The Demarest school district eliminated health insurance for teacher’s aides.
Becton Regional High School canceled the school play.
Ramsey postponed repairs to an athletic field so dangerous that the track team hosted meets in nearby towns.
The reason: skyrocketing special-education bills.
“It’s uncomfortable,” said Ramsey Superintendent Roy Montesano. “You don’t ever want to have it appear that we’re taking away, because we don’t want it to be a fight between general education and special education.”
Districts are under intense financial pressure after five years of flat state funding, rising health-care costs, public despair over sky-high tax bills and a law capping tax increases. At the same time, costs for New Jersey’s neediest special-education students have tripled to $595 million.
The charismatic band teacher charmed students and parents alike. He won music competitions and teaching honors. He worked late, coached volleyball and mentored kids.
No one realized Joseph Billera, then 30, was having sex with children.
Yet there were warning signs for years that the popular Salem-Keizer teacher preyed on his Houck Middle School students.
School officials verbally reprimanded Billera after spotting him at a band contest in 2000 with a girl sitting on his lap, a blanket wrapped around them. In 2001, parent Robert Ogan complained to administrators after seeing Billera alone with a female student at a community softball game. Later, Ogan alerted the school’s principal after knocking on the door of Billera’s dark, locked band room one evening to be greeted by a middle school girl.
Three years passed before Billera was arrested and convicted for raping two students and molesting two others. Three of his victims were younger than 14. He assaulted one of them after the 2001 complaints.
Billera is one of 129 Oregon educators disciplined for molesting or having sexual relations with more than 215 public school children over the past 10 years.
I t’s hard to believe, but Oregon protects teachers who are sexually attracted to children young enough to play with stuffed animals. The state also goes easy on teachers who seduce vulnerable, needy teenagers.
In the wake of the scandals that rocked the Catholic Church, it’s both immoral and willfully irresponsible to go on like this. Public school districts and state leaders should take swift steps to protect children from teachers who have no business remaining in any classroom.
Oregon takes a stunningly casual attitude toward sexual misconduct by teachers toward children, as The Oregonian’s Amy Hsuan, Melissa Navas and Bill Graves reported this week. This is true both of allegations and of substantiated claims. The state is slow to investigate teachers, and districts are reluctant to remove teachers from classrooms — or even to give known molesters a bad reference when they apply for their next job.
Most disturbing is the finding that districts will strike confidential settlement agreements with teachers who’ve admitted abuse. A teacher might promise to resign quietly (and not sue) in exchange for money, health insurance or positive job references.
The new 2006-07 California Report Card: The State of the State’s Children identifies critical issues affecting children’s well-being and threatening to compromise public health and the economy. This nonpartisan report assigns letter grades to individual issues, such as a “C-” in early care and education, a “C-” in K-12 education, and a “B-” in health insurance. Recommendations are provided for how policymakers can better address children’s basic needs for growing into productive adults.
The report presents the most current data available on the status of California’s children, who represent 27% of all Californians and 13% of the nation’s kids:
760,000 California children, ages 0-18, don’t have health insurance.
One in three of California’s 6- to 17-year-olds is obese or overweight.
About 58% of California’s 3- and 4-year-olds do not attend preschool.
About 60% of California’s 2nd- to 11th-graders did not meet state goals for math and reading proficiency in 2006.
As many as 30% of the state’s children live in an economically-struggling family, able to pay for only the most basic needs.
California received its annual State of the State’s Children report card Thursday, bringing home grades few parents would view with pride.
The state posted a C average on the health and education of California’s 9.5 million children, according to the report’s authors at Children Now, an Oakland advocacy group.
But raising its marks will be a challenge with the state facing a budget deficit of $14 billion over the next 18 months. Across-the-board cuts are expected for all state services, including health care and education.
The annual Children Now assessment judged the state’s performance on a range of issues, including health insurance, asthma, child care, public education, infant and adolescent health and obesity.
The highest mark was for after school programs, which earned a B+. Obesity received the lowest mark, of D+.
Overall, the grades changed little this year from the past two report cards – and that’s not good enough, said Children Now President Ted Lempert, a former state legislator.
“Policymakers have to stop saying kids are their priority when we have a long, long way to go,” he said.
If there ‘s one institution in Madison that needs strong leaders to tackle huge challenges, it ‘s the city ‘s school district.
Unfortunately, only two people are seeking two open School Board seats in the coming spring election. The deadline for declaring a candidacy was Wednesday.
That means voters won ‘t have any choice in who will serve, barring any late write-in campaigns.
That ‘s a shame — one that Madison can ‘t afford to repeat.
he rigors of a campaign test potential board members and help the community choose which direction to take the district.
Competitive School Board campaigns also draw considerable and much-needed attention to huge local issues, such as the increasing number of children who show up for kindergarten unprepared, rising health insurance costs for school employees, shifting demographics, school security and tight limits on spending.
William Jacobson: Few people realize Obamacare never would have passed if feds had not wrongfully prosecuted then R Senator Ted Stevens, later overturned for prosecutorial misconduct, but too late. Wrongful prosecution changed political history (sound familiar?) Russ Latino: Average Family Health Insurance Premium: 2010: $13,2502024: $23,968 Bent that cost curve.
Natalie Yahr cites a University of Wisconsin Survey of families with young children. Conducted by the UW Survey Center and analyzed by UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, the survey went to around 3,500 people across the state. Researchers compared the responses of participants who have children under age 6 with those who don’t. … Continue reading Nice Article on some Parenting Costs; Deeper Dive?→
The Economist: Fake birth certificates have long been a hot (if niche) commodity in China. In past decades couples would seek them out in order to get around the one-child policy. They could legally have two children if they were twins—or if their counterfeit papers stated as much. The one-child policy was loosened in 2016. … Continue reading The dangers of carrying a child for someone else in China→
AP Seven unions representing teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday attempting to end the state’s near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees. The 2011 law, known as Act 10, has withstood numerous legal challenges over the past dozen years and was the signature legislative achievement of former Republican Gov. … Continue reading Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others→
Tyler Cowen: One of the Democratic Party frustrations with conservatives during the ACA debates was witnessing them tolerate or even support Romney’s Massachusetts plan, but oppose Obamacare. That I can understand. One of the conservative frustrations with ACA was the fear that it would just be the first step in a never-ending, upward-ratcheting series of … Continue reading “I observe also that Obamacare passed, and American life expectancy fell”→
David Blaska: The UW-Madison branch of Workers Strike Back met here late last month and plastered the campus with their signage. Their pitch is a “demand” for a yearly salary of $50,000. These are graduate degree students who help their professors grade papers, lead classes, and work at the lab. UW-Madison’s 5,400 graduate research and … Continue reading UW-Madison Grad student and union efforts→
MacIver: Wisconsin has gotten mighty used to multi-billion budget surpluses over the past 12 years, something that was unimaginable before the passage of Act 10. Rich Government Benefits Were Bankrupting Wisconsin Back in 2010, the state was facing an immediate $127 million budget shortfall and a $3.6 billion structural deficit going into the next budget … Continue reading Wisconsin Act 10 Savings Total $16.8 Billion Since 2012→
Bob McManus: What should happen to a high school principal who can’t educate kids but cheats to pretend that he can? In New York City, he gets a happy handshake and a $1.8 million payday. That’s the latest from the compost heap masquerading as the city Department of Education — which took two years to … Continue reading Controversy over NYC Principal’s going away payment→
Justin LaHart: The inflation numbers that people pay the most attention to and the inflation numbers that the Federal Reserve cares about aren’t the same. In the months ahead, those differences could really matter. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expect Thursday’s consumer inflation report from the Labor Department will show that overall prices … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: How High Is Inflation? It Depends Which One→
Cameron Kaplan: I didn’t pay for these tests, but they aren’t free. The cost is billed to my health insurance. A few days ago, I received a routine letter from my insurance company summarizing what it paid: $1,140 a month for my daughter’s weekly PCR test. That comes to about $285 per test, 20 times … Continue reading The High Cost of ‘Free’ Covid Testing→
John Torinus: UW Health, a $3.8 billion health system that operates in several states and earned $550 million in 2021. It contributed $50 million to the mother ship, arguably, an inadequate return to UW Madison, which owns its buildings and receives below market rent. Quartz, an HMO insurance company operates in four states. It had … Continue reading Will Rothman clean up UW conglomerate?→
Scott Young: Evidence for the Failure to Use Math Casual observation tells us that most people don’t use math beyond simple arithmetic in everyday life. Few people make use of fractions, trigonometry, or multi-digit division algorithms they use in school. More advanced tools like algebra or calculus are even less likely to be brought out … Continue reading Why Don’t We Use the Math We Learn in School?→
Anne Tergesen and Gretchen Morgenson: The pitch from the president of the Indian River County teachers union couldn’t have been clearer. Liz Cannon, who heads the Indian River chapter of the Florida Education Association, urged union members to buy retirement investments from Valic Financial Advisors Inc. through a firm owned by the union. That way … Continue reading Teachers Pay High Fees for Retirement Funds. Unions Are Partly to Blame.→
Joel Kotkin: Unlike workers with steady pay and benefits, those in the precariat — many of them young, lacking good prospects and often socialistically minded — have little to protect. Whether they work for McDonald’s or Uber, they lack health insurance, company backing for further education or any influence on corporate decision-making. A policy agenda … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: The American Working Class Dilemma→
The Economist: BRAD HOOPER quit his previous job at a grocery in Madison because his boss was “a little crazy”. The manager threatened to sack him and other cashiers for refusing orders to work longer than their agreed hours. Not long ago, Mr Hooper’s decision to walk out might have looked foolhardy. A long-haired navy … Continue reading American life is improving for the lowest paid→
Olga Khazan: There is, however, a way to eliminate those bank-busting surprise medical bills without eliminating health insurance. Just ask Europe. Several European countries have health insurance just like America does. The difference is that their governments regulate what insurance must cover and what hospitals and doctors are allowed to charge much more aggressively than … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Why Europeans Don’t Get Huge Medical Bills→
Matt Bruenig: The comprehensive measure shows that a married couple with two kids that makes the average wage pays over 43 percent of their income in compulsory payments of one sort or another. Health premiums are 26.4 of the 43.2 points. Finally, we can go back to the OECD NTCP data and compare the US … Continue reading US Workers Are Paying High Taxes. But Without Any of the Benefits.→
Aaron Hanlon: News of the death of Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct professor of French at Duquesne University, went viral in 2013. The circumstances of her final months painted a jarring picture of how dire a professor’s living conditions could be. Before Vojtko learned her semester-to-semester contract would not be renewed, she was earning less … Continue reading The University Is a Ticking Time Bomb→
Matt Bruenig: But formal labor taxes are limited because they omit “non-tax compulsory payments” (NTCPs). NTCPs are payments workers and employers are legally compelled to pay to private parties. NTCPs are no different from taxes except that NTCPs are made to private corporations like health insurance companies rather than to the government. Occasionally the OECD … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums→
Wall Street Journal: But now Mr. Sanders is no longer the solo socialist. He lost to Hillary Clinton but shifted the Democratic Party left. The Democratic field is full of women and minorities now running on his Medicare for All proposal, which would eliminate private health insurance, and the Green New Deal. Mr. Sanders may … Continue reading Bernie and Burlington College→
Matthew Continetti: Not any more. If the death of the socialist idea was the most important political event of the last century, then the rebirth of this ideal must rank high in significance in the current one. Just as nationalism has reasserted itself on the political right, socialism has grown in force on the left. … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: What to Do About the Rebirth of Socialism→
Richard Eisenberg: Between a third and a half of people age 45 to 59 and a quarter of those 60+ went without needed health care in the past year due to its cost, according to a troubling new survey from the West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago. “We were surprised by … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Why Americans are avoiding the doctor→
Cezary Podkul and Heather Gillers: The only speaker standing between state budget officers and the opening cocktail hour at a Washington conference was the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. What he said left no one in a celebratory mood. Medicaid costs, said then-Secretary Michael Leavitt, were projected to grow so fast that within … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Why Are States So Strapped for Cash? There Are Two Big Reasons→
David Arsen, Thomas A. DeLuca, Yongmei Ni and Michael Bates: Like other states, Michigan has implemented a number of policies to change governance and administrative arrangements in local school districts deem to be in financial emergency. This paper examines two questions: (1) Which districts get into financial trouble and why? and (2) Among fiscally distressed … Continue reading Which Districts Get Into Financial Trouble and Why: Michigan’s Story→
Molly Beck: The polling also showed 60 percent of public sector employees favor returning to collective bargaining, compared with only 39 percent in the private sector. Nearly 70 percent of union members favor bargaining, while only 38 percent of non-union members support it. Those polled in the city of Milwaukee and Madison media markets favor … Continue reading 2018 Wisconsin Election: Act 10 Commentary→
Lauren Slagter: Under the proposed three-year contract that would start in the 2017-18 school year, Bauman said teachers would advance a step on the salary schedule each year for the first two years – for the first time in the school district’s five-year history. The proposed contract calls for re-opening salary negotiations in the 2019-20 … Continue reading Ypsilanti teachers ‘shocked’ by contract proposal shared with public→
Megan McArdle: Katherine Stewart doesn’t like Donald Trump’s language about “failing government schools.” School choice, she suggests, has some unsavory ancestors. Libertarianism, for one, “for which all government is big and bad.” And (presumably) even worse: “American slavery, Jim Crow-era segregation, anti-Catholic sentiment and a particular form of Christian fundamentalism.” One could quibble with some … Continue reading Demonizing School Choice Won’t Help Education→
Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner AFSCME’s demands ignore four significant facts about Illinois state-worker compensation: • Illinois state workers are the highest-paid state workers in the country • AFSCME workers receive Cadillac health care benefits • Most state workers receive free retiree health insurance • Career state retirees on average receive $1.6 million in pension benefits … Continue reading ILLINOIS STATE WORKERS HIGHEST PAID IN NATION→
Karen Overall, the district’s operating budget for the 2017-2018 school year would rise $8.4 million over the current school year to $389.7 million, according to the proposal. The budget for the first time also will include spending made possible through a referendum that voters approved in November to permanently raise the district’s annual revenue limit … Continue reading Obfuscating Madison K-12 Spending, redux→
The Economist: Pushing against Adolph Wagner’s law is another, newer tendency. Americans who recalled the Depression and the second world war tended to look more favourably on the redistribution of income. Ilyana Kuziemko of Princeton and Vivekinan Ashok and Ebonya Washington, both of Yale, have found that support for redistribution has dropped among retired people … Continue reading Warfare helps explain why American welfare is different→
Michael Puente: The school system is struggling make payroll each month. It delayed checks to 700 employees, mostly teachers, in November. March is also likely to be a problem, school district staff said last week at a Gary School Board meeting. It wasn’t always this way Gary’s public school system was once one of the … Continue reading Gary’s Disappearing Public Schools→
phys.org Out of all age groups, children are still most likely to live in poverty, according to new research from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Using the latest available data from the American Community Survey, NCCP researchers found that in 2015, while 30 percent … Continue reading America’s youngest children most likely to live in poor economic conditions→
Chris Rickert, using facts: For context, Wisconsin employees who get health insurance through their work pay about 22 percent of the annual premium, on average, or about $1,345 a year for single coverage, according to 2015 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The average salary for a private- sector worker in Wisconsin was $45,230 in … Continue reading Commentary On The Madison School District’s Benefit Spending (achievement Benefits?)→
Kim Soffen: In his eight years as president, Barack Obama saw the nation through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a major restructuring of the health insurance industry and a renaissance of civil rights movements. He saw political parties continue to polarize, tensions with Russia heighten and opioid abuse become an epidemic. In … Continue reading Civics: After 8 years, here are the promises Obama kept — and the ones he didn’t→
James Wigserson: A new study says the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program will have a $473 million economic impact on the Milwaukee area by 2035 because of higher graduation rates for voucher school students compared to their peers in Milwaukee Public Schools. “There are many well-known benefits of graduating from high school,” Will Flanders, co-author of … Continue reading Study: Milwaukee voucher program a half-billion dollar winner→
Molly Beck: He said school districts can save money because of reduced health insurance costs for staff and can be creative in retaining teachers, like providing bonuses. Humphries said in an interview that Evers was too focused on objecting to the expansion of private voucher and independent charter schools and not focused enough on raising … Continue reading Dodgeville school administrator seeks to unseat Wisconsin superintendent→
Steven Brill When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at … Continue reading Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us→
It is unfortunate two recent articles on the upcoming Madison School District tax & spending increase referendum lack data, such as: Total Spending for the current budget ($449,482,373.22 more) – about $18,000/student. Chicago spends about $14,336/student, Boston $20,707 and Long Beach $12,671/student. Historic Spending Changes (spending increases every year) Academic Outcomes vs. Spending Comparison with … Continue reading Commentary (seems to lack data…) on Madison’s K-12 Tax & Spending Increase Referendum→
Pat Schneider: UW-Madison is cutting the work week of its student employees to no more than 29 hours to conform to requirements of the Affordable Care Act, a move some student workers say will make it harder for them to stay in school. “With less hours, many students will have to juggle two jobs, and … Continue reading UW-Madison cuts student workers’ hours, citing Affordable Care Act→
Alana Semuels: Locking out a university’s faculty right before the start of classes seems like a drastic step, but that is just what Long Island University (LIU) did this weekend, when it barred all 400 members of its faculty union from its Brooklyn campus, cut off their email accounts and health insurance, and told them … Continue reading An Unprecedented Faculty Lockout→
Sara Matthiesen he National Labor Relations Board delivered a win for labor this month, ruling that graduate students at private colleges are also employees. The action overturned a 2004 decision involving Brown University that until now allowed administrations to insist that collective bargaining would imperil students’ academic pursuits. A number of media outlets have helped … Continue reading Academic Work Is Labor, Not Romance→
Julian Ring and Madeline Stocker: Over the next three weeks, 177 faculty and staff must decide whether or not they want to take the College up on its offer to retire early in exchange for a relatively hefty severance package. The deal, which administrators are projecting will save the College between $1.5–3.5 million per year, … Continue reading Oberlin College Offers Cash for Early Retirement→
Angus Deaton: The finding that income predicts mortality has a long history. Nineteenth-century studies include Villermé1 on Paris, France, in 1817, Engels2 on Manchester, England, in 1850, and Virchow3 on Upper Silesia in 1847 through 1848. Modern analyses include the Whitehall study of British civil servants, whose status was measured by income,4 as well as … Continue reading Education, Income And Longevity→
Olga Khazan: The AP recently asked 1,033 adults what they thought of “Medicare for All,” a cornerstone of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. When asked their view of “single-payer” health care—what such a system is often called—the respondents seemed to like it. “A slim plurality of 39 percent supports replacing the private health insurance system with … Continue reading Americans Don’t Know What ‘Single Payer’ Means→
Madison Teachers, Inc. Newsletter via a kind Jeanie Kamholtz email (PDF): Over the past few weeks, discussions have been occurring throughout the District about MTI’s upcoming MTI Recertification Elections. One of the most frequently asked questions by newer staff, those who are not aware of MTI’s many accomplishments on behalf of District employees, is “what … Continue reading What’s at Risk Without MTI?→
Madison Teacher’s, Inc. (PDF), via a kind Jeanie Kamholtz email. Last week’s MTI Solidarity! contained an article about a teacher strike in Seattle. Among the issues were wages not keeping up with inflation, “no state increase in funding for health care,” providing teachers with a greater voice regarding standardized tests, management’s proposal for a longer … Continue reading Seattle Teachers’ Demands Much Like MTI’s→
Chris Rickert: In other words, it’s wrong for a school board member to vote specifically on policy affecting his finances, but OK to vote on a budget including that very same policy. There are probably people in other parts of Wisconsin who would object to a local school board that gives itself big, immediate raises … Continue reading Unconventional school board risks little backlash in Madison→
Notes and charts from the Districts’ most recent 2015-2016 budget document (5MB PDF): Our 25,364 students are served by 4,076 Teachers & Staff (6.22 students per District employee). Salaries and Wages For 2015-16, MMSD has collective bargaining agreements in place with its represented employee groups, including teachers, aides, clerical, and custodial staff. The teachers’ collective … Continue reading Commentary and Charts on Madison’s $413,703,424 Planned 2015-2016 Budget→
David Blaska Voters just approved a $41 million spending referendum. Now the Madison Metro School District says it needs to cut $10.8 million to cover a deficit. This is after rewarding its unionized teachers and support staff with a 2.5% pay increase in the budget approved late last year. Who is running this store? Hint: … Continue reading Commentary on Madison Schools’ Governance, Priorities & Spending→
Chris Rickert: Finances are always a consideration; they can also be an excuse. The district has cried poor at budget time for years, and yet somehow continued to find the money to, say, cover the full cost of union employees’ health insurance. Board member Ed Hughes said he wouldn’t vote for Madison Prep because the … Continue reading Madison School District keeps education, ahem, old school→
Greg Jones: While these perceived dangers are admittedly more subtle than those that might accompany a rogue asteroid, they are worrying indeed. Automation might not wipe us out immediately, but it will almost certainly affect economies in Earth-shattering ways. Forecasts differ on the specifics, but they generally point to automation being disruptive as far as … Continue reading Could Automation Be Labor Unions’ Death Knell?→
Pam Chickering Wilson: In addition, the ACA requires that the insurance employers offer must be “affordable.” If the cost of insurance rises above 9 1/2 percent of a family’s income, the employer can face a fine of $3,000. One more measure coming down the pike — to take effect in 2018 — is the so-called … Continue reading ACA challenge for schools: Jefferson, WI School District→
: Mahoney, director of business and technology services at the McFarland School District, said in an email to district staff that a budget deficit of between $500,000 and $1 million is likely for the next school year, which includes keeping a 3 percent wage increase and expecting a 7 percent health insurance cost increase. I … Continue reading A quick look at Dane County, WI K-12 Budgets and Redistributed State Tax Dollars→
Mitch Henck: This is Madison. I learned that phrase when I moved here from Green Bay in 1992. It means that the elites who drive the politics and the predominate culture are more liberal or “progressive” than backward places out state. I knew I was in Madison as a reporter when parents and activists were … Continue reading Madison Schools Should Apply Act 10→
David Blaska: Like the Sun Prairie groundhog, the Madison school district’s teachers contract has come back to bite the taxpayer. The Madison Metropolitan School District is looking at a $20.8 million budget deficit next school year. Good Madison liberals worried about the state balancing its budget can now look closer to home. To balance the … Continue reading Commentary on Madison Schools Teacher Benefit Practices→
Molly Beck: Madison school officials are weighing property tax increases, significant program cuts and requiring employees to pay a portion of health insurance premiums to help close a huge budget deficit. About $6 million could be saved by making aggressive changes to employees’ health care costs, including requiring staff to contribute toward health insurance premiums, … Continue reading Madison School District’s Employee Benefit Discussion→
Ruth Robarts, writing in 2005: However, the administration’s “same service” budget requires a revenue increase of more than 4%. The Gap for next year is $8.6M. Next will come a chorus of threats to slash programs and staff to “close the gap”. District staff will come on stage bearing long lists of positions and programs … Continue reading Deja vu: Annual Madison Schools’ Budget Play, in 4 acts (2005 to 2015)→
Via a kind reader’s email. Despite spending double the national average per student and delivering disastrous reading results – for years – Madison’s Superintendent pushes back on school accountability: The Wheeler Report (PDF): Dear Legislators: Thank you for your efforts to work on school accountability. We all agree that real accountability, focused on getting the … Continue reading Madison School District Superintendent “Reverts to the Mean”….→
Matt Connolly In 1925, one of college football’s biggest stars did the unthinkable. Harold “Red” Grange, described by the famous sportswriter Damon Runyan as “three or four men rolled into one for football purposes,” decided to leave college early in order to play in the National Football League. While no fan today would begrudge an … Continue reading College Football Coaches, the Ultimate 1 Percent→
Paul Fanlund A nationwide exit poll on Election Day revealed that 70 percent viewed the economy as “not so good” or “poor.” Only 22 percent thought life for the next generation would be better than for this one. Second, because those with the most education are doing better (and Madison is jammed with academic elites) … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: No end in sight to Wisconsin’s politics of resentment→
Ryan Knutson & Theo Francis: The American middle class has absorbed a steep increase in the cost of health care and other necessities as incomes have stagnated over the past half decade, a squeeze that has forced families to cut back spending on everything from clothing to restaurants. Health-care spending by middle-income Americans rose 24% … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Basic Costs Squeeze Families→
Derek Thompson: But there’s something deeper, too. The familiar bash brothers of globalization and technology (particularly information technology) have conspired to gut middle-class jobs by sending work abroad or replacing it with automation and software. A 2013 study by David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson found that although the computerization of certain tasks hasn’t … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Declining Wagers for Younger Workers→
Madison Teachers, Inc. PDF Newsletter via a kind Jeannie Kamholtz email (PDF): Over the past few weeks, discussions have been occurring throughout the District about MTI’s upcoming MTI Recertification Elections. One of the most frequently asked questions by newer staff, those who are not aware of MTI’s many accomplishments over the years is, “what is … Continue reading What’s at Risk Without MTI?→
Rachel Riederer: When Mary Margaret Vojtko died last September—penniless and virtually homeless and eighty-three years old, having been referred to Adult Protective Services because the effects of living in poverty made it seem to some that she was incapable of caring for herself—it made the news because she was a professor. That a French professor … Continue reading Teaching college is no longer a middle-class job, and everyone paying tuition should care.→
We recommend adopting a Preliminary Budget for 2014-15 which includes the budget changes recorded in the companion document MMSD 2014-15 DPI Recommended Format for Budget Adoption. The changes are related to student fees and technology. With this recommendation we restate our strategy to address health insurance, salaries, and tax levy as a package in the … Continue reading An update on Madison’s 2014-2015 $402,464,374 budget→
Matthew DeFour: Mary Burke, who has already been endorsed by more than a dozen of the state’s largest private- and public-sector unions, said she supports making wages, hours, benefits and working conditions mandatory subjects of bargaining for public employees. She called the annual elections, the prohibition on requiring union dues of all employees, and a … Continue reading Wisconsin Gubernatorial candidate Act 10 Commentary→
The Madison School District (3MB PDF): Five Priority Areas (just like the “Big 10”) but who is counting! – page 6: – Common Core – Behavior Education Plan – Recruitment and hiring – New educator induction – Educator Effectiveness – Student, parent and staff surveys – Technology plan 2014-2015 “budget package” 3MB PDF features some … Continue reading Madison Schools’ 2014-2015 $402,464,374 Budget Document (April, 2014 version)→
Steve Strieker, via a kind Michael Walsh email: My first teaching contract 19 years ago at a Midwest Catholic high school grossed $15,000. My retirement benefits consisted of a whopping $500 401K. Cutting into my take-home pay was a $1500 annual premium for an inadequate health insurance plan with a high deductible and 80-20 coverage … Continue reading Walker’s Act 10 Devalues Teaching in Wisconsin→
A few weeks ago, the Madison BOE received a summary of what the board and its committees had done in its meetings during the past year. I am posting the entire document as an extended entry as community information. It provides a lot more detail, a good overview, and a glimpse at the pieces that … Continue reading Board of Education Activity in 2006-07→
After much consideration, I have decided to vote against the tentative agreement negotiated by the District and the MTI teachers union. I will do so because the agreement fails to include significant health insurance changes, and as a result, unreasonably depresses the salary increases that can be provided to our teachers. While the total salary … Continue reading Statement on MMSD/MTI Tentative Collective Bargaining Agreement Vote→
Conversation regarding the recent MMSD / MTI collective bargaining agreement continues: Andy Hall wrote a useful summary, along with some budget numbers (this agreementi s56% of the MMSD’s $339.6M budget): District negotiators headed by Superintendent Art Rainwater had sought to free up money for starting teachers’ salaries by persuading the union to drop Wisconsin Physicians … Continue reading Madison Schools MTI Teacher Contract Roundup→
There has been bitterness, surprise and resentment over my vote with respect to the Lapham/Marquette consolidation. I would like to let people know why I voted to move the alternative programs to Marquette. I have a mix of emotions several days after the storm and hope you find it helpful to understand the process from … Continue reading Lapham Marquette Statement→
2007/2008 Budget Reallocation Topics Parameters for Studying Health Insurance Achieving Health Insurance Cost Savings Community Service Fund 80 Overview Fund 80 Audit Request Cost Analysis Proposal for all MMSD Services Extra-curricular Activities Funding Proposal 2004 / 2005 Budget Proposal
The month of April brings showers; however, for the Madison BOE it brings new beginnings, budget challenges and community dialogue. First, regarding new beginnings, let me congratulate Beth Moss and Maya Cole on their election onto the Madison School Board. They will be replacing the retiring Shwaw Vang and Ruth Robarts. Our community should be … Continue reading April Board of Education Progress Report – Johnny Winston, Jr.→
Dear Mr. Rainwater: I just found out from the principal at my school that you cut the allocations for SAGE teachers and Strings teachers, but the budget hasn’t even been approved. Will you please stop playing politics with our children education? It?s time to think about your legacy. As you step up to the chopping … Continue reading An open letter to the Superintendent of Madison Metropolitan Schools→
Shane Samuels: There are those who like to work with numbers, and then there are those who figure school budgets. They’re not necessarily the same person. School finance consists of a labyrinth of property values, student enrollment totals, federal aid, and state aid. Only two people in Chetek claim to understand the funding formula from … Continue reading Some interesting insight into another district’s budgeting process, knowledge, and challenges.→
On March 26, I voted no on Carol Carstensen’s proposed three-year referendum for several reasons. First, a referendum requires careful planning. Two weeks notice did not allow the Madison School Board to do the necessary analysis or planning. Ms. Carstensen—not the administration—provided the only budget analysis for her proposal. The board has not set priorities … Continue reading Yes to strategic planning, no to last minute referendums and school closings→
Christine & Trent Sveom kindly forwarded candidate responses to additional questions not contained within the previously posted Video from the March 5, 2007 West High Forum. The questions: Please explain your views on additional charter schools given the success of Nuestro Mundo here in Madison and several offerings in Appleton just to name a few? … Continue reading Spring 2007 Madison School Board Election Update: Vote April 3!→