Choice Helps Few Public School Students

Choice Helps Few Public School Students. 68% of voucher students already attended private schools.

Sunday Reading

The Republican Tax Cut Myth
Obama Didn't Crush U.S. Coal, And Trump Can't Save It
Clarke At Fault On County Jail
More Public School Funds For Vouchers
Donald Trump's Big Tax Cut...For Himself
Can The Cities Survive Trump?
ALEC And Wisconsin's Economy
Trump's Tax Proposal Would Open An Enormous Loophole For His Own Companies
How Trump Could Make Himself Richer Through Tax Reform
The Legacy Of David Letterman, Icon Of The Grizzled Generation

Weekend Reading

Tim Cook's Disingenuous Argument to Justify Apple's $215 Billion Offshore Cash Hoard
Ronald Reagan Wasn't A Ponzi Schemer
Suburbs Trying To Attract Millennials Diverge on Development Patterns
The Sinister Side of Cash
Media Loves Doomsday Stories About the West's Water Crisis. Here's What They Miss
The Freedom Lover's Case for the Welfare State
How to Learn to Love Maths
Undervalued Properties Deprive Schools of Millions in Funds
Life got better for pretty much everyone under Obama

The Economic Recovery Hasn’t Reached America’s Schools

Charter Schools

For Further Reading:
John Oliver Slams Charter Schools And His Critics Totally Miss The Point

Wisconsin Reading

Scott Walker's Food Stamp Cuts Are Coming To A State Near You
In Wisconsin, Little Conserved By Radical Conservatives
Fewer Teachers, Less Experienced Teachers Mean Challenges for Wisconsin's Public Schools
Wisconsin's Public Sector is Leanest in Two Decades
Wisconsin Has Far Fewer State Employees Than Most States
Scott Walker Signs Bill Limiting Doe Probes As Records Are Released
The Use and Disclosure of Personal Email in the Walker Administration
"Wisconsin is Moving in the Right Direction"
Wisconsin Government Revenue is Not Out of Line
Slay The Wisconsin Gerrymander
Wisconsin Not High in Taxes, Spending
WEDC May Have Illegally Awarded $21 Million in Tax Credits
Wisconsin's Position Again Inflated in a Tax Ranking
Discovery of Census Flub Tempers State's Tax Hell Status

US Infrastructure Is A Disaster

• 1 in 9 of the country's bridges are rated as structurally deficient, meaning they require significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement. 
• Of the 84,000 dams in the U.S., 14,000 are considered "high hazard" and 4,000 are deficient. It would cost $21 billion to repair these aging dams.
• 42% of the country's major urban highways are considered congested, and 32% of major roads in the U.S. are in poor or mediocre condition.
• Even though a third of Americans don't drive cars, 45% of households lack access to transit. 
• There are 240,000 water main breaks in the U.S. each year, and many water mains and pipes are over 100 years old.
• The Federal Aviation Administration anticipates that the national cost of airport congestion and delays will nearly double from $34 billion in 2020 to $63 billion in 2040.
• 90% of locks and dams experienced an unscheduled delay or service interruption in 2009. Barges being stopped for hours can prolong transport of goods and drive up prices.
• Congestion on rail lines is costing the U.S. economy about $200 billion a year, or 1.6% of economic output.
• Although public school enrollment is gradually increasing, national spending on school construction declined to $10 billion in 2012, about half of what was spent before the recession.
• National Park Service facilities saw 279 million visits in 2011 and has a deferred maintenance backlog of $11 billion.

10 Signs That US Infrastructure Is A Disaster

Midweek Reading

Assessing State Business Climate Indexes
Demand Answers On Tax Fairness
New Year Brings More Cuts In State Funding For Schools
The State Of Working Wisconsin 2012
Will Austerity Cure Economic Woes? Or Is Public Investment The Answer?

Why Are We Still Wasting Money On Voucher Schools?

Little difference between vouchers, Milwaukee Public School students

Sunday Reading

Competitiveness Is About Capital Much More Than Labor
Decades Of Decline In Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Coverage
Gary Oldman
Medicaid's Big Spenders, In One Chart
No Shortage Of Rental Housing, Rents Not Rising Rapidly
Representatives & Senators: Trends In Member Characteristics Since 1945
Right-Wing Plot To Undermine Science In Public Schools
SuperPAC-Men Playing For Big Payday
The 10 Worst Things About The Oscars
Universities In Innovation Networks
You're Not Paying The Tax Rate You Think You Are

Our Underpaid Teachers

Building a high-quality teaching profession
The teaching penalty

The Commercialization of Everything

Milwaukee Public Schools need to be open for business?

Because we are unable to raise taxes on corporations and the rich [because these same people own our government, they make sure the representatives never introduce legislation that decreases their wealth], MPS must beg and plead with the wealthy to pay for our schools, to donate money.

Having our public education system dependent on the whims and altruism of corporate and commercial interests is a recipe for disaster. Not only is it the marketization of education, but it is also a completely inappropriate commingling of consumptive excess (corporate sales objectives) with an captive audience (students).

It would be much better to simply tax these organizations and allow the proper entities to decide on budgets, spending, and programs for the schools. Rather than allowing our schools to become corporate public relations extensions and our students to become (even more so) consumptive zombies, lets maintain public control of one of the most copied and admired institutions Americans have created - our public school system.