Calling All Xoff's: Update
Is it possible that the biggest mouth in the blogosphere is at a loss for words? So much so that he is relying on someone else's to state his position? Apparently so.
After stating my amusement that Xoff had remained eerily silent about the school choice deal, he responded with this post, directing readers to the ironically named blog of Jay Bullock.
In his defense, Xoff claims that Bullock has been following school choice much closer than he has. *Chuckle* Okay, because apparently Xoff hasn't said a word about it.
At any rate, the article attempts to prove that the rightwing media entities and bloggers lied first about the Governor's stance on school choice and again when it was said that he "blinked" by giving in to the new deal. To be sure, he writes:
So how is it that the right Cheddarsphere can lie about Doyle's blinking like this? It's easy, actually: The right has spent the last couple of years creating a "crisis," and then, ever since the cap hit, they have been lying about Jim Doyle's role in that "crisis." By internalizing the previous lies--that Doyle wanted to "kill choice" and was "standing in the schoolhouse door"--they can now believe the lie that it was Doyle who "blinked."
These comments stand in stark contrast to comments in this, an article by notoriously rightwing newspaper The Journal Sentinel (yeah, that was sarcasm):
The cap for students - who attend private schools paid for with public money - is now at 14,751. DPI will allow enrollment in the voucher program through mid-September, but the cap will certainly have to be dealt with when MPS begins enrollment in February.
The governor is the main obstacle.Or, if that's not clear enough, perhaps this one better explains "the lies" told by rightwingers:
Republicans have pushed lifting or abolishing the cap. Doyle has thrice vetoed such bills. He must stop opposing the interest of needy kids in Milwaukee and work out a deal with Republicans on voucher caps.
So, out of curiosity, I wonder if someone will tell me which facts I've gotten wrong. I know that three times it was asked for the cap to be lifted. I also know that three times the Governor vetoed it.
Furthermore, Bullock's claim that,
For almost two solid years before last week, Doyle had been offering to raise the cap in exchange for things like more funding for MPS, or greater accountability in the choice schools. Though he personally opposes the program, he has always been willing to accommodate the needs of Milwaukee parents, students, and taxpayers,
is a complete joke. Doyle did nothing but prolong, avoid, and purport ridiculous demands along with his alleged "accommodation" of the voucher program. And last I checked, moratoriums don't lend themselves to accommodation of any sort.
Xoff hasn't said a word about Doyle's cave in because he knows it was just that: a cave in.
And Bullocks...well that's all I have to say about that.
posted by Tanker311 @ 6:22 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Living up to your name I see, Mr. Cantankerous. The name of your blog is not, indeed, ironic, as you have it backwards.
The "articles" you cite are not articles at all, but editorials, written by notoriously pro-voucher Greg Stanford. If you read the actual news from the paper, you will find that the editorials don't match the facts. Gard and the Republicans refused to consider Milwaukee taxpayers (our property taxes are higher because of this program), parents (who, because voucher schools are not required to collect or report any performance data, have no idea what kind of school they send their children to), or MPS (which loses money allocated for students they do teach to pay four voucher students they don't teach). Instead, they asked the governor for complete capitulation time after time after time.
As for the AP article you linked to call my claims a joke, I don't see how that proves it's a joke at all--in 2004 Doyle offered an increase in the cap with many of the same accountability provisions Gard and his posse agreed to last week. Where's the joke?
That's Ms. Cantankerous, to you. And everyone else for that matter.
Nevertheless, you say that, "If you read the actual news from the paper, you will find that the editorials don't match the facts."
Are you arguing that the Governor did not, in FACT, 3 TIMES veto an increase in the cap?
I know I've been drinking tonight...have you?
And while I'm at it...I am all for accountability in the voucher schools. What I find to be perplexing, though, is that while MPS is graduating kids at a rate well below 50%, everyone on your side is screaming to make sure voucher schools perform at the level of MPS schools.
Hmmmm. Does that sound stupid to anyone else? At what "level" are MPS schools performing?
And furthermore, I think it stands to reason that if MPS could produce a graduation rate that is better than the Vegas odds at nickel slots, they WOULDN'T Lose Kids OR Money TO Choice Schools because people wouldn't have a REASON to take their kids out.
Apologies . . . I did not click through to your pofile.
No, I haven't been drinking. Doyle offered to raise the cap. Repeatedly so. (The non-partisan Public Policy Forum believes enrollment is leveling off anyway.) But, in conjunction with the people who actually represent, you know, Milwaukee in the legislature, wanted some measure of accountability and/ or a restoration of funding for MPS and fairness for Milwaukee taxpayers. Gard drew a line in the sand way over there and said no to every compromise offer the governor made. That's as good as a veto.
As for accountability, I'm not demanding voucher schools perform at any level--I'm demanding reliable information about their performance, at whatever level it may be. Parents then make the call about whether the voucher school is worth it. When they sold us this program, they sold it to us based on the "market": The "market" will close down bad schools, they said. That just hasn't happened, in great part because parents don't have the information they need to make an informed choice.
If Gard was willing last week to add accountability standards to the program, why wasn't he willing to do that in 2004 when the Gov offered it? It would have headed off all of this.
You know, I'm trying real hard here to see how the Governor was compromising. And you keep saying that the Gov. wanted to "raise the cap." Are you referring to the fact that he wanted to "raise" the cap from 15% to 15.5% in 2004??? Give me a break.
And as for accountability, everyone on the left is acting like everyone on the right thinks that NO measures should be taken to ensure that choice schools are actually legit. That's just not true. http://latermeask.blogspot.com/2006/01/get-it-right.html
Everyone on the left is acting like everyone on the right thinks that NO measures should be taken to ensure that choice schools are actually legit.
I'm sorry, I'm just going by John Gard's description of those sorts of things as "poison pills."
Pardon me but you keep referring to the accountability measures in the just reached compromise as the same accountability measures previously offered by Governor Doyle. This is complete Hog Wash (I love that phrase).
The accountability measures championed by Governor Doyle and his handlers in the Teacher's Unions in the past demanded that choice schools be accredited by MPS AND adhere to the same teaching standards adopted by MPS. So much for CHOICE!!!
The new accountability measures are not only palatable but what many TRUE choice advocates had long championed. The main difference is MPS doesn't do the curriculum accrediation, instead respected educational organizations like Howard Fuller's Institute for the Transformation of Learning review the schools teaching methods and decide if they should gain choice status.
Hardly the exact same agreement that you claim Gard blocked.
Can you come with some valid facts, please??
The only time Doyle said he would consider lifting the cap was if any choice student that left an MPS school also counted on the MPS roles...basically double-dipping the taxpayers to the tune of $18,000 per choice student.
And you say Gard and the Republicans refused to consider Milwaukee taxpayers.
Give it a rest, Bullock. You're beat.
Wow. I really don't know where to to start. You ask me to "come with some valid facts," but I have no idea where you're getting yours.
The accountability measures championed by Governor Doyle and his handlers in the Teacher's Unions in the past demanded that choice schools be accredited by MPS AND adhere to the same teaching standards adopted by MPS.
Can you provide documentation on this? Because what I see from the public record (like your link and this one from a few months later) is that Doyle asked for "standardized testing," not accredition by MPS or adoption of MPS standards or curricula. According to the Public Policy Forum, 90% of voucher schools already do some testing at some level--clearly they don't think it's evil or anything.
Looking into Doyle's 2005 proposals, he again asked for standardized testing, this time adding accreditation by an inependent authority--like NCA (which accredits public schools) or WRISA (which already accredits 30 voucher schools). Again, nothing about giving MPS any kind of control over the schools. If you can provide a source that says differently, let me know.
MTEA and WEAC have umwaveringly demanded that the program be ended, not that any kind of control be handed over to MPS.
Just to be clear: MPS does not accredit schools, nor has it ever, nor was it ever considered for that role relating to vouchers. You may be confusing that with MPS's role as a chartering agency, which can negotiate charter contracts with charter schools, which are public and do not take vouchers.
Fuller's ITL currently does not accedit schools; they will assist schools with WRISA. They are not releasing any info on what they might do to accredit schools--I know; I've asked.
The new accountability measures are not only palatable but what many TRUE choice advocates had long championed.
Actually, no; the "accountability" measure pushed by voucher advocates like School Choice Wisconsin, ACE (formerly AERC), and legislative Republicans was a long-term study comparing the voucher program as a whole with MPS. Doyle vetoed this as well, since it would not provide anything tangible to parents looking for information to make informed choices, was funded by pro-voucher foundations, and allowed schools to opt out. A study like that is being planned now regardless of the deal, but the deal seems to include the state's blessing, if no funding. (I have a very long but comprehensive post on accountability and the voucher program here.)
The only time Doyle said he would consider lifting the cap was if any choice student that left an MPS school also counted on the MPS roles...basically double-dipping the taxpayers to the tune of $18,000 per choice student.
This is wrong in several ways. For one, Doyle made several offers to lift the cap in exchange for aid to MPS unrelated to specifically counting students. You're probably thinking of the November proposal, which included a "hold Milwaukee harmless" idea so that Milwaukee taxpayers would stop paying for students MPS doesn't teach. This is not double-dipping, as I explain here. It's relatively complicated, but the gist is that right now, the state gives MPS no equalization aid for the voucher students, but it subtracts from the equalization for MPS students an amount equal to 45% of the cost of the program. So Milwaukeeans end up paying, on our property taxes, $1000 more per vocher student than per MPS student.
I apologize for the length, but you're just wrong, and I needed to demonstrate that. As I said, if you can document your outrageous claims about asking MPS (!) to do accreditation, I will take it all back.
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