As James Rowen notes, Big Teacher Layoffs Announced for Milwaukee; Another Walker Jobs Success.
Milwaukee has roughly 350,000 working-age citizens. If we use an average yearly total compensation of $50,000 for each of the 350 teachers being laid off, this works out to $50 per year, per working-age taxpayer, to fund these 350 teachings positions. The "savings" from these layoffs is a minuscule part of the overall budget. Walker has taken an ax, rather than a scalpel, to the budget.
It's one thing to cut wasteful programs. No one would argue against such. It's quite different to butcher a crucial pillar of being a competitive economy - our schools. And, it's especially egregious when one does this while claiming the sky is falling and while also giving millions away in corporate tax breaks.
Scott Walker has no problem initiating hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax cuts, while simultaneously slashing education spending. Big businesses already complain about the lack of skilled workers. How will increasing class sizes and demoralizing our public education system help to provide a more robust and skilled workforce?
As I noted in an earlier post, Walker wants the state to borrow $75 million to combine museums of state history and veterans into one 200,000 square foot building. Walker also wants almost $119 million to replace the Department of Transportation's headquarters." We're broke, but we have $200 million for two non-essential buildings?
So...during a recession, a few of the highest priorities for our governor are: unnecessarily combining two museums, replacing the public headquarters of the department involved with the road builders (a huge Walker campaign contributor), and downsizing our educational system.
The recall elections can't happen soon enough.
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