A college degree is becoming incredibly more expensive. In some states, tuition has gone up 400% since the 1980s. So many are asking whether getting a college diploma is really worth the expense.
Category: State news
Wisconsin colleges welcome Obama student loan plan
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Every little bit helps. That is the attitude of Wisconsin college students and financial aid directors who are welcoming the new measures President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that aim to ease the burden of higher education loan debt.
Editorial: Examine widespread rehiring practice
Green Bay Press-Gazette
The state?s rehiring policy for public employees needs a thorough review before steps are taken to revise it.
UW Chancellor: “Higher standards” drove rejection of double dip
WKOW-TV 27
UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward told 27 News maintaining “higher standards” drove his decision to avoid so-called double dipping, and stop receiving retirement benefits when he returned to the campus? top job this summer and began receiving a salary. The practice of rehiring retired public employees and having them collect both pay and annuity has been scrutinized in recent weeks. Legislative proposals would toughen rules on the practice, as has happened in some other states.
Plan may freeze Wis. workers? pay
Badger Herald
A proposal made by the governor would freeze the wages of public workers in the state for the next two years.
UW Chancellor rejects so-called double dipping
WKOW-TV 27
UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward was brought out of retirement into a second stint at the campus? top job, but officials said Ward stopped receiving pension payments as he began collecting his salary and avoided so-called double dipping.
Plan: State Workers Get No Raises For 2 Years
WISC-TV 3
Gov. Scott Walker is proposing a two-year pay freeze for all public employees as part of the first compensation plan put forward after a law was enacted that no longer requires the state to negotiate wages with unions.
Walker’s plan gives Wis. state workers no raises (AP)
BusinessWeek
Wisconsin state workers will not receive salary increases during the next two years under the first pay plan put forward Tuesday by Gov. Scott Walker?s administration under a law that no longer requires the state to negotiate wages with unions.
Wisconsin public employee rehiring policy may be reviewed after UW-Green Bay disclosure
Green Bay Press-Gazette
The state should curb a practice that allows public employees to collect both a paycheck and pension, Gov. Scott Walker said Friday.
Pay plan includes no raises for state workers over next 2 years
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin state workers will not receive salary increases during the next two years under the first pay plan put forward by Gov. Scott Walker?s administration under a law that no longer requires the state to negotiate wages with unions. Terms of the agreement were outlined in a letter from the Office of State Employment Relations delivered to legislative leaders Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press.
GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker killed 15,000 jobs, Democratic state lawmaker says
Quoted: Work by by University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Steven Deller.
Walker supports curbing ?double dipping?
Badger Herald
Gov. Scott Walker announced Friday his support for an Assembly bill which that for measures to curb ?double dipping,? a practice that allows employees to collect both pensions and paychecks.
Plain Talk: Cheap shots at UW show Nass and his mouthpiece?s true colors
Capital Times
There is no end to the mean spiritedness of the people in charge of Wisconsin government these days. Late last week when the University of Wisconsin System got the news that it was going to suffer another nearly $66 million cut on top of the already $250 million taken away by the GOP?s budget last summer, the Democratic members of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee asked that a meeting be convened to examine the cut.
UWM’s budget hit is unfair, unproductive
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Chancellor Mike Lovell has big plans for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus that he formally took over earlier this month, including the addition of more dorm space and expansion of research. But Lovell?s plans may be set back by news this week of more cuts to higher education.
Campus Connection: Warnings about threats to UW suddenly don’t seem so over-the-top
Capital Times
It was just more than a week ago that I sat down with Cary Nelson, the outspoken president of the American Association of University Professors, for an hour long chat about the state of higher education.
….A little more than a week ago, many of Nelson’s comments seemed a bit much, a bit too sensational. Today? In Wisconsin? Maybe not so much.
When asked how higher education can fight back, Nelson said: “Get faculty to pull their heads out of the sand and take back the campus. Devote yourself not to complaining about the money that’s not arriving from the state. Devote yourself to spending the money you do have ethically and well. Find ways to limit administration salaries and the salaries of coaches. Don’t let your university take on gratuitous projects designed to be a president’s legacy. Devote yourself to figuring out how the campus is spending the money it has. Reach out and connect with your students and build coalitions around issues that matter. Just take back the campus.”
Madison360: Old, crumbling schools are, sadly, a Wisconsin tradition
Capital Times
A UW-Madison education professor and expert on K-12 issues offers a plausible explanation for this neglectful maintenance. Over the past two decades, school leaders have focused almost exclusively on measuring outcomes, says Richard Halverson.
Proposals target rehiring of retired public employees
Wisconsin State Journal
When it was revealed that a top UW-Green Bay administrator retired then returned to the same job a month later, earning both his six-figure salary and a hefty state pension, some members of the Legislature and the public expressed shock at such “double dipping.” But Thomas Maki, UW-Green Bay?s vice chancellor, is far from alone. In the past five and a half years, at least 6,829 state and local government employees covered by the Wisconsin Retirement System left then returned to work, simultaneously earning a pension and a salary.
On Friday, (Governor) Walker said he supports a bill that would end double dipping. But the Republican governor has no plans to ask his appointees to stop taking their pensions, spokesman Cullen Werwie said.
Walker Supports Bill To Curb ‘Double-Dipping’
WISC-TV 3
Gov. Scott Walker said he supports a bill designed to limit state workers who retire and then return to their jobs from collecting both their salary and retirement benefits.
Sen. Bob Jauch: UW-System Cuts Don’t Make Sense (Ashland Current)
For over 100 years the Wisconsin promise has been guided by the Wisconsin Idea. The recent announcement of $66 million in additional cuts to the University of Wisconsin System will have a devastating impact on higher education and replace the Wisconsin Idea with the Walker nightmare. The University makes up 7 percent of the state budget yet will be required to take 38 percent of the cuts. These cuts will reduce Wisconsin UW budget to the level we spent in 1999 and are irrational, unfair and harmful to our next generation. It is apparent that the Walker Administration simply does not understand the importance of higher education to Wisconsin?s economy and future.
Lawsuit claims voter ID law violates Wisconsin Constitution
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin?s controversial voter identification law violates the state constitution by creating a new class of ineligible voters, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor and expert on elections, says the lawsuit relies on an unusual legal argument that the Legislature can only enact laws that are enumerated in the state constitution.
WPR Headline Story – UW campuses plan for large cuts
Wisconsin Public Radio
UW System chancellors say they?re dismayed by what they call a disproportionate amount of budget lapse cuts called for by the Walker Administration. UW schools have till November 7 to figure out how to cut millions from their budgets. In a memo, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch states agencies were told to plan for $174 million in cuts from a lapse in the current state budget. Of that, $65 million or around 38-percent of that would come from the University of Wisconsin System.
Budget cuts could severely decrease value of UW degree
Badger Herald
The University of Wisconsin has an illustrious history as one of the best public universities in the world. UW is consistently ranked among the top 40 universities in the world and has a pedigree of producing alumni who rise to the very top in their given fields. Part of this comes down to the university?s ability to attract faculty members of the highest quality, lifting UW?s prestige and providing its young undergraduates with a private school education at public school cost.
On Campus: Rep. Nass said he won’t hold hearing on University of Wisconsin budget cuts
Wisconsin State Journal
The Republican chairman of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee said he doesn?t plan to hold a hearing on a $65.8 million cut to the UW System, despite a request from Democratic members of the committee. A spokesman for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said he “doesn?t see a need for a hearing” because the state budget included the potential for one-time cuts.
Bob Wilson: Trained retirees are an economic asset
Wisconsin State Journal
In his Tuesday piece, columnist Chris Rickert says those of us who are back at work for the state after retiring are taking jobs away from others. I retired almost three years ago from UW-Madison. I was asked to teach about a week before this fall?s classes began. Can Rickert find lots of people who are willing and able to teach calculus to about 460 students on one week?s notice?
Biz Beat: Soglin says food and music could offer economic opportunity
Capital Times
Mayor Paul Soglin has thankfully yet to claim he?s “focused like a laser” on creating jobs. But Soglin wants to make sure economic issues are front and center in a city often rapped for working against, not with, the private sector.
“I?m trying to get us to the point where everything we do, we think about the economic implications,” Soglin told the city Economic Development Committee Wednesday evening. It hasn?t always been that way. Buoyed by the twin pillars of state government and the UW-Madison, the city has historically been insulated from economic realities.
UW-Madison police sketch artist helps nab suspect in La Crosse
Capital Times
A UW-Madison Police Department sketch artist made such a good composite sketch of a suspect in an attempted abduction in La Crosse that police reported that they were able to identify the man from his driver?s license photo and make an arrest.
Second UWGB official retired and then came back
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A second administrator from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay rejoined the university after retiring last spring, and is now collecting a six-figure salary along with a $44,000 pension, according to a report on the website of the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Additional cuts surprise UW System (WLUK-TV)
OSHKOSH – University of Wisconsin system leaders said Wednesday they?ve been blindsided by additional budget changes.
Jauch: UW System Cuts Don’t Make Sense (Ashland Current)
For over 100 years the Wisconsin promise has been guided by the Wisconsin Idea. The recent announcement of $66 million in additional cuts to the University of Wisconsin System will have a devastating impact on higher education and replace the Wisconsin Idea with the Walker nightmare.
Don’t rush to judgment in UW-Green Bay hiring case
Green Bay Press-Gazette
We urge the public to view with caution the latest developments in the case of Tom Maki, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay official who was rehired 30 days after retiring.
UWPD sketch artist helps La Crosse police identify suspect
WKOW-TV 27
An officer with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department has helped officers in La Crosse identify a suspect in an attempted abduction. On Friday, October 14, the La Crosse Police Department investigated an attempted abduction within the city limits. La Crosse officials contacted Police Officer Truli Nielsen with the UW-Madison Police Department to create a police sketch and assist in their investigation.
UW System, state government face deeper cuts
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
With the fragile economy spurring concerns that tax collections could falter, Gov. Scott Walker?s administration is asking state agencies to plan for $300 million in possible cuts over the next two years.
UW System faces $65.7 million more in cuts
Daily Cardinal
UW-Madison will have to face the loss of $18 million more in funding this school year and over $7.5 million the year after. Officials learned Tuesday the state slashed more funding from the UW system.
Campus Connection: UW System absorbing additional $65.7M budget hit
Capital Times
University of Wisconsin System leaders appear to be scrambling after learning their cut in state taxpayer support over the 2011-13 biennium will be significantly deeper than anticipated. Gov. Scott Walker?s 2011-13 biennial budget, which was signed into law over the summer, reduces state support for the UW System by $250 million. While that blow was significant ? tying the record cut of $250 million to the UW System by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle over the 2003-05 biennium ? it now appears the hit will jump by at least another $65.7 million over the next two years.
UW System needs more budget cuts (AP)
Appleton Post-Crescent
University of Wisconsin System officials were surprised to learn they have to make additional budget cuts.
Admissions policy revisited
Daily Cardinal
Center for Equal Opportunity President Roger Clegg said UW-Madison?s holistic admissions policy engages in racial and ethnic discrimination during a state committee hearing Monday.
UW administration fights allegations of discrimination at Assembly hearing
Badger Herald
On Monday, the Wisconsin Committee on Colleges and Universities hosted a hearing regarding admissions at the University of Wisconsin in response to a Center for Equal Opportunity study claiming there is racial and ethnic discrimination in the admissions process.
Assembly hearing on UW-Madison admissions policy
WKOW-TV 27
After accusing the University of Wisconsin of racial discrimination in student admissions, a conservative group is invited back to Madison by some of the UW?s harshest critics.
Attorney Accuses UW-Madison Of Discrimination
WISC-TV 3
An attorney for a conservative group told state lawmakers Monday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison clearly discriminates against prospective white and Asian student applicants.
No time to lose on UW credit transfers
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Recently the University of Wisconsin System announced that it was working on making articulation, or the transferring of credits between schools, a priority. This is one of the four areas a new task force will be investigating. My question: Do our students have “task force time” to wait? [A column by State Rep. Paul Farrow (R-Pewaukee)]
New resource center aims to improve students’ access to college
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Trying to address the perennially low college-attainment rate of central city youth, Milwaukee Public Schools opened the TeamUp College Access Center Monday at 2730 W. Fond du Lac Ave. It?s affiliated with MPS but open to all students and their families in the city.
Chris Rickert: Pension and a paycheck? Good for them, but what about the rest of us?
Wisconsin State Journal
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 14 million Americans are unemployed, 9.3 million are underemployed and 1 million have stopped looking for work because they believe there is no work to be found. But for a few lucky souls, the job market is so good ? and so lucrative ? they?d be fools not to cut their retirements short and get back to work. I?m talking about the 447 UW-Madison employees and who-knows-how-many-other public-sector workers taking advantage of the “double dip”: Retire, get yourself hired back, collect both a pension and a paycheck.
Campus Connection: UW-Madison defends ?holistic’ admissions practice
Capital Times
The Assembly?s Colleges and Universities Committee held an “informational hearing” Monday at the Capitol to learn more about UW-Madison?s “holistic” admissions process. For those who have been paying attention to this topic in recent weeks, little new ground was covered….The most newsworthy nugget to emerge from the proceedings is that committee chairman Steve Nass, R-Town of La Grange, announced afterward he has no immediate plans for any further hearings on this topic. Nass added that he isn’t aware of any pending legislation which would force the UW System to re-think its admissions process.
At hearing on admissions, UW ‘categorically’ rejects bias claims
Wisconsin State Journal
Top UW-Madison officials vigorously defended their admissions policies at a sometimes-testy legislative hearing Monday, called after the president of a conservative think tank leveled a charge that the university engages in “severe discrimination” based on race and ethnicity. But it?s unclear what changes, if any, will come as a result of the informational hearing, which lasted more than three hours.
UW accused of admissions bias during Assembly committee hearing, students hold press conference in support of diversity (Dane101)
The Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities held a hearing today during which the president of a conservative think tank accused the University of Wisconsin of discriminating on the basis of race in its admissions policies.
Attorney Accuses UW-Madison Of Discrimination
WISC-TV 3
An attorney for a conservative group is telling state lawmakers that the University of Wisconsin-Madison clearly discriminates against prospective white and Asian student applicants. Roger Clegg, president and general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, told the Assembly higher education committee that the governor or lawmakers should end the practice.
Assembly Hearing On UW Admissions Planned
WISC-TV 3
Research indicating that the University of Wisconsin-Madison favored minority students over whites who applied with better test scores will be the focus of a hearing before a state Assembly committee.
Madison360: In Scott Walker recall, focus on his failures and his deceit
Capital Times
“The question will be for the average person in Wisconsin?s hinterlands, did the things that Scott Walker did offer more good than bad?” asks Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of political science and an expert in campaigns and elections. “Nobody will like everything that happened, but are you happier that your taxes didn?t go up and that we managed to balance the budget than you are unhappy about cuts to K through 12 education, the UW System and health care, and changes to collective bargaining?” Burden says “I think that is going to be the litmus test for the recall.”
Universities waiting for answers on ID cards (LaCrosse Tribune)
Local universities have found thrifty ways to make student IDs mesh with looming requirements at the polls, but their plans rest on a state board?s interpretation of the new voter ID law.
Falls colors not as vibrant, but tourism still is
Wisconsin State Journal
?Some people are saying it?s a good year, but around us it doesn?t seem that good. Here in Madison, the trees seem to be browning up real quick,? said Nicholas Balster, an associate professor in soil science at UW-Madison.
Stephanie Dufek: Current mining regulations serve a good purpose
Capital Times
Dear Editor: I am a UW-Madison student concerned about the opening of a new iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin. The current regulations in place are strict, which is beneficial for the well-being of the environment and communities. Therefore it would be detrimental to weaken the legislation regarding this issue.
City clerk: Voters may have to wait at least a minute per person in line
Capital Times
When heading to the polls in Madison in 2012, hope for short lines and plenty of poll workers, or you could be queueing up for awhile. Statistics put together by the Madison city clerk’s office following the mock election on Tuesday showed if there are 30 people waiting to vote, you should plan on being in line for at least 32 minutes.
….The clerk?s office will have another mock election later this fall with voter registration included, the registering voters being UW-Madison students.
‘Double-dipping’ by state workers in the spotlight
Capital Times
A longstanding practice that allows public workers to simultaneously collect their pension and a state paycheck has caught the attention of state lawmakers and top UW-Madison officials. This so-called practice of double-dipping by retired state workers who are hired back either to their exact position or another state post has come to attention recently, with news breaking this week that officials at UW-Green Bay had a contract ready to rehire Tom Maki, a high-ranking administrator, before he officially announced his resignation.
State law allows employees to be rehired as long as they have been out of their former job for at least 30 days and did not agree to a rehire contract before they left the position. The fact that Maki?s new contract apparently was drawn up even before he announced his departure is a violation of state law.
UWGB drafted new contract for retiring chancellor (AP)
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
MADISON, Wis. ? University of Wisconsin-Green Bay officials had a contract ready to re-hire a vice chancellor days before he officially announced his resignation, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
Berquam: UW will supply IDs for voting
Daily Cardinal
Although a new state law disallows students from using their student ID as identification to vote, Dean of Students Lori Berquam said UW-Madison will provide students access to identification cards that will allow them to vote.
New IDs to cost $500K
Badger Herald
Issuing new student ID cards to out-of-state students could run a cost of up to $700,000 for the University of Wisconsin System as officials continue to weigh how to meet the requirements of the Voter ID law.
David Ward says UW ‘can’t be shy about competitive salaries’
Capital Times
In his first State of the University address in more than a decade, David Ward sounded the alarm about the funding crisis in public higher education. It?s a safe bet no one in Bascom Hall listening to UW-Madison?s interim chancellor speak to the Faculty Senate on Oct. 3 was surprised to hear the university is facing some significant budgetary challenges. Most are keenly aware the university is being asked to absorb $94 million in state cuts over the next two years. What might have caught some off guard was Ward?s message that the university can no longer afford to simply hunker down and attempt to weather the economic storm until better days return.
Chris Rickert: Recall effort just about mass marketing
Wisconsin State Journal
Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor, says that campaign is likely to be professional, targeted and nasty, and that advertising is likely to be “intense” and “negative.”
Nearly all state teachers unions without pact seek recertification
Wisconsin State Journal
Of 156 local teachers unions in school districts that did not extend a collective bargaining agreement for this year, only 12 did not file with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to hold votes later this fall.
“That’s a very high number, higher than I would have anticipated,” said John Witte, a UW-Madison political science professor who studies education issues in Wisconsin. “It very clearly shows that the teachers are not giving up on their unions at this point.”
….The districts without contracts are more likely to have higher property wealth per student and lower student poverty and be located in the more politically conservative Milwaukee suburbs, according to an analysis by UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky.
Legislation would bring back Wis. collective bargaining
Badger Herald
As the effort to recall the governor begins to take shape, two Democratic state legislators are attempting to reverse the recently imposed limits on collective bargaining powers.