What This Is…
Issue #7- July 1, 2011
Weekend events and news from the past week. Lots of links and some "light" reading for your weekend.
We Need You…
capwiz.com
With all that Wal-Mart does to destroy local business, undermine worker's rights and ruthlessly eliminate their competition, every day should be…
Location:
Time:
I continue to have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of boycotts, but it's good to know where the money comes from in all aspects of life.
MMSD Approves Preliminary Budget…
A couple of interesting passages from the Superintendent's Summary.
Since 1993 and not including the 2011-12 recommended budget, the Madison School District has created efficiencies and had to make reductions in programs and services totaling approximately $79 million.
Total spending under the balanced budget is $360,164,643 which is a decrease of $18,894,302 or 4.98% over the 2010-11 Revised Budget. The change to the revenue limit plus other fund increases or decreases comprises the entire proposed budget. The property tax levy would decrease by $1,917,689 or 0.78% to $243,147,033.
The link to the MMSD website and the budget news there.
Education in the News…
More examples of the struggles districts' across the state face.
Record number of students qualify for Fill A Backpack two years running | Wausau Daily Herald | waus
I keep saying that if any of my conservative friends can prove to me that their ideas really make sense, I'm willing to listen and even change my thinking. Still waiting and staying true to my beliefs.
Worker's Rights…
Green Bay School Board members apologize to teachers | Green Bay Press Gazette | greenbaypressgazett
Posted on Facebook, this could be where education is headed if we don't stop the Walker agenda. The list of things to do at the end is great.
We knew it was coming, but still a tough day.
host.madison.com
Doug Keillorposted toMadison Teachers Incorporated 
I was at the Capitol Rotunda yesterday at noon for the daily Solidarity Sing-a-long. Following the sing-a-long, the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice (ICWJ) held a vigil recognizing the day as the one in which the voice of the worker was silenced - for now. After singing the song “I Ain’t Got No Voice” (using the Woody Guthrie tune, “I Ain’t Got No Home”), those present placed stickers over their mouths and hummed the last few choruses to symbolize the silencing. They then ripped the stickers off and sang “We Shall Overcome” loudly as they marched out of the Capitol.
While I generally agree with the slogan, “Don’t Mourn-Organize”, it was impossible for me to leave that event singularly focused on what lies before us. Too much had been lost too quickly. So I gave myself permission to mourn and grieve what has transpired to our Union, to my vocation, to our democracy. But only briefly.
The end of each day brings a new one and today is that day. Time to get on with it.
Let 2011 be the re-birth of the labor movement!
A long video, but great viewing.
Budget News…
Nice article that reminds us about the effects on all public workers. Once again it's the Isthmus, not the WSJ coming through.
I repeat my comment from the school choice article. Just looking for one logical, well supported idea from the Walker school of thought.
thinkprogress.org
host.madison.com
news.yahoo.com
History in the Making?…
The ignorance of our nation's history would make for a good laugh, if it didn't mean that we were totally changing our national identity and using a lack of knowledge to promote an ideology. We should be every bit as concerned about the ways that history is being altered as we are about the ways that current events are reported. The bias, lack of detail and gross inaccuracies that fill mainstream media reports causes the public to have misconceptions about the events that are occurring. In the same way changes in historical "facts" distort our sense of who we are and what we stand for as a country.
It starts with an inaccurate comment from a public figure.
Michele Bachmann Says John Quincy Adams Was 'One Of Our Founding Fathers,' Flubs Slavery Remarks (VI
Then attempts to become fact.
thinkprogress.org
Remember Palen's Paul Revere gaffe? I still see that as a tool to advance anti gun-control action. Of course Bachmann's campaign struggles to differentiate John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy.
How about a comment from one of our legendary American leaders. This is from a letter to a Union Army Colonel in 1864. How could current Republican politicians spin this quote from a Republican Statesman?
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
— Abraham Lincoln
— Abraham Lincoln
Watch for news from the Fond du Lac School District--teachers just found out that they got an extra hour of work added to each day. My sister used to have to report at 7:45 and be finished at 3:15. Now it's 7:00-3:30. I'm guessing news like this and worse is going to be coming out of districts with no contracts and no rights. Depressing! Thanks for putting together this blog, Andy.
ReplyDeleteShannon