Tuesday 3/29: Open Meetings Hearing and Choice School Results

The big story on Tuesday was the Circuit Court hearing on a more permanent injunction against the Secretary of State to not publish Act 10. I didn't follow all of the hearing, though I tried to catch up in the afternoon.

The other big story was that the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program scores from the WKCE were released. This is the first time that the MPCP schools have taken this exam, and so the first time we've been able to compare their results to other students in Milwaukee and around the state.

10:04am  DPI press release on the first round of standardized testing info from MPCP: http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpinr2011_30.pdf. The actual results are at http://dpi.wi.gov/oea/mpcp/results.html. And an article with some commentary: http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/118820339.html

10:10am  The Appeals Court denies Van Hollen's request to drop the appeal re: Open Meetings, mostly, it seems, because they have already forwarded it to the Supreme Court: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0329/0329appealscourt.pdf. And the Circuit Court will still continue: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118839999.html

10:16am  A new estimate on the cost of state troopers - the total is to about $5.5 million. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/118835564.html

11:00pm  From end to beginning: Circuit Court Judge Sumi bars further implementation of Act 10, but refuses to declare that it is not law, as some were hoping. http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0329/0329sumiamendedorder.pdf (the order) and Speaker Fitzgerald's charming repsonse: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0329/0329fitzsumi.pdf.

And, since primary sources aren't the whole story, some news articles:

Judge Bars Implementation...and very clearly explains what exactly she means, without quite saying that people ignored her the last time: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news.../local/govt-and-politics/article_9bb38eb8-5a14-11e0-a6ee-001cc4c03286.html. She also points out that there are, in fact, penalties for not obeying court orders. (and I'm pretty sure those penalties apply regardless of what party you are in, how friendly you are with Walker, or which police force your father runs).

Plus another story: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118839999.html

And the short, easy to read version: http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/sumi-blocks-further-implementation-of.html
  
I have lost track of how many attorneys SoS La Follette has gone through today. First, the judge ordered the state to give him new one since she believed the DOJ had a conflict of interest: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/118841029.html, and http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/sumi-says-court-hearing-to-proceed-la.html.
  
Then, it seems like the attorney sent by the said that he was there to represent the state's interests, rather than La Follette's and would run into ethical conflicts. So now, it seems, La Follette has his own attorney, and it will be determined later who will pay for this. http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/lang-testifes-la-follette-gets-new.html

The Legislative Reference Bureau testified at the Open Meetings hearing today. They reiterated that they believe that they were obligated to publish the bill, and also, that their publishing does NOT make it law: http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/lrb-chief-publication-of-repair-bill.html

Apparently, they seemed uncomfortable. Not surprising, given that it sounds like Senator Fitzgerald...strongly encouraged... them to publish the bill: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_89f28044-5a3c-11e0-a5ad-001cc4c03286.html
  
In a story that sounds like it should show up on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Scott Walker is requesting $150 million dollars from the federal government for...improvements/upgrades to the Hiawatha line. You know, the train from Milwaukee to Chicago: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_94d56d1e-5a3c-11e0-adcf-001cc4c03286.html
Did you know? Getting federal funds for something like this will actually reduce the amount of money that the state will need to spend! Geez, too bad there's not additional money available for projects like this...
  
 The DOJ seems to be implying that it knows better than the court, what the court's role can be? Hmm. http://budget.wispolitics.com/2011/03/doj-will-study-options.html
  
And finally, the story that got me out of bed this morning (literally): the first WKCE test scores for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program have been released: http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/118820339.html. Check out their chart at: http://media.journalinteractive.com/images/WKCE29G1.jpg. DPI's press release is at http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpinr2011_30.pdf.
This is the first year that the Choice schools have participated in the WKCE (basically, the WI standardized test). One component of Walker's budget would remove the requirement that the Choice schools administer this particular test (inste...ad, they could use any standardized test). Use this data as an argument against that! These numbers are only a snapshot...we need more years of data to determine if students are progressing better or the same (or worse) than MPS students.
The comparison between MPS and the state averages, though, is a compelling argument for why the Choice schools are so politically popular: clearly, we are not focusing on education nearly enough!

Finally, a few people have been posting reminders: Always read any petition before you sign it. Do not sign multiple pages without reading each one. We learned this lesson the hard way in Massachusetts in 2005. AND, just as important, if you are going out with petitions, make people read them! Encourage them to sign, but also encourage them to be responsible consumers - that's the most important thing for democracy.