that were made right here in the state’s capital?” Walker said in an April 17 speech to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Springfield. “When you raise taxes on businesses, that wealth and opportunity and those jobs more often than not go somewhere else.”
A broader snapshot tells a much different tale.
Illinois ranked third while Wisconsin placed 42nd in the most recent Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States index, which includes personal income, tax revenue and employment.
Illinois gained 32,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. Wisconsin, where Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs with the help of corporate and investor tax breaks, lost 16,900.
Quinn was ready for the cross-border critique from Wisconsin, which led the nation in job loss in 2011. Quinn scheduled a news conference less than hour after Walker spoke to announce that LaFarge SA (LG), the Paris-based building materials maker, would move its North American headquarters to Illinois.
“They have the worst job record in the whole country, dead last,” Governor Pat Quinn, said of Wisconsin. “We certainly don’t want to follow his prescriptions when it comes to economic growth.”
Two days after Walker's trip to the land of Lincoln. the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development announced that Wisconsin had lost another 4,300 private sector jobs in March.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Walker a tool of out of state bosses
Governor Walker has what Steven Colbert would call a truthiness problem.
Walker has traveled the country collecting huge campaign contributions from out of state millionaires and billionaires, people like the ultra right wing Koch brothers or Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the discredited founder of the bailed out financial services corporation, the American International Group, whose financial loses contributed to the financial crisis that caused the Great Recession.
Rather than admitting that he is a tool of out of state bosses, and I mean real bosses, Walker continues to try to discredit his opponents by claiming they are supported by "out of state union bosses."
Union leaders, of course, aren't bosses at all. They are democratically elected leaders of democratic organizations of working people. But that aside. If you compare the source of Walker's campaign contributions to Kathleen Falk's you can see who is a tool of out of state special interests and who is being supported by the people of Wisconsin.
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Walker has traveled the country collecting huge campaign contributions from out of state millionaires and billionaires, people like the ultra right wing Koch brothers or Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the discredited founder of the bailed out financial services corporation, the American International Group, whose financial loses contributed to the financial crisis that caused the Great Recession.
Rather than admitting that he is a tool of out of state bosses, and I mean real bosses, Walker continues to try to discredit his opponents by claiming they are supported by "out of state union bosses."
Union leaders, of course, aren't bosses at all. They are democratically elected leaders of democratic organizations of working people. But that aside. If you compare the source of Walker's campaign contributions to Kathleen Falk's you can see who is a tool of out of state special interests and who is being supported by the people of Wisconsin.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Frontier job losses and the failure of business climate strategies
Frontier airlines became the third major employer in Milwaukee to announce major layoffs this week when it announced plans to layoff almost 450 employees. Earlier, C and D Technologies and Thermo Fischer said they would be moving jobs to Reynosa, Mexico.
Frontier's announcement illustrates the bankruptcy of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's business climate strategy that relies on reducing tax rates and eliminating environmental and labor regulations.
Shortly after he was inaugurated, Walker declared: "Wisconsin is open for business."
The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) press release entitled "Wisconsin Business Climate Improves in 2011, Manufacturing Income Tax Phase Out Fosters High-wage Job Creation" boasted: "Wisconsin’s business climate improved dramatically this year as Governor Scott Walker and the Legislature approved historic pro-growth reforms that will foster long-term economic growth."
Yet, since Walker's budget was enacted on July 1, 2011, Wisconsin has lost jobs for six straight months, a dismal record that is unmatched by any other state.
The business climate strategy is based on the false assumption that marginal cuts in business costs drive investment and job creation.
But businesses don't invest or create jobs because state government cuts marginal tax rates or eliminates regulations. Firms invest and hire in response to increased demand for their products or services. Or, like Frontier, they cutback when they lose market share.
The Walker administration, by enacting an austerity budget that reduces wages and public employment, has caused demand to decline in Wisconsin. As a result, Wisconsin has lost jobs for six straight months even as the national economy has added 3.7 million payroll jobs over the last twenty-three months.
Walker's draconian cuts to local government and to public schools ($1.2 billion), technical colleges (30%) and the university system ($250 million) have reduced public employment as workers are laid off and positions go unfilled.
Last year Wisconsin lost a higher percentage of its state government employees than any other state, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. As public employment declines as a result of layoffs and retirements, discretionary income and demand have also declined.
Finally, Act 10, Walker's anti-union budget repair bill, dramatically reduced the take home pay of all public employees, reducing demand and consumption by more than $700 million-a-year.
The Federal Reserve of Philadelphia released the leading indexes for the 50 states for December 2011. The indexes are a six-month forecast. Forty-four state coincident indexes are projected to grow over the next six months, while only six including Wisconsin are projected to decrease.
Wisconsin's job losses and economic trajectory stand in sharp contrast to the national economy that created 225,000 jobs last month alone. This graph from Econbrowser demonstrates how poorly Wisconsin compares to the U.S economy.
Wisconsin Governor Walker based his campaign for Governor on a promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs.
Walker's policies are not working.
Frontier's announcement illustrates the bankruptcy of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's business climate strategy that relies on reducing tax rates and eliminating environmental and labor regulations.
Shortly after he was inaugurated, Walker declared: "Wisconsin is open for business."
The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) press release entitled "Wisconsin Business Climate Improves in 2011, Manufacturing Income Tax Phase Out Fosters High-wage Job Creation" boasted: "Wisconsin’s business climate improved dramatically this year as Governor Scott Walker and the Legislature approved historic pro-growth reforms that will foster long-term economic growth."
Yet, since Walker's budget was enacted on July 1, 2011, Wisconsin has lost jobs for six straight months, a dismal record that is unmatched by any other state.
The business climate strategy is based on the false assumption that marginal cuts in business costs drive investment and job creation.
But businesses don't invest or create jobs because state government cuts marginal tax rates or eliminates regulations. Firms invest and hire in response to increased demand for their products or services. Or, like Frontier, they cutback when they lose market share.
The Walker administration, by enacting an austerity budget that reduces wages and public employment, has caused demand to decline in Wisconsin. As a result, Wisconsin has lost jobs for six straight months even as the national economy has added 3.7 million payroll jobs over the last twenty-three months.
Walker's draconian cuts to local government and to public schools ($1.2 billion), technical colleges (30%) and the university system ($250 million) have reduced public employment as workers are laid off and positions go unfilled.
Last year Wisconsin lost a higher percentage of its state government employees than any other state, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. As public employment declines as a result of layoffs and retirements, discretionary income and demand have also declined.
Finally, Act 10, Walker's anti-union budget repair bill, dramatically reduced the take home pay of all public employees, reducing demand and consumption by more than $700 million-a-year.
The Federal Reserve of Philadelphia released the leading indexes for the 50 states for December 2011. The indexes are a six-month forecast. Forty-four state coincident indexes are projected to grow over the next six months, while only six including Wisconsin are projected to decrease.
Wisconsin's job losses and economic trajectory stand in sharp contrast to the national economy that created 225,000 jobs last month alone. This graph from Econbrowser demonstrates how poorly Wisconsin compares to the U.S economy.
Wisconsin Governor Walker based his campaign for Governor on a promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs.
Walker's policies are not working.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
No evidence for Walker's claim that government regualtions impede job creation
I have written about this elsewhere so won't belabor the point. President
George W. Bush's first Secretary of Commerce and former Alcoa CEO,
Paul O'Neil, summed it up nicely when he told Congress:"As a businessman, I never made an investment decision based on the Tax Code. .. (I)f you are giving money away I will take it. If you want to give me inducements for something I am going to do anyway, I will take it. But good business people do not do things because of inducements, they do it because they can see that they are going to be able to earn the cost of capital out of their own intelligence and organization of resources." The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has examined this claim and its findings reject it. The BLS studied layoffs, job losses, and UI claims that employers report are due to government regulations or interventions. They are miniscule— in only one case in the table below did they ever account for more than half of one percent. And in the most recent quarter, they were all about zero (technically, the number reported was too small to meet BLS sampling criteria). 
Source: BLS, Table 2
The problems facing Wisconsin and the nation are not due to high business or personal tax rates (effective rates in the U.S. are lower than those in virtually all advanced countries and Wisconsin's business taxes rank in the bottom half of all states) or "job killing regulations." The problem we face is inadequate demand, a byproduct of the nation's growing inequality. |
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Pro-Walker Marquette poll grossly misweighted
The recent Marquette University poll evaluating the Wisconsin electorate's opinions on Walker and potential Democratic Party candidates was inaccurate. It oversampled self-identified conservatives who support Walker and undersampled liberals and moderates who are likely to vote against him. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's article on the poll was prominently placed on its front page..
The critique of the polls methodology provides a more accurate and corrective snapshot of the upcoming election. Of course, events are unfolding rapidly as this week's disclosures that Walker's top aids were indicted for engaging in illegal campaign activity while working for Walker's re-election illustrates. The disclosures also revealed for the first time that Walker's top lieutenants set up a secret email system designed to evade the state's open records laws.
The blog critiquing the poll is posted here and below:
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/recent-pro-walker-poll-grossly-misweighted-when-properly-weighte
The critique of the polls methodology provides a more accurate and corrective snapshot of the upcoming election. Of course, events are unfolding rapidly as this week's disclosures that Walker's top aids were indicted for engaging in illegal campaign activity while working for Walker's re-election illustrates. The disclosures also revealed for the first time that Walker's top lieutenants set up a secret email system designed to evade the state's open records laws.
The blog critiquing the poll is posted here and below:
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/recent-pro-walker-poll-grossly-misweighted-when-properly-weighte
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Cuts at Wisconsin universities rank third in nation
Wisconsin’s public universities experienced the third-largest budget cuts in the country this year, according to an annual survey of higher-education funding. These cuts, along with those to K-12 education, the highest per pupil cuts in the nation, will undermine the state's economy and its people's prosperity for years to come.
Public funding for Wisconsin’s public universities dropped 20.9% from $1.46 billion to $1.15 billion, according to the annual Grapevine study, conducted by Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
Nationally, higher education budgets were trimmed 7.6%. New Hampshire had the largest cut, with a funding reduction of 41.3%. Arizona’s cut ranked second at 25.1% and Wisconsin at 20.9% was third.
The Grapevine figures include the $250 million budget cut for the UW System over two years that was part of the state budget approved last year. It does not include an additional $46.1 million cut announced in October by the Walker administration.
Forty-one states saw some kind of drop in their higher education funding this year. Only s third of states had reductions of 10% or more. An analysis Inside Higher Ed notes that Wisconsin is one of 29 states that’s providing less money to public higher education in the 2011-12 budget year than they did in 2006-07.
Public funding for Wisconsin’s public universities dropped 20.9% from $1.46 billion to $1.15 billion, according to the annual Grapevine study, conducted by Illinois State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
Nationally, higher education budgets were trimmed 7.6%. New Hampshire had the largest cut, with a funding reduction of 41.3%. Arizona’s cut ranked second at 25.1% and Wisconsin at 20.9% was third.
The Grapevine figures include the $250 million budget cut for the UW System over two years that was part of the state budget approved last year. It does not include an additional $46.1 million cut announced in October by the Walker administration.
Forty-one states saw some kind of drop in their higher education funding this year. Only s third of states had reductions of 10% or more. An analysis Inside Higher Ed notes that Wisconsin is one of 29 states that’s providing less money to public higher education in the 2011-12 budget year than they did in 2006-07.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Walker's "tools" cost more jobs; austerity does not work
Wisconsin lost 3,900 private sector jobs in December according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Workforce Development. In the same month, the United States gained an estimated 212,000 jobs.
In the public sector, government agencies at the state level shed jobs last month while city and county employers showed job gains. Losses in the private sector and changes in government staffing left the state with an estimated net loss of 1,700 non-farm jobs for December. .
Wisconsin has lost jobs for six consecutive months and has lost more jobs than any state in the nation since Governor Scott Walker's budget went into effect in July 2011. The graph by the Philadelphia Reserve Board below documents this.
Wisconsin is continuing to hemorrhage jobs because of Governor Walker's one-sided reliance on spending cuts to balance the state budget. That is because demand creates jobs. Consumers account for almost 70 % of the economy. Yet Walker's budget cuts have caused the demand for goods and services to decline in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin shed more state government jobs than any state in the nation in 2011. When workers lose their jobs, their incomes decline and they buy less. In addition, the disposable incomes of virtually all of Wisconsin's public workers declined as health care premiums increased and pension contributions increased to 5.8% of income. The result a decline in aggregate demand that has caused Wisconsin to shed jobs even as the national economy is adding them.
The lesson of Walker's first year is that you cannot cut your way to job growth and prosperity.
Austerity has been a failure where ever it has been tried.
In a recent paper for the International Monetary Fund, Laurence Ball, Daniel Leigh and Prakash Loungani look at 173 episodes of fiscal austerity over the past 30 years—with the average deficit cut amounting to 1 percent of GDP. Their verdict? Austerity “lowers incomes in the short term, with wage-earners taking more of a hit than others; it also raises unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment.”
Let's take a quick look at the unemployment rates in those nations that have responded to budget deficits with austerity. In Ireland the unemployment rate has soared to 14.3%. It would be even higher but tens of thousands have migrated abroad. England's unemployment rate is 8.4%, the highest in sixteen years and Spain's has soared to 22.9%.
As Reuter's reports: "Europe's worsening sovereign debt crisis and governments' tough cost-cutting response appear to be driving the 17-nation currency bloc back into recession following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, while the number of people out of work is rising."
Austerity does not promote growth or job creation. Walker's tools are not working. It is time for a new approach in Wisconsin.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Superintendent of teacher featured in Walker ad says ad is a lie
Scott Walker has a new ad featuring Jeff Knutson, a fourth grade teacher in the Monona Grove school district. Knudson claims:
"When the state budget passed in Madison, a lot of us thought we might lose our jobs. We figured if we didn't get laid off, our class sizes would become unmanageable. But that, didn't happen."This, according to Knutson's boss, Monona Grove superintendent Craig Gerlach, is simply false. Like nearly all school districts in Wisconsin, Monona Grove has been forced to lay-off teachers and has experienced increases in class sizes:
"The numbers at Monona Grove clearly don't work. We struggled to put together a budget this year, we made significant cuts in terms of programs, laid-off teachers... we closed a building. Next year, quite frankly, will be brutal."
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