Photo Credit: Megan McCormick / via Wikimedia Commons
Gov. Scott Walker came out with a noncandid statement about how the Wisconsin Idea—and its search for truth—was eliminated in his state budget. (Major props to the Center for Media and Democracy for catching it.)
First it was a drafting error, now it’s a miscommunication.
Bottom line: I don’t care what he says. It was intentional.
Walker has been hostile toward public education for a very long time. This latest outrage is part of a pattern. He has no use for public institutions of any sort. He only really cares about gutting our state’s shared resources and privatizing them. Oh—and running for higher office.
Walker saw his self-created $2.2 billion budget hole as an opportunity to give the University of Wisconsin System a $300 million dose of shock doctrine. Not only would a weakened UW System require fewer public resources, but Walker’s attack on UW is a not-so-quiet dog whistle to low-wage employers that Wisconsin simply isn’t interested in building a high-skilled workforce. Instead, we’ll take your crappy jobs that pay poverty wages. And Walker of course won’t raise the minimum wage, even though he could singlehandedly.
Walker has no use for the UW. He has no use for the Wisconsin Idea. He doesn’t care about sifting and winnowing, the search for truth, shared governance, educating the whole person or embracing the 21st century.
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He’s probably bragging about #draftingerror with his billionaire benefactors.
Scott Walker can blame the latest controversy on aides or whomever he wants. But rest assured, it was very intentional.
