Sept 1^st

I understand that Governor Scott Walker believes that we should consider a wall along our Canadian border as well as one along our Mexican border. Gov. Walker had heard from supporters in New Hampshire about the dire risks of undocumented immigrants, and even terrorists, coming across this vast border with Canada.

This could be quite an undertaking; our border with Canada is just less than four  thousand miles long; that’s about twice as long as the border with Mexico. Moreover, much of this border is on water. The border comes right across Lakes Superior and down Lake Huron and divides other bodies of water. So how do we handle that problem? A wall is obviously out of the question. Then there is the issue of Alaska’s border with Canada; that’s another 15 hundred miles and much of that is a water border as well. Governor Walker seems out of his depth here, perhaps Donald Trump will have some suggestions. I hope someone will ask him. (Yes friends, the pun was deliberate!)

The Koch brothers, his major financial backers, are not entirely happy with the governor. On August 5 Walker made a presentation to a group of very wealthy donors in California gathered by the Kochs. He got the loudest applause later when each candidate’s name was presented to the group but his speech didn’t go over well at all. He had pledged 250 million dollars of state money to build a new privately financed stadium and that for the Kochs is a major no-no. Now with his drop in the polls maybe the Kochs can find a way to recoup their investment by selling him short.

His state is not doing well in other areas; it ranks 38^th in job growth. He has lopped 250 million dollars from the University Of Wisconsin’s budget, which coincidentally, is exactly what he pledged to the new stadium. (One of his prominent backers is a stake holder in that stadium.) He has cut state support for student’s higher education by 20 percent. He has also removed tenure protection from the Wisconsin University system. Now it’s easy to fire faculty who disparage him.

He has cut 700 million in funding from the public schools and increased the number of private charter schools. Here is a neat trick: Any student can apply and must be accepted to these charter schools as well as to the public schools. Then about three weeks after school starts there is a head count to determine how much money the schools get for educating these students. That amount is fixed for the semester and can’t be changed even if the enrollment changes. Then after this date has come and gone, the charter schools can dismiss any trouble makers or students who will be low achievers. The charter schools will still be compensated for educating these kids even though they aren’t there. These rejected kids enter the public schools which must, by law, accept all comers; but the public school’s income is based on the enrollment before this new student influx. The result is a bonanza for the charter schools both in income and achievement, and a disaster for the public schools. Is that not clever or what? Just one more conservative governor doing his thing.