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Monthly Archives: February 2009

School District

The Wisconsin Superintendent’s Race

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Recently, The Phantom Stranger wrote and asked me what I thought of the race for the Wisconsin Department of Instruction’s meddlesome bureaucrat superintendent post.  Today’s the primary, and there’s no better day to run down the compelling choices that await Wisconsin voters.  There are five candidates running.  The Oshkosh Northwestern offers a “Q&A: State school superintendent candidates” article on its website.  See,
Q&A: State school superintendent candidates .
 
The two-highest vote-getters will advance to a spring general election.   The current DPI superintendent, Elizabeth Burmaster, is not running for re-election.  Two candidates are interesting to me as opposites, although I support neither.   

Tony Evers.  A Madisonian, Evers graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a B.A., M.A., and doctoral degree.  Evers now serves as deputy superintendent with the Wisconsin DPI.  Evers is a decades-long member of the public school establishment, with the good, and bad, that tenure confers.  In the Northwestern Q&A, Evers observes that
 

I’ve been in public education 34 years. Some of the most important and telling things relate to public libraries are the foundation of our democracy. I believe it’s all about freedom. People need to be educated to be free, even for this country.

It’s impossible to agree, even for someone who likes libraries, as I do.  Evers is patently wrong to conclude that freedom requires education, however important and education surely is.  It’s an argument about when liberty is effective, suggesting that certain social conditions must exist for freedom to persist.  Perhaps, but education (at least as understood here as literacy) is not one of them.  India, where Congress party voters often relied on pictures for identifying the party they favored, is proof that effective liberty did not require even literacy. 
 
I favor literacy programs, surely, but arguments from effective liberty often assume requirements for freedom that are not requirements at all.  Often, they’re a first-world assumption about how important our own living standards are, for even the most fundamental freedoms.  They’re not.  The very poor can have functioning free societies also.  Freedom is not conditional on per capita GDP.   
 
You can have a public school system, but it’s perfectly possible to have freedom without public schools, and even possible to have freedom with literacy.  Existence alone justifies the right to be free, and no further conditions are necessary, or need appertain.
 
I am sure that Evers will advance to the general election, and I hope he does, because it will give me the chance to examine his views more fully for weeks more.  If he advances, I will write to him, and challenge him to a written debate on this website.  This is just a small blog, written by a common man, and it would be a great opportunity for someone so educated, credentialed, and clever like Evers to show me up.  He could laugh about it with his friends afterward. 
 
I’ll post my invitation to him tomorrow on this blog, should he advance tonight.    

Rose Fernandez  Fernadez lives in Mukwonago, and is a critic of the existing public school system, having until recently served as president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families.  (‘Virtual schools’ as far away from Evers’s positions as one can get and still live in the same state.)  She was graduated from Northern Illinois University and has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
 
Fernandez calls for a local decision-making, changes to inflexible No Child Left Behind provisions, the elimination of “needless paperwork and documentation burdens,” and supports “get[ting] back to basics.” 
 
Laudable, if I thought back-to-basics meant something more than rote teaching to a test.  I have no idea what Fernandez means when she says this.
 
The success of a campaign against the public school bureaucracy depends on revealing how that system falls short comprehensively, including students with disabilities, and those who are academically gifted.  Back-to-basics, however appealing it may seem, highlights only a slice of the problem.  The real challenge to the existing system doesn’t involve merely shoring up the average, but also confidently refuting the proud claims of credentialed teachers that they serve the advantaged or disadvantaged particularly well. 
 
Fernandez offers a bland critique. 
Because these aspects of education – for those doing well or those struggling – seem complex, and are easily shrouded in the jargon of credentialed professionals, lay critics are easily intimidated.  A thorough general schooling offers ample tools to reason compellingly against defenders of a state-supported administrators’ and teachers’ guild.
 
If professional credentials mean so much, then the debate will not last long, and end convincingly in favor of the present bureaucracy.  A few critics will be bruised in public debate – no harm done, for the stout of heart. 
 
But if not, and if there is no compelling defense of the existing public system despite
so much training, then what are we to say, except that the system falls short not only in its accomplishments, but in its proud insistence that only a few have the insight to understand these issues?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 17, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are two public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today, and one election. There’s a meeting of the Whitewater-University Tech Park Committee at 12:30 p.m. today, at the University. Later, there will be a South Campus Neighborhood Association meeting, at 7 p.m., at the Municipal Building.

It’s also election day in Whitewater, because it’s election day in Wisconsin.

In 2002, the Wisconsin Historical Society notes a proud accomplishment for Wisconsin, as Wisconsin Skater Takes Gold:

On this date West Allis native Chris Witty won a gold medal in speed skating’s 1000 meter at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. She broke the world record with a time of 1:13.82, even though she was recovering from mononucleosis. Before Witty competed in ice staking, she was a professional bicyclist.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 16, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

The Municipal Building is closed today, for Presidents’ Day. It’s closed for some, but not all, federal holidays. The building was open, and ready for business — such as that is — through the evening of January 19th. Some federal holidays are a day of rest for municipal employees public servants, and some aren’t.

No matter — there will be much more later this week, including a Police and Fire Commission meeting, and a Common Council meeting.

Over at Washington School today, there will be a celebration of Washington’s Birthday, and at the High School, it’s National History Day.

The Wisconsin Historical Society reports on a sad anniversary today, from 1943: “Mildred Harnack Guillotined in Berlin” —

On this date Mildred Harnack was guillotined in Berlin, Germany. Harnack was born in Milwaukee and studied and lectured at the University of Wisconsin. She and her husband, Arvid Harnack, were key members of a German resistance group which assisted German Jews and political dissidents, circulated illegal literature, met secretly with prisoners of war, and worked to document Nazi atrocities in Europe. Known by the Nazis as the “Red Orchestra,” Harnack’s companions were arrested, tortured, and tried for their activities. Mildred Harnack was guillotined in Berlin on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler.

Many fine presidents these last two centuries, but not one a finer citizen, or more worthy of respect for personal sacrifice, than Harnack.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 13, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled in the City of Whitewater today.

It’s activity night, though, at the Middle School. If there must be activity in town, the Middle School’s as good a place as any.

And in commemoration of this day…

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 12, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

It’s Lincoln’s birthday today. The History Channel has more on the anniversary of Lincoln’s birth:

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Lincoln, one of America’s most admired presidents, grew up a member of a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana. He attended school for only one year, but thereafter read on his own in a continual effort to improve his mind. As an adult, he lived in Illinois and performed a variety of jobs including stints as a postmaster, surveyor and shopkeeper, before entering politics. He served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1836, and then became an attorney.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 11, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled in the city today. Surprising, really, yet apparently true. Not even a single committee or commission? Even a tiny task force?

It’s an odd anniversary in Wisconsin history, as the Wisconsin Historical Society observes that in 1842 there was a shooting in the Wisconsin territorial legislature:

On this date the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin met in Madison, only to be interrupted by the shooting of one member by another. The legislature was debating the appointment of Enos S. Baker for sheriff of Grant County when Charles Arndt made a sarcastic remark about Baker’s colleague, James Vineyard. After an uproar, adjournment was declared and when Arndt approached Vineyard’s desk, a fight broke out during which Vineyard drew his revolver and shot Arndt. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes]

So, what happened to Vineyard, the shooter? He benefitted from the incident, as the Wisconsin Historical Society notes:

Pioneer settler, lead miner, politician, b. Kentucky. He moved to the Wisconsin area in 1827, settling near Platteville, where for a number of years he engaged in lead mining and prospecting. A Democrat, Vineyard was a member of the upper house of the territorial legislature (1836-1842), and in 1842 gained notoriety when he shot and killed Charles Arndt (q.v.) during a bitter argument on the council floor. Vineyard was tried for manslaughter, was defended by Moses M. Strong (q.v.), and was subsequently acquitted of the slaying. The incident is described at length in in the Wisconsin Magazine of History vol. 5, no. 3 (March 1922): 264-283.

Despite this incident, he maintained his popularity in the lead region, was a delegate to the first state constitutional convention (1846), and was state assemblyman (1849). In 1850 he followed the Gold Rush to California, later served in the California legislature, and remained in that state until his death. Wis. Mag. Hist., 5; K. W. Duckett, Frontiersman of Fortune: M. M. Strong . . . Madison, 1955]; J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); M. M. Quaife, ed., Convention of 1846 (Madison, 1919).

I am not sure what this means for the Whitewater Common Council. Perhaps, just perhaps, debate has been too tame, too polite, too deferential, and too cerebral.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 9, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are two public meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater, today. One of them will enrich our present and next generations, in so many ways, and the other is the CDA Business Park Marketing Committee meeting at 4:30. The one that can shape Whitewater’s future, and places beyond, is the Young Memorial Library Board meeting at 6:30 p.m.

I’d guess one library is worth a dozen task forces and committees, yet even then I likely underestimate a library’s power.

City

League of Women Voters’ February Newsletter

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The Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters’ has published its February 2009 Newsletter, with a schedule of upcoming LWV events. A copy of the newsletter is available as a pdf link in this post, and as a link on my blogroll.

Here is a partial listing of events, with more information and events inside the newsletter.

Date: March 14, 2009 (Saturday)
Event: LWV Candidate Forum, Candidates for Municipal Office
Location: 10 AM, City Hall Council Chambers

Date: March 19, 2009 (Thursday)
Event: Whitewater Zoning & Housing Issues
Location: 7 PM, City Hall Council Chambers

There’s also a Fall Fairhaven Lecture Series, available to the public at no charge. Here are the lectures in the upcoming series:

FEB. 9: Listen Up! Strategies for Being a Better Listener.
Barb Pennington, Associate Professor and Chair, Communications Department

FEB. 16: Generations Theory: Looking Across Generations to Create Understanding
Brenda O’Beirne, Associate Professor, Counselor Education Department

FEB. 23: Advertiser Use of Psychology: Behavioral Conditioning.
Lois Smith, Professor, Marketing Department and Interim Dean, College of Business and Economics

(“All lectures are open to the public at no charge on Mondays at 3 p.m. at the Fellowship Hall, located at the Fairhaven Retirement Community, 435 West Starin Road, Whitewater, WI 53190. The Fall 2008 Fairhaven Lecture Series will examine a number of critical issues relevant to the 2008 elections. Sponsored by the UW-Whitewater Office of Continuing Education.”)

The latest newsletter also reminds readers that March brings Sunshine Week, part of what makes Wisconsin and America a great place to live —

Mark your Calendar: Sunshine Week ‘09.

On Friday, March 20 from 1 – 2:30 PM (ET), LWVEF will co-host the 4th Annual Sunshine Week National Dialogue to discuss opportunities for citizens to use government information to make a difference in their communities. Entitled “Opening Doors: Finding the Keys to Open Government”, the event will be held in Washington DC and available via webcast. For more information, visit www.openthegovernment.org.

About the League —

The League of Women voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. We take action on public policy positions established through member study and agreement. We are political, but we do not support or oppose any political party or candidate.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: February 6, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

So far as I know, there are no municipal public meetings today. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Regardless, even without the gathering of a single municipal task force, somehow our lives will go on. Perhaps, just perhaps, something good will happen today without government intervention. That’s just the optimist in me, I wouldn’t wonder.

It’s Spirit Day at Washington School, proud home of the Golden Eagles.

It’s the anniversary of a great moment in American history: On this date in 1778, representatives from the United States and France sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris.. The website of the History Channel describes the treaties and their happy consequences —

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the United States as an independent nation and encouraged trade between France and the America, while the Treaty of Alliance provided for a military alliance against Great Britain, stipulating that the absolute independence of the United States be recognized as a condition for peace and that France would be permitted to conquer the British West Indies….

In 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to a diplomatic commission to secure a formal alliance with France. Covert French aid began filtering into the colonies soon after the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, but it was not until the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 that the French became convinced that the Americans were worth backing in a formal treaty.

On February 6, 1778, the treaties of Amity and Commerce and Alliance were signed, and in May 1778 the Continental Congress ratified them. One month later, war between Britain and France formally began when a British squadron fired on two French ships. During the American Revolution, French naval fleets proved critical in the defeat of the British, which culminated in the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781.

Today is also the anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and the anniversary of our treaties — the first ever for America — with France is one of the reasons that I don’t have to kneel, genuflect, crawl, or bow low to Britain’s doddering impressive & shrewd monarch.

As one need not servilely defer to the monarch of an entire nation, there’s no need to do so for any much smaller, local versions of the same.

City

Nosek vs. Kienbaum, Part 3

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Here’s the third of three preliminary posts on the Nosek-Kienbaum race for an at-large Common Council seat.  I posted previously on Kienbaum’s advantages, Nosek’s opportunity to win despite them, and now offer remarks on Kienbaum’s best strategy for her (likely) victory.   (Quick, obvious declaration – I support neither of these candidates.)
 

  • Avoid Debate.  Nosek would easily over-match Kienbaum in any debate between the two, every single time, were it not for his unfortunate tendency to overplay his hand.  If Kienbaum could be assured of provoking Nosek, reliably at each encounter, there might be some value in debating him.  It’s not enough, though, to hope that Nosek’s over-bearing manner will express itself to his detriment.  He’s just much more adept, and even people who dislike his positions can see as much.  Kienbaum’s best bet – one debate, softball forum, limited coverage, little public notice.   
  • Flyers/Campaign Statements with Substantive Positions.  If  Kienbaum’s not as strong as Nosek in a public forum, she can certainly appear as substantive and well-versed on paper.  Anyone can, really.  She is, after all, a contributor to the Whitewater Register, and if she can write for that fine publication, then she can put some words on paper that convey a serious understanding of the issues.   Well, I suppose…
  • Students.  Don’t just gather student support – you have it! – make it a real issue of Nosek’s judgment.  Use student spokespeople who are serious, dedicated, and can calmly declare that Nosek’s rhetoric is over-over—over-heated (death knell, neighborhoods where people still live being dead, etc.).  Appear reasonable by contrast.  How hard can it be?
  • Community Charitable Activities.  People vote on what they believe to be true, not the truth itself.  Mention a few items from your CV, and that’s all you’ll need.  If anyone questions you about the effectiveness of your community service, express outrage that anyone might question anything about you.  What’s the point of being a long-tenured resident, if not to deflect the very questions that one so shamelessly hurls at others?                    
  • The Status Quo  Yes, yes, Dr. Nosek seems to represent a more traditional, back-to-basics Whitewater.  That’s nonsense, though – only one candidate can be the true guardian of the past, revived and enshrined, eternally, as the present.   Whitewater (old, stodgy Whitewater) loves the idea of an Unchanging Status Quo.   Kienbaum must see that Nosek’s ordinance-enforcing vision is quite radical in its own way.  However often he waxes nostalgic about an earlier Whitewater, Nosek doesn’t want containment, so to speak, he wants roll-back to an earlier time.  He’s a dissenter from the status quo, one he often thinks has gone terribly wrong.

 
Whitewater prefers, strongly, a traditionalist over a dissenter.

Kienbaum should play up her careful public reputation as more moderate, traditional, and less doctrinaire than Nosek.  More than anything else, it makes her seem a safer choice for the city.  (Had Nosek been more light-hearted, more subtle, these last two years, Kienbaum would be vulnerable in this race.  In his bombast Nosek gave a hostage to Fortune, and to Kienbaum, too.)   
 
It’s Kienbaum’s race to lose, owing mostly to vulnerabilities in Nosek’s candidacy that she can exploit. 

City

Nosek vs. Kienbaum, Part 2

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Can Dr. Roy Nosek, acerbic scourge of ordinance infractions, defeat incumbent at-large Council member Marilyn Kienbaum?  Yes, but it’s a long shot.  I am no supporter of either candidate (cf. Kissinger, “It’s a shame they both can’t lose.”).  Still, here’s Nosek’s tough-row-to-hoe path to victory:

  • Debate.  Debate Kienbaum as often as possible, on television or large public forums.  Learn to be genuinely funny and deferential, if that’s even possible.  If Nosek would only lighten up a bit, he’s serve his candidacy handsomely.  Kienbaum cannot win a debate with Nosek, except on sympathy when he overplays his hand (as he does, at least 93.42% of the time).    
  • Lawn Signs.  Nosek wants a voluntary moratorium on candidate lawn signs.  I think it’s a bad idea, but also a bad idea for him.  Most will correctly assume that grandmotherly Kienbaum will be the popular favorite, but some strategically-placed Nosek-for-Council signs will give him an aura of support, that might actually make others more inclined to him, or less certain of her inevitability. Nosek shouldn’t shy from signs, but rather fight her on that front.   
  • Door-to-Door.  Nosek should visit every house in the city.  As many as possible. Let each resident know that he’s running, and that he will talk to anyone.    
  • Public Forums.  Be available to talk, even beyond visits to homes. Put up a card table and a sign somewhere.  (The good doctor surely knows that he’ll have to comply with city regulations, but how could he not?  No matter – none of those regulations will — or legally can — involve the mere content of his political speech.  He’s entitled even if people don’t like him.
  • Make a Video or Slides for Our Public Access Channel.  This is risky for Nosek – someone will have to help him make sure it’s light, funny, and witty (that’s light and funny and witty as ordinary people understand the concept).   He’ll need an editor.   (If there’s one up now, then I’ve missed it.)
  • Find a Student Spokesperson or Two for Support.  There have to be a few quislings somewhere in the city.   There are probably even tuna who’ll eat Starkist® , after all.  Nosek needs some student supporters, and not just uptight ones.  He’ll need a cadre who actually look and talk like mainstream students.   Coeds would be ideal, really.    
  • Campaign Swag.   Perhaps not a bad idea, if someone explains to Nosek what swag means.    
  • Self-Deprecating Humor.  This won’t be easy for Nosek, but it’s an outside possibility.  He could even have fun with a James Bond “Dr. No” persona.  Corny, but why not dispel with a little humor fears that he’ll spend the next two years brow-beating city officials?    

Next: How likely favorite Kienbaum wins the Council race, despite facing a more tenacious — by far — opponent.