Following the release of a video last week of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, the Republican presidential nominee was uninvited from a major Wisconsin GOP fundraising event. We learn about the potential fallout. We get an update on the latest in science, including new research on dieting, and space probe missions. We also talk to a harvester about the varieties of wild rice growing in our state. And five years after Act 10 passed, we look at how it has affected Wisconsin’s education system.
Featured in this Show
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Science News: New Research On Dieting, Sending Probes Into Our Nearest Star System, Mammoth Island
New research shows that in order to lose those five pounds, you might just need to change your environment. We’ll learn about this and other top science news with Discover Magazine editor Gemma Tarlach.
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Wisconsin Life: Harvesting Wild Rice
On Wisconsin Life we’ll talk to a wild rice expert who has been employing traditional methods to harvest the grain for over forty years.
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How Act 10 Has Affected Schools Five Years Later
Five years after the passage of Act 10, we look at an in-depth report on how it has impacted, teachers, students, and Wisconsin’s education system as a whole.
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Wisconsin's School Districts Adopt A More Private-Sector Approach Since Act 10, Reporter Says
School districts across Wisconsin are adopting a more private-sector approach to hiring and compensating teachers since Act 10 was enacted, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation.
Gov. Scott Walker signed Wisconsin’s Budget Repair Act, better known as Act 10, in June 2011. It marked a turning point in the state’s political history and launched a major debate over the power of public unions. More than five years later, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel special report published Sunday examines how the collective bargaining law has impacted Wisconsin’s school districts.
Before Act 10, teachers had a financial incentive to stay in one district or the same school for their careers, which brought job security to both teachers and district administrators worried about having enough instructors, said Dave Umhoefer, the Journal Sentinel investigative reporter who co-wrote the story.
“Now, because of the loss of collective bargaining, those kinds of protections are gone and teachers really don’t suffer a financial penalty when they pick up and move to another district,” Umhoefer said. “So you’re seeing a lot of turnover than you were in the past.”
Umhoefer said this post-Act 10 environment has led to a kind of free-agency culture in which more affluent districts are using signing bonuses — sometimes up to $20,000 — to lure teachers to their campuses.
“A lot of districts refer to this as poaching and it’s a really unfamiliar feeling for them to have another district come and hire their best teacher away,” he said.
This new private-sector approach no longer relies heavily on a statewide pay scale based on experience. The bonuses are generating more competition and dissension in the ranks, and leaves lower-income districts at a disadvantage, Umhoefer said.
The investigation surveyed hundreds of superintendents throughout the state and found that there’s been a high number of teacher retirements in wake of Act 10. Additionally, districts appear to be slowly relying more on merit pay.
Umhoefer said those models are unpopular among many educators because they feel it’s impractical to judge teachers when a student’s academic performance is tied to so many variables outside the classroom.
On the other end of the spectrum, Umhoefer said Act 10 has equipped administrators with more power to fire lower-performing teachers.
“For years, administrators of schools would say that the union contacts were so strong … that they really had a hard time firing teachers,” he said. “The reason was that the appeal rights were so strong for teachers. A lot of those rights have really been diminished. So it’s much easier now I think to non-renew the contract of a teacher really for any reason. Teachers are sort of now at-will employees.”
What sort of impact Act 10 is actually having on students’ educational performance is tough to figure out because state testing standards have significantly changed over the years, he noted.
“Trying to go back before Act 10 and look at performance and compare it to now is really, really difficult,” he said.
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Wisconsin GOP At Odds Over Trump's Absence At Elkhorn Rally
This weekend, Wisconsin GOP voters gathered in Elkhorn for “Fall Fest”–an annual fundraiser for Wisconsin’s Republican lawmakers–featuring House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-1). The rally was supposed to be the first time Ryan campaigned with presidential nominee Donald Trump, but the candidate was uninvited by Ryan after tapes of vulgar comments made by Trump surfaced the day before. We’ll speak with Capitol Times state reporter Jessie Opoien about the rally.
Episode Credits
- Rob Ferrett Host
- Veronica Rueckert Host
- Amanda Magnus Producer
- Karl Christenson Producer
- Haleema Shah Producer
- J. Carlisle Larsen Producer
- Kate Archer Kent Producer
- Gemma Tarlach Guest
- John Olson Guest
- Dave Umhoefer Guest
- Jessie Opoien Guest
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