From today’s Wisconsin State Journal lead editorial
The message to policymakers is equally clear: Wisconsin’s schools, colleges and universities have a vital role to play in the state’s economic success.
They should be held accountable for their performance. But they should be given the resources to perform well.
Investments in education pay dividends that enrich students, families and the state.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under "education finance", Accountability, AMPS, Budget, education, Local News, Quote of the Day, School Finance
“Up in the morning and out to School…”
Chuck Berry, “School Days.”
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under Best Practices, education
Chuck Berry, “Don’t You Lie To Me” (click to listen or download)
In his predictable screed against the November 4, 2008 Madison school referendum, Dave Blaska makes at least two statements that are demonstrably false.
Today, housing values are plummeting; unemployment is edging up…
The chart above shows housing value trends. After a drop in January, the general direction is up; by about $20,000 since the first of the year on both average and median. Sales have slowed and both the average and the median are down slightly in year-to-date measures, but one look at this chart and others reveal how unsupportable the verb “plummeting” is. There is a slight downward trend for August, but if you look at prior years there have been downward trends in August since at least 2005. According to the Dane County Real Estate Blog:
The Dane County market certainly needs to get better (especially the condo market), but once again the national numbers show that we’ve avoided the meltdown that is occurring in other parts of the country.
Blaska is even further from the truth on unemployment. According to the Department of Workforce Development’s latest report unemployment in Madison dropped 0.3% in July, is the same as it was one year ago, is the lowest rate of any Wisconsin Metro area, is 1.2% below the state rate (unadjusted) and 2.4% below the national rate (unadjusted). Sorry Dave, going down, not up and doing very well in comparisons.
Better luck next time you decide to pull “facts” out of thin air.
One reason Madison continues to attract jobs and homebuyers is the quality of our public schools. Keep our community strong and prosperous, Vote Yes for Schools!
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under "education finance", Budget, education, Elections, finance, Gimme Some Truth, Local News, Referenda, referendum, Uncategorized
“Educate in order that your children may be free.”
Irish Proverb often quoted by Margaret Haley.
“Only through the freedom of their teachers could the children remain free.”
Margaret Haley, ca 1899.
Margaret Haley is one of my heroes. She was a woman of great ideals who acted on these ideals and accomplished much. She began as an underpaid elementary school classroom teacher, with no job security and subject to the whims of her supervisors. To win protections, security and respect for the mostly female elementary school teachers, she organized the Chicago Teachers Federation (CTF). She led the affiliation of the CTF with the Chicago Federation of Labor and fully participated in the radical world of turn-of-the-century labor politics in that city. She was the first woman to speak at a National Education Association meeting where her 1904 talk “Why Teachers Should Organize” scandalized the conservative, professor-and-administrator-dominated organization. She helped secure the passage of Illinois’ Woman’s School Suffrage law, which like those in about 30 other states and territories granted women limited suffrage and office-holding rights for school related elections and posts. She was a fighter; her autobiography is titled Battleground and she was dubbed a “lady labor slugger.” You can see why she is one of my heroes.
Perhaps her finest hour was the 1900 “tax fight.” When the Board of Education pled poverty and failed to pay hard-fought-for raises to the teachers in the CTF. In order to remedy the situation, Haley led a team that researched and then sued to secure back taxes totaling over $600,000 from major utility and street car companies; money that the politicians were not interested in collecting. This was more than enough to pay for the raises. At about the same time she exposed sweetheart and (tax free) lease arrangements of School District property with major Chicago businesses, including the Chicago Tribune. The courts refused to find wrong in the Tribune case, but Haley had many successes fighting for education against corporate power and the politicians who protected that power.
For more on Haley, see:
Citizen Teacher, by Kate Rousmaniere.
Battleground: The Autobiography of Margaret Haley (edited by Robert L. Reid).
Encyclopedia of World Biography on Margaret A. Haley.
“Being Margaret Haley, Chicago, 1903,” by Kate Rousmaniere.
Happy Labor Day
Check out the LaborFest (1602 S. Park, 12:00-5:30), great atmosphere, great music, good food, cold beer, fun for the kids. I’ll be there, both to celebrate with my family and friends and to promote the November MMSD referendum with CAST. Come and raise a glass to Margaret Haley and others worth honoring.
Some Labor Day Music Videos:
“Union Maid,” Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie
“Salt of the Earth,” The Rolling Stones
“There is Power in a Union,” Billy Bragg
Thomas J. Mertz
Fund a Classroom Project in Madison
AMPS 