Since when do Republicans support bigger government?
I think it’s a question that’s worth asking, especially on the heels of a report in the Journal Sentinel that Republican State Senator Ted Kanavas of Brookfield and Republican State Representative Leah Vukmir of Wauwatosa have introduced a bill to dissolve Milwaukee Public Schools and replace it with eight smaller districts. The proposed legislation calls for holding elections in the spring of 2013 to elect school boards in each of the eight new school districts, so instead of one MPS school board, there’d be eight school boards. The legislation proposed by Sen. Kanavas and Rep. Vukmir probably doesn’t have much of a chance of gaining any traction, but I’m still left to wonder when Republicans like Sen. Kanavas and Rep. Vukmir abandoned their small government principles in favor of a bloated bureaucracy.
Just look at the last 8 years, when they took a huge surplus and turned it into a $2 trillion deficit because they couldn’t control their big government ways.
“…a bill to dissolve Milwaukee Public Schools and replace it with eight SMALLER districts.”
ummmmm…..your own words show that they are advocating SMALLER districts.
Given that, what was your point??
Rich,
I think the point about breaking it into 8 parts actually being bigger is that you’ll now have 8 boards and all sorts of duplications of administrative positions.
The initiative here in Rock County is to bring school boards together to investigate ways to exploit economies of scale and to reduce bureaucratic costs. This shell game to create multiple school administrations in the Milwaukee area runs counter not only to conservative cost-cutting rhetoric but to common sense as well.
DR,
Your words ==> “….breaking it into 8 parts….”
Hmmm, breaking it into parts, breaking it into parts……sure sounds smaller to me.
Actually it sounds smaller and smaller the more you try to say it’s not.
Rich, here’s the point I was getting at, a point which was directed at the school board itself, and not MPS. The current MPS Board has 9 members. If MPS is broken up into 8 smaller districts, each of those districts will need to have a school board. Unless those 8 new districts are only going to have 1-member boards, this legislation will create more bureaucracy in the form of 8 different school boards.
If each of those 8 school boards has 9 members, we’re talking about 72 school board members, as opposed to 9. Seems like bigger government to me…
Gotcha. You are equating more local control over smaller districts with smaller budgets; smaller numbers all around in terms of students, schools, teachers etc…. as being “Bigger.”
Gotcha 😉 Say it a few more times and I’m sure someone somewhere will believe you. Seems to me that perhaps you are merely attempting to smear an idea because it’s coming from the right.
The fact is if MPS keeps doing what they’ve been doing, they’ll keep getting what they’ve been getting. In other words, sumpfins gotta change.
And smaller disctricts normally generally usually kick the tar out of bigger ones in the areas that matter, like academic standards.
But what does the truth have do with anything?
Rich, which number is bigger, 72 or 9?
By my math – and admittedly math isn’t my strongest subject – 72 school board members would be a significant increase over the 9 that currently serve MPS. the point of my entry was that the legislation proposed by Sen. Kanavas and Rep. Vukmir would increase the size of government, which it would. I never said the proposal did or didn’t have merit, nor do I presume to have all the answers to the problems plaguing MPS; I’m simply pointing out that the legislation that’s been proposed would create more bureaucracy, a fact that seems to fly in the face of the Republican belief in less government bureaucracy.
You and I agree that something has to change within MPS; I’m just willing to bet we differ on what are the “best” solutions to the problems MPS is facing.
“You and I agree that something has to change within MPS…”
Let’s leave it at that high note.
*hand shake accross the aisle*