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5/16/2007
A dangerous promise to Wisconsin's little 8th graders
The Wisconsin Covenant. Kind of a spiritual sound to it, don’t you think? Come to the mountaintop, do a couple of thou shalt not’s, hit the books, and you’re set.
It’s great stuff. So Governor Doyle travels all over creation, parts the Red Sea and declares education for all.
Normally, I would hardly notice this showmanship and posturing by the governor. But this Covenant business is upsetting. And here’s why.
First of all, this program of post-secondary education for everybody is by NO means a done deal. It’s one piece of a huge budget proposal that would once again end in deficit, despite extraordinary proposed tax and fee increases. It hasn’t hardly been discussed in Joint Finance, except long enough for the Committee to say “your plan is pretty sparse – please come back when you have more details.”
So come back they did. Last Friday, JFC co-chairs Rhoades and Decker received a letter from Secretary of Administration Morgan. Here are just some of the details.
- $180,200 annually for 2 positions to establish the Office of the Wisconsin Covenant
- $250,000 annually to “support …training related to incorporating character education principles into [teachers’] daily instructional and administrative activities.” [What?]
- From here on out, 20% increases in financial aid budgets, until the increase is from $114M in the 2001-03 biennium to $330M in the 2013-15 biennium. Yikes.
Read the letter yourself. Right down to the bottom where the student’s principal is signing a checklist to verify he or she has met the Covenant’s pledge. You tell me if this is Mickey Mouse stuff or not.
So Governor Doyle traipses around the state promising kids the moon. Kids who trust in what their Governor has to say.
Well, you know just what’s going to happen. Fiscally responsible legislators will say “It’s a very nice program – but you know what? We’ve got some holes to dig out of – and it may not be something we can do right now.”
Oh my. No more Red Sea parting – just a sink hole taking those guys straight to the underworld. Such bad guys to snatch a promise from these young, impressionable kids.
If Doyle were responsible and politically honest about this whole thing, he’d be offering Wisconsinites a choice:
“This Covenant program is great because Wisconsin trails most of the country when it comes to 4-year degrees.
“BUT – if you think this is really important, please help us decide what current program we should scale back to make room for it. We can do the Wisconsin Covenant if we provide WisconsinCare for only the 45,000 most needy seniors.
Or, we can do the Wisconsin Covenant if the state no longer funds 2/3 of school extracurricular programs. Or if we increase UW tuition even further for today’s college students, or….”
Well, you get the picture. A nice idea. Lots of nice, some even great, ideas out there. But we’ve got to make choices. And somebody should show a little more class to 8th graders by keeping his promises to himself until he knows he can deliver. And delivering is a path legislators need think long and hard about before they commence traveling it.
COMMENTS
We all ready have a Covenant in Wisconsin, it's called a guaranteed first class education for those who wish to work at it. We also provide one of the lowest cost post secondary education systems in the nation. What's the beef here. Diamond Jim's smile has the twinkle of a huckster straight out of Blazing Saddles. Promise everything to everyone, but blame everyone else when it doesn't happen.
I love it. Couldn't have said it better myself. JE
Richard (Wed May 16 10:39:48 2007)
Nice commentary Jo!
Bob Fisher (Wed May 16 10:47:24 2007)
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