MacIver Issues Grades by Dealing Off the Bottom of the Deck

The McIvery Institute publishes bogus grades on schools to explain away their racist educational reform policies.
Below is a direct quote from their press release explaining the criteria used to rank schools.
“The goal behind these rankings was to create a basic, but wide-ranging, program to gauge the performance of Wisconsin’s public school districts. The hope is that by creating a level playing field in district-to-district comparisons across the state, parents and policymakers will be able to use these rankings to demand more of their school districts. Several metrics were used to create an aggregate rating system. This includes:
• Global Report Card performance (math and reading)
• WSAS (WKCE) performance – 4th grade reading
• WSAS (WKCE) performance – 8th grade mathematics
• ACT scores and participation
• AP scores and participation
• Four-year graduation rate
• District attendance
• Concentration of students from economically disadvantaged families
• Concentration of students with limited English proficiency (LEP)”
The first criteria appear to have some face validity. However, note the last two measures used to rate schools. Your school district gets rated down just for having higher percentages of poor and Latino students.
Of course Milwaukee and Racine are at the bottom of the pack when McIver stacks the deck. What we have here is a classic case of dealing from a rigged deck. The top rated school, gets that rating in part because it is so racist and exclusionary. Most Wisconsinites will remember that Brookfield was sued for using its planning commission to stop low income housing from being built in their city. Talk about blaming the victims! Oh heck, who wants to go to school with poor folk anyhow? Why don’t we just call ‘em all lazy while we’re at it?
What would happen if all dem little black childs decides to take their vouchers and go to school in Brookfield. Oh, day can’t do dat? Hows come? Oh, because day is po and the right kind to bring out to Waukesha County. Awe, shucks! Well, at least we can send them to schools where they won’t be bothered to have to take all those pesky standardized tests. Best of all, we can defund the heathen Milwaukee Public Schools with all their liberal unionized teachers. Guess that’s the real reason anyway.

Fight So-Called "At Will" for Public Employees

Large employers have been quietly forcing their employees to accept a change in their employment status from permanent full-time staff covered by "just cause" protections to "at will" employees. Workers who have been with the same company for twenty years are being told they are now essentially day laborers. The practice has been pushed by business schools and organizations like Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce to prevent employees from suing for wrongful dismissal.
Now the uberlords of Fitzwalkerstan want to make public workers "at will" as well. You will of course remember how Walker lied to the people of Wisconsin when he swore that the end of collective bargaining would fair for workers because state employees would still have their Civil Service rights. "At Will" employment would remove those protections and allow evil republicans to turn the entire state into their own Tammany Hall style political machine.
Find out more about this proposal and scream like hell! This is just the type of legislation that the Governor could still try to push through in another of those so-called JOB CREATION special sessions.

Spread Easter Joy

Photo by William Melton / SEIU

Easter is a time to celebrate. As a Christian, it tells of the resurrection, for others it is a celebration of spring. Regardless of why you celebrate, the how is universal – CANDY!
This year, fill those Easter baskets with union-made candy. Doing good by shopping union couldn’t be easier.

Courtesy of LA Union 411 website

Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans need to be in every Easter basket this season. They are the perfect topping on the grass and show that you care enough to BUY UNION.

Courtesy of the UnionPlus website

Peeps are an Easter icon and every little colored chick or bunny is made by workers who enjoy union wages and benefits. Just as important these folks know they will be treated fairly because they have fair working conditions guaranteed by a strong contract.

Here is a list of union made candy and snacks. Indulge your sweet tooth while you support working families across America.

Hershey Products Necco (New England Confectionery Company)
Hershey Kisses* Sweethearts
Hershey Syrups Mary Jane Peanut Butter Chews
Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar* NECCO Wafers/Necco Wafer Smoothies
Hershey Milk with Almond Bars Sky Bar
Hershey Special Dark Bars Clark Bar
Hershey Nuggets Canada Mints
Rolo Candy Cupboard
Hershey Kissables Thin Mints
Kit Kat Bars NECCO Assorted Junior Wafers
Carmello Bar Clark Junior Laydown Bag
Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar Mary Jane Laydown Bag
Cadbury Roast Almond Bar Haviland
Cadbury Royal Dark Bar Mallow Cups
Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar Necco Peanut Butter Kisses
Jolly Ranchers
Hershey Symphony Bar with Toffee Ghiradelli Chocolates
All filled & non filled squares
Just Born non pariels
Peeps Chocolate chips
Mike & Ike
Hot Tamales Gimbals Fine Candies
Peanut Chews JellyBeans
Jelly Beans Cherry Hearts
Scotty Dogs
Jelly Belly's Candy Company
Jelly Bellies - also made in a non-union plants in Chicago/Taiwan Nestle
Chocolate Dutch Mints Nestle Treasures
Chocolate Temptations Laffy Taffy
dimples Kathryn Beich specialty candy
Goelitz Confections Baby Ruth*
Goelitz Gummi Butterfinger*
Pet Rat Pearson's Nips
Pet Tarantula Famous Old Time Candies (gourmet chocolates)
Sweet Temptations Nestle Crunch Butterfinger Crisp
Candy Corn
Licorice Pearson's Candy Co.
Malted Milk Balls Salted Nut Roll
Chocolate Coated Nuts, and Sours Nut Goodie
Sunkist Fruit Gel Slices Mint Patties
Bun Bars
American Licorice
Black & Red Vines Anabelles Candy Company
Strawberry Ropes Boston Baked Beans
Jordon Almonds
Sconza Candies Rocky Road
Jawbreakers U-Nos
Chocolate Covered Cherries Look
Chocolate Big Hunk
Abba-Zaba
Kraft Yogurt Nuts & Fruit
snack products
Keebler
Frito-Lay Chips Deluxe
Doritos Pecan Sandies
Rold Gold Cheez-it
Lays Potato Chips Vanilla Wafers

Nabisco Bachman
Corn Nuts Pretzels
Chips Ahoy! Jax Cheese Curls
Oreos Keystone Snacks Party Mix
Nutter Butter Cheese Curls
Vanilla Wafers Corn Chips
Graham Crackers
Orville Redenbacher
popcorn
Reprinted from the UnionPlus website

BACK TO WORK

Why are we waiting and watching the recall challenge? Why are we not using these days registering voters? We should also be IDing likely voters who did not sign the recall petition at the doors and on the phone. That information can be shared between organizations now, but once the recalls are certified, that sharing must stop.

As a former campaign worker and officeholder I know that one rule of politics that is inviolate, “You can always raise more money, but you cannot buy another day for any price.”

Sure, it's been nice to have ten days off, more or less. Now is the time to climb back into the trenches and continue digging.

One day longer, one day stronger!

Our Future is a Lock

In the President’s State of the Union speech last night, he spoke about the competitiveness of unionized American workers. I was delighted to hear him mention not only a unionized plant, but one right here in Wisconsin – Master Lock in Milwaukee.

The Master Lock Company recently closed a plant in China and moved production back home. The next time you need a paddle lock remember the union workers of Master Lock in Milwaukee and through one of their locks in your shopping basket.

It is the buying power of American workers, spending their money supporting good union jobs that will rebuild the Nation. Together, we will build a stronger America. Our future is a lock, when we buy union products and services. BUY UNION, BUY LOCAL, BUY AMERICAN.

On January 26th, 285 workers at Cablevision in Brooklyn will vote to join the CWA.. Most of the Brooklyn workers are black and make an average of $12.85 an hour, while their white counterparts on Long Island make $2.00 an hour more. Labor Notes provides an excellent analysis of the current situation. For personal accounts of working conditions leading cable installers in Brooklyn to organize and the trials they faced trying to gain representation, check out the New York Times article. These guys work hard in dangerous conditions. They deserve to have a voice and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions. Contact  CWA Local 1109 for more information about their struggle and how you can help organize a union where you work.

Dirty Big Secret

     There is a really big secret that evil republicans in Scott Walker’s administration and the state legislature don’t want you to know. A provision in the state budget passed last summer creates a commission to look at the performance of the current Wisconsin Retirement System and its pension plans. While its direct effects will be on the lives of public sector retirees, the ripple effects will land squarely on Wisconsin taxpayers.

     Most responsible adults are thinking about their retirement decades before it arrives. Conventional wisdom that is preached for workers preparing for retirement is dollar cost averaging, where the investor puts a set amount in every month, regardless of the current value of the fund. The logic is that when the price of the fund goes down, because the value of the underlying stocks and bonds has decreased, your dollars will buy more fund shares. When the value of the fund increases, the value of that larger number of shares means you make more money. The financial wunderkind assure us this is the best long-run investment strategy.

     Now here is the Big Dirty Secret. Defined contribution retirement plans have just the opposite effect once you retire. The corollary to dollar cost averaging during your working years is receiving a set amount from your retirement account each month after you retire. Most of us expect to get a retirement check to pay for utilities, groceries, insurance, taxes, healthcare costs, clothing and maybe even a little travel. The problem is when the value of your shares goes down, because the market slumps, that monthly check you receive requires the sale of more fund shares. That is your capital, or wealth, slipping away; and you will never get it back. Since the market tends to cycle about every 8-12 years, you can expect to take at least a couple of these big hits on your savings.
So what? For the first ten maybe twenty years, there is still money in the account. However, just as you head into your eighties and your healthcare costs really take off, your retirement fund is running out. When you need savings the most, your retirement fund is gone. Millions of Americans loss their homes and end up on Medicaid because their defined contribution retirement accounts failed them when they needed them most.

     You may not be a public employee but the explosion of Medicaid costs to care for indigent seniors will do the state budgets what Medicare threatens to do at the national level.