One reads that Whitewater Middle School principal Tanya Wojciechowicz has resigned, after a few months in which her departure seemed probable. For those months, one version or another of this post awaited publishing. The best one can now confidently say is that Whitewater Middle School will for months remain a work in progress. It…
Education
Education, Science/Nature
Nutty Stories Don’t Seem Nutty to the Unprepared
by JOHN ADAMS •
Hobbes famously observed that reason is a spy for the passions (“the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”). Whatever else one may think of Hobbes, in this he was, sadly, too often correct. So when one reads a story that battens…
Education, School District
Educational (Among Other) Uncertainties in Rural Communities
by JOHN ADAMS •
Near Whitewater, another rural school district, Paymyra-Eagle, may dissolve and be absorbed into surrounding communities. That there are so many uncertainties about what might happen to the Palmyra-Eagle district, and how this might affect surrounding districts, should not surprise. From a lack certainty about local rural schools, economies, and government one cannot expect districts near…
Babbittry, Business, CDA, Crony Capitalism, Economy, Education, Employment, Government Spending, Local Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
Public Money for Unskilled Manufacturing Jobs is Money Wasted
by JOHN ADAMS •
In times of historically low unemployment, communities are simply wasting public money when they subsidize unskilled manufacturing jobs. The jobs, jobs, jobs mantra only makes sense in conditions of unemployment, unemployment, unemployment. Despite relatively low unemployment, ‘community development men’ in places like Whitewater still push business subsidies for companies using unskilled labor. Pretending that dead-end…
Education, Good Ideas, Law, Newspapers, Open Government, Public Records 2, School District
The Best Record is a Recording
by JOHN ADAMS •
A video recording of the 5.28.19 Whitewater Unified School Board meeting is now online. It is, truly, a genuine good without merely particular ends. (Every regular and special board session should be online, by the board’s own policies. See Public Records Request, 5.20.19.) A recording of the full session confirms yet again that the best…
Education, School District
The Canary in the School District’s Coal Mine
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images Last night’s school board meeting had a lengthy agenda: well-deserved awards and recognition, public comment about a recent termination, and presentations on the performance of Lakeview Elementary and Whitewater Middle School, among other topics. Considering the recent termination, one confronts this uncomfortable question: if determining the right course in an isolated…
Education
In the Milton School District, Disorder Takes Its Toll
by JOHN ADAMS •
Years of wrangling, opposition to open government, attempts to stifle free speech, administrative stipends out of ordinary policy, and erratic behavior take a toll, as one reads that the nearby Milton School District’s top officials are resigning at the end of this school year: School District of Milton School Board President Joe Martin read a…
Charity and Mercy, City, Education, Poverty, Press Release, School District
What Matters, What Doesn’t
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some contrasts are so clear that, on seeing them, one can tell immediately what matters and what does not: Number of homeless students in Whitewater School District reaches ‘crisis level’: The number of homeless students in [Dr. Lanora] Heim’s district last school year was more than double what it was three years ago—going from…
Education, Elections, School District
Local Elections 2019: School Board (Part 2 of 4)
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater area – the city proper and smaller townships nearby – are jointly part of a unified public school district. These last years have been difficult for Wisconsin educational funding, for the rural economies in this part of the state, and surely for Whitewater in both matters. The district has recently completed both a…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Education, Innovation Center/Tech Park, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
Ignorant Policymakers Will Produce Ignorant Policies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Rep. Justin Amash, who is as close to a libertarian as any Republican in Congress, offered this observation about Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce: It’s amazing that Wilbur Ross was nominated and confirmed to be secretary of anything. He’s shown over many years that he doesn’t understand basic economics, and to describe him as…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, CDA, Charity and Mercy, City, Crony Capitalism, Culture, Dogs, Economy, Education, Federal Government, Foxconn, Free Market, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Politics, School District, State Capitalism, State Government, University, UW System, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Broad Outlines of 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, I would begin the year with predictions for the twelve months ahead. Events since 2016 have made predictions harder, but one can still discern some short-term developments for the city. These prospects, of course, form an online of topics to ponder, and about which to write (often requiring that one return to the…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Education, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Politics, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
Redefining Reality
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and candidate for governor, has a new video about a political effort to redefine reality. The video is about Scott Walker, but it might as easily have been about any number of local politicians in Whitewater or other small Wisconsin towns, with tax breaks for out-of-towners and cronies…
Education, Kakistocracy, Law, Trump, Unfit
Trump Nominee Non-Committal on School Integration
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alternative title: Why We Resist and Oppose. WATCH: During her confirmation hearing this morning (yes, this morning – in 2018), judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say whether she agreed with the result in Brown v. Board of Education. #UnfitToJudge pic.twitter.com/RWroh0XUIC — The Leadership Conference (@civilrightsorg) April 11, 2018 Consider the remarks of Wendy Vitter,…
Culture, Education, University
UW-Whitewater’s Org Chart, 2017 Verison
by JOHN ADAMS •
UW-Whitewater has a 2017 organization chart, one I’ve embedded at the end of this post. 1. Big for Small. It’s not a big institution, but it is a big institution for a small town like Whitewater. There’s no institutional or organizational hierarchy in Whitewater half so large. 2. The key issues aren’t structural. Without question,…