The news that Republican legislators plan to send back $37 million in funding for broadband access should come as no surprise, since Republicans have made it clear they want to replace everything from Medicare to public education with privatized voucher systems, while forbidding local governments to provide services available in the for-profit market.
The Joint Finance Committee slipped into the budget bill an attack on rural Internet access which will kill a federally funded UW-Extension program to expand broadband service in underserved areas and cripple WiscNet, a public-private partnership that helps school districts and libraries get online…The amendment saves no taxpayer dollars and prevents Wisconsin from using a major federal grant.The UW System was built on the notion that public universities should use their resources to benefit the public. I urge the Legislature to remove this provision.
Wisconsin state Superintendent Tony Evers is blasting a decision by the Legislature?s budget-writing committee to reject about $39 million in federal money to extend broadband Internet access across the state. The Joint Finance Committee voted Friday to force the University of Wisconsin System to return the money and no longer support WiscNet, a non-profit cooperative that brings high-speed Internet services to about 75 percent of public schools in Wisconsin and nearly all public libraries. Evers said Tuesday that the move would likely mean WiscNet could no longer provide Internet services and if that happens schools and libraries will have to pay double or three times what they do now. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says the issue may be revisited before the budget is voted on next week.
The term “you?re killing me” will take on a whole new life in Madison on Wednesday, as college students from across Wisconsin protest what they call anti-student legislation. The students will be “dying” and then dragging their returned-to-life zombie bodies around Capitol Square at noon Wednesday in a protest planned by the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students.
It is accurate to say UW Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin did not get everything she wanted with her New Badger Partnership proposal. And that?s too bad because, in fact, she is right
UW-Madison will remain a part of the University of Wisconsin System. However, UW schools are expecting massive cuts in the state budget.
Wisconsin state Superintendent Tony Evers is blasting a decision by the Legislature?s budget-writing committee to reject about $39 million in federal money to extend broadband Internet access across the state.
A provision put into the state budget bill late last week could have wide-ranging affects for the University of Wisconsin and public schools around the state.
The state budget package approved last week at the committee level contains no plan to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the UW System, a wise move at this juncture.
The University of Wisconsin System would be forced to return about $37 million in federal funds intended to extend broadband Internet across Wisconsin, under a provision passed by the Legislature?s budget committee Friday. The legislation would also prohibit UW System campuses from supporting WiscNet, a cooperative that brings high-speed Internet to most schools and libraries across the state. Campus leaders say they fear the change could cripple the network.
The state supreme court had a long day, nearly 7 hours of questions, answers and arguments about the collective bargaining bill.
The state Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether to take up a lawsuit over the state?s polarizing collective bargaining law.
The state Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday morning on whether to take up a lawsuit over the collective bargaining law.
The University of Wisconsin?s flagship Madison campus would receive more flexibility in how it operates but it would also remain part of the university system under changes to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget approved by a legislative committee Friday. Funding to all campuses would be cut 11 percent, the same level Walker proposed. The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted along party lines 12-4 to reject Walker?s proposal to break Madison off from the 13-campus system before completing work on the budget shortly after midnight early Saturday morning. While Madison would remain in the system, it and all the campuses would have more flexibility in how they spend state money and make decisions related to personnel and other areas.
The Legislature?s powerful budget committee has finished its work on Gov. Scott Walker?s two-year spending plan. The budget now heads to the full Legislature, where debates in the state Assembly and Senate are expected to begin in about a week. The GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee finished soon after midnight Saturday morning. The budget balances a projected $3 billion budget hole. It does not raise taxes overall, but makes sharp cuts to public schools and the University of Wisconsin.
Legislators officially killed plans Friday to turn UW-Madison into an independent authority, opting instead to give more flexibility to every campus in the University of Wisconsin System. The new plan would give all of the state universities and two-year colleges greater freedom over personnel and property decisions and provide university leaders a block grant that would allow the individual schools to keep money saved through cost-saving measures. The proposal unveiled Friday would also create a panel of experts to study ways to add even more flexibility to the university system.
MADISON, Wis. — Republicans have voted to ban using state money to pay for abortions at a Madison medical facility where they aren?t being performed. The GOP-controlled budget committee of the Legislature voted on Friday to ban using state money for abortions at the Madison Surgery Center, which is operated by the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority.
Wrapping up its work Friday amid more protests, the Legislature?s budget committee voted to cut taxes for manufacturers, keep the state?s flagship university as part of the University of Wisconsin System and open up a possible Milwaukee-style school voucher program in Green Bay.
Dear Editor: Gov. Scott Walker decreased state employees? take-home pay and their ability to meet their personal budgets and keep their homes. This clearly caused chronic heightened stress.
….Media reports regarding medical excuses written by physicians missed this key information, which more accurately answers the ?why? question for those stories in terms of the Hippocratic Oath.
The state has also been home to a highly charged fight — now reaching its climax — over whether to grant autonomy and administrative flexibility to the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The debate has been closely watched in other states where college officials and lawmakers are questioning assumptions about the relationship between state governments and their public institutions of higher education, particularly flagships, as public funding continues to dry up.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus remains part of the entire UW System, under the budget passed through the Joint Finance Committee early this morning. Amid several disruptions by protesters, the Republican-controlled panel continued its work, opting against consideration of Governor Scott Walker?s proposal to split the system and give the flagship campus individual authority.
The University of Wisconsin?s flagship Madison campus would receive more flexibility in how it operates but it would also remain part of the university system under changes to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget approved by a legislative committee Friday. Funding to all campuses would be cut 11 percent, the same level Walker proposed.
As the Wisconsin Idea has long been a model for public higher education in this country, it is a propitious time to at once reaffirm and replenish our public commitment. Just over a half-century ago, Helen C. White reaffirmed Wisconsin?s motto of public higher education, calling again for a “continual and fearless sifting and winnowing in the pursuit of truth.”
Now is the time to reaffirm that creed, seize the moment and re-imagine public higher education both in Wisconsin and across our nation. [A column by Geoffrey Mamerow, a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Clifton Conrad is professor of higher education at UW-Madison.]
University of Wisconsin System campuses will be granted some freedoms from state oversight on budgeting, personnel, construction and purchasing when the Legislature?s Republican-led budget-writing committee meets later Friday.
The Madison campus will remain a part of the University of Wisconsin System under changes to be approved by the Legislature?s budget committee, but it and other campuses will be given new flexibilities.
The state’s flagship university will remain part of the University of Wisconsin System, with all public universities receiving deep cuts but also new flexibilities from state rules, under a proposal coming before lawmakers Friday.
The Legislature?s budget committee re-opened the fight over collective bargaining rights shortly after midnight on Friday, proposing that newly hired police and firefighters be forced to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits. The change, approved by the Republican-controlled committee on an 11-4 party line vote, would force police and firefighters to make the same level of contributions as other public workers as required under a bill pushed by Gov. Scott Walker and passed by the Legislature in March.
Quoted: Peter Rickman, a leader in the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Teaching Assistants Association.
Now that an ill-conceived plan to cleave the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System is dead, state lawmakers need to take a deep breath and carefully consider the best options for UW. Unfortunately, there still seems to be a rush to make changes as part of the state budget.
A better idea: Consider these matters as a separate bill.
When the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee finally gets around to taking up the University of Wisconsin System?s budget, faculty, staff and administrators at campuses across the state will be holding their collective breath. Leaders within both UW-Madison and the UW System have been spending seemingly every waking moment since mid-February pushing their proposals for how to break public higher education free from state oversight so campuses can operate more efficiently and effectively. The problem is that UW-Madison and UW System officials have been unable to get on the same page to pitch a unified message.
Yet another budget battle is looming in Madison. The Joint Finance Committee is finishing up its work on the two-year budget.
Recent events in Wisconsin draw into sharp relief the dilemmas faced by systems — particularly where land grant institutions are involved. While independence for the University of Wisconsin at Madison is now unlikely, a key fact has been overlooked. Whether the current structures in Wisconsin and elsewhere are ideal or seriously flawed, they have not been historically set in stone, and in fact reflect significant changes in mission and governance in most states.
Protesters disrupted a meeting of the Legislature?s budget writing committee, shouting down lawmakers and chanting “Shame!”
It was chaos at the Capitol Thursday night when protesters erupted as lawmakers worked on final changes to the budget they?ll start debating next week.
Just when you think things can?t get any more bizarre in the UW-Madison vs. UW System family feud ….UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin emailed leaders across the UW System Wednesday night to say she was “dismayed” by a press release put out earlier in the day by the Badger Advocates, a privately funded group of more than a dozen lobbyists advocating at the Capitol on behalf of Martin and her vision for a new business relationship between the state and Wisconsin?s flagship higher education institution.
With lawmakers gearing up for a vote on the state budget, a ?Walkerville? camp similar to the one that sprang up during the protests at the state Capitol earlier this year may be returning this weekend ? this time to the terraces of Mifflin and Carroll streets.
We Are Wisconsin, an alliance of community groups, labor unions and others, has asked the city for a permit to set up the camp across from the Capitol to provide information about Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposals and efforts to recall Republican legislators who voted to eliminate bargaining rights for most public employees.
Gov. Scott Walker?s priorities of balancing Wisconsin?s budget without raising taxes while also buying down the state?s debt remain largely intact under the two-year state spending plan expected to be forwarded to the full Legislature by the end of the week. Republicans who control the Joint Finance Committee have agreed with Walker?s general approach to eliminating the state?s $3 billion budget shortfall. Republicans have signed off on a roughly $800 million cut in aid to public schools and are expected to approve a $250 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System later this week.
The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to take up the University of Wisconsin System?s budget later this week. The state?s budget-writing committee is meeting Thursday and Friday, starting at 1:00 p.m. each day, in Room 412 East of the Capitol to examine the budgets of a range of agencies — including that of the UW System. It?s not yet clear which day the JFC will tackle UW System-related issues.
Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, wins the most unsurprising quote of the week this week for voicing his skepticism about UW-Madison splitting from the UW System. “I don?t think there?s a lot of support for the split and I think the Legislature should take their time before allowing these academicians any more responsibility in business dealings,” he said.
Quoted: UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky, an expert on school finance.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to break off the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System is dead. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Friday it?s now clear there?s not enough support for the UW-Madison split at this point, though she?s optimistic a similar plan could be studied. “I don?t think anything is foreclosed,” Martin said. “I think there?s a huge amount of interest that?s been demonstrated in change, I just don?t know what the ultimate outcomes of these various efforts at change will be.”
The proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System may be dead, but UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said she hopes another plan will rise in its place to give the university more freedom from oversight. Martin said she?s ?accepted the improbability? that Gov. Scott Walker?s controversial budget proposal will pass. ?I?m actually delighted by the potential in some of these compromise plans we?ve seen to get forms of decision-making and authority, as well as flexibility, for UW-Madison and the other campuses,? Martin said. ?It would be unprecedented obviously to have that kind of progress.?
Now that the political winds at the state Capitol are blowing against separating the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the UW System, a new idea has surfaced that is just as ill-advised.
UW-Madison will not be splitting from the rest of the UW System, according to lawmakers. But a similar plan could be in the works.
MADISON – Wisconsin legislative leaders are considering a task force to study the idea of letting U-W Madison run itself, separate from the rest of the university system.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to break off the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System is dead.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells is in no mood to celebrate the demise Friday of Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to break off the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System.
MADISON, Wis. — Under the state?s current proposed budget, the University of Wisconsin-Madison faces more than $125 million in funding cuts.
As state legislators move through the arduous process of drafting a two-year budget, the lingering economic recession creates difficult political choices and significant financial challenges.
MADISON, Wis. — A plan to spin off the state?s flagship school from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System appears to be dead.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s chancellor acknowledged Friday that it?s unlikely that a plan to split the flagship campus from a board that oversees the rest of the state?s public universities will get approval from lawmakers this summer.
Republicans are already referring to the New Badger Partnership as roadkill.
Gov. Scott Walker isn?t chasing star professors away from UW-Madison.Just the opposite. The Republican governor, along with UW-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin, is fighting to give UW-Madison more flexibility and autonomy so it can keep its star professors and attract new ones.
A Wisconsin circuit court judge has invalidated a controversial law designed to limit the power of public-sector unions in the state ? legislation that prompted massive protests in Madison, the state capital and brought international attention to Wisconsin earlier this year.
Quoted: ?Some state senators who were involved in passing the legislation have to be wondering whether or not taking action in June is the right thing or wrong thing politically, a month before facing voters,? says Barry Burden, who teaches political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
In yet another twist in Wisconsin?s bitter fight over the unions, a judge Thursday struck down the Republican-sponsored bill to strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights, moving the battle to the state Supreme Court. Quoted: Charles Franklin, professor of political science.
A judge has struck down the collective bargaining bill, ruling that the state?s open meetings law was violated.
I recently joined with my colleagues Mike Lovell, the new Chancellor of UW-Milwaukee; UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer, and the leaders of other UW System campuses in signing a letter renewing our request to state legislators for new leadership flexibility.
In a decision issued this morning, Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that Republican lawmakers violated the Open Meetings Law when they scheduled a conference committee meeting to advance a stripped down version of the Governor?s collective bargaining bill with less than two hours notice.
Gov. Scott Walker?s controversial proposal to split UW-Madison from the UW System and grant the university public authority status through Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership is dead, Republican officials said Thursday.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to award the University of Wisconsin-Madison public authority status is dead, Republican officials confirmed Thursday.
