Recall Scott Walker

Started by Valerian, November 10, 2011, 10:11:34 AM

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Valerian

So Walker promised to create a quarter of a million jobs during his term, apparently mainly through clever use of the thoroughly denounced trickle-down theory.  Now that he's well on the way to failing miserably, he's decided to blame the embattled federal health care plan.

"From what I hear overwhelmingly across the state, from small business owners, is tremendous concern about the impact it's going to have on those small businesses.  It's probably if not the top, it's one of the top, things I hear that has made small business owners hesitant to add more jobs, is their concern about what the true impact will be."

But that's what he's saying now.  Let's look at what he was blaming before all this.

Last September it was the extended unemployment benefits that were to blame: "You hear employers ... say, I get people who come a week or two after their unemployment runs out, come out and try and get a job."

Before that it was "incredible uncertainty both at the federal level - in terms of the debt ceiling and all the tension of that, and the negative impact that had on the economy - combined with July and August, when you saw the height of the [Wisconsin senatorial] recall commercials. And I think for a lot of employers we talked to, that created a high level of uncertainty, not knowing what was going to come next."

He's also blamed "challenges in the national and global economy" and "wild market fluctuations during the debt ceiling negotiations, the European debt crisis and other factors."

Considering that most of the problems he mentions affect all 50 states, and many of them the entire first world, I'm impressed that he can keep a straight face while insisting that Wisconsin is the only place getting screwed over by all these issues.




I'm a little worried about this, though.

It's a bill Walker just quietly signed into law regarding the Public Service Commission.  As far as I can tell through all the legal verbiage, most of it is redefining some terms and allowing for things like email to be used to notify people of meetings, etc.  So I think that's all right.

It's a part right at the top that concerns me, given that Walker has also managed to give himself the power to sell off public utilities without any real oversight.  Maybe the commissioners themselves could still have objected to such a sale, because the line that used to say, "No commissioner may serve on or under any committee of a political party," has been removed from the bill as passed.  Unfortunately, Wisconsin law currently allows the governor to do that sort of thing before signing a bill into law, and I'm sure Walker was quick to take advantage.  If getting as many sympathizers as he can find onto that commission will help him at all, I'm sure he's ready to do that double-quick.  :P
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

RubySlippers

My only issue with this is he is not up for regular election with his cronies, that is when your supposed to vote them out not whine that you lost and expect a do-over for poor leadership well that is not right IMHO since your the dummies in the majority that voted him and these people in.

And the Tea Party "platform" is well known smaller government, constituional rights as the Founding Fathers saw them, lower taxes, reduce the social safety net for freeloaders as they consider them and so forth what the hell did you think they were going to do. I give them credit at least these politicians won't compromise and vote what they said they were going to vote towards I have to respect that even if I hate their policies.

Maybe next time look at who is backing these people, what their politics are and what they want to do and assume the politician is like them. I don't blame Walker or my governor Scott both are the same sort its the people that voted and ended up in the majority that wanted this how many teachers in WI didn't vote or voted for him and now regret it? How many didn't vote at all then they have no right to complain unless they couildn't vote at all?

I feel sorry for Walker he does what the voters even if a slim majority voted for him to do as he saw it and he did those things even if you don't see it that way and then recall him when you people don't like this and he is doing what he in principle would do. He is a TEA PARTY REPUBLICAN and that means certain things and got elected. You don't like it you should have waited until the next election and voted him out like I stated with his people.

Callie Del Noire

The thing is Ruby, he LIED about what he was going to do. At no time during his campaign did he mention rolling back the right to collectively bargain, screw up the budget, sell the utilities in a closed bid or most of the things he's done or tried to do since.

He has gone after education and state employees selectively, as is seen by his relucactance to do the same changes to the cops and firemen that he did to other public servants. He cut school budgets to the bone, limited the actions of town and counties to fix the problem by restricting what fees they can increase. And in that he proposed measures to place a 'manager' into school board districts that go bankrupt. Installed by him, able to do a lot of things with NO accountability but to him. (dont know if that measure has passed).

He's been caught in lie after lie. He's planning on STEALING funds set aside for victims of the mortgage crisis to fix a budget crisis he created. (one of only TWO states to do so).

He cries about outside interference in the recall, when something like 70% of his funds come from less than 20 contributors and something like 60+% is from out of state. And the way he has set up his legal defense fund is set up he can shuffle it to his recall campaign and vice versa.

His budget has empowered corporate interests to the detriment of his state. Under his tenure it has lost more jobs than anywhere else and he blamed Obamacare for that.

It's been established he's in bed with the Koch brothers, good money is they are going to be the winning bid on the state utilities if he can sell them.

Walker is a crook who rode the wave of discontent into office and when it was clear he had a majority in the state house showed his true colors and immediately started doing what his cronies wanted. He only got caught when he tried to suppress thing too bluntly.

Care to det the cops and firemen will be less happy to support him this time around? I think a lot of them are wondering when their turns are coming.

It's not that he did these things that worries a lot of folks, it's that he did them out of hand.  No warning, no justification. Both the teachers and public servants had agreed to changes that would hurt them financially. No, he moved on the unions because he was told to, because whatever next step was coming would require them to be gutted.

Actions like this and elsewhere tell me a LOT of Tea Party leadership got bought by special interests.

I'm more 'right sized' than small government. I get nervous about downsizing regulatory segments when folks like the Koch brothers are paying the men talking about it.

Trieste

A recall election is a protection put in place for the voters for when a government employee screws up so badly that most of the populace doesn't want them anymore. It's not whining and it's not breaking the rules - it's using rules put in place to make sure dirty politicians put in place under false pretenses get kicked out without a full term.

itsbeenfun2000

As someone that lives in Wisconsin it is our right to recall, it is in our state constitution. The man has been slimy long before he was elected into office and does not answer to the voters of Wisconsin but to the Koch brothers and other cooporate interests. I didn't vote for the man. I also didn't vote for the outside cooporations that are pulling the strings. His true colors did not come out til after the election. He claims he has saved the tax payers money. In reality he took a small minority of tax payers, the public workers, and raised their taxes to give cooporations tax breaks.

Valerian

To me it seems -- especially lately, especially around here -- as if far too many politicians have the conviction that their responsibility to listen to their constituents ends the moment they're sworn in to office. They don't start even pretending to pay attention again until it starts getting near re-election time.  Much of the time, they seem to do nothing except vote the straight party line without bothering to think a whole lot about what they're doing.

I don't see why anyone should have to put up with representatives who don't bother to represent, and I'm glad that they're not letting it go unchallenged around here.  Walker isn't 'voting his conscience', nor is he even voting the way he said he would in order to get elected.  He's voting the way the Koch brothers and his other wealthy backers tell him to vote.  (I didn't vote for Walker either, since I did my homework before the election and decided that he was just too unscrupulous.  Unfortunately I was right.)

If you're in Wisconsin, don't forget to go out and vote today, either.  There are quite a few judges up for election, and several of them are Walker appointees (list here).  I suspect a lot of them are running uncontested, unfortunately, as in my area, but I plan to vote for write-in candidates instead, as my small way of expressing my displeasure.  The site I linked to above also has a full list of all judges up for election.

There are also over two dozen school referendums on the ballot around the state, which seems to be more than usual.  At least some of that is probably because several districts are having to scramble for funding thanks to Walker's gutting of the public schools.

Word is he plans to cut funding until they can't manage decent standardized test scores anymore, then fling the public school budget at the charter schools, which have been shown to be less effective.  Because he flunked out of college and thinks everyone else should, too.


The good news: Federal courts have ruled parts of Act 10, the controversial union-busting bill Walker and his cronies slammed through, to be unconstitutional.  The court says that the distinction made between public safety unions (police and firefighters) and other public worker unions violates the first amendment, and has overturned both the clause that made automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks illegal and the clause that required yearly voting to 'recertify' the unions.

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of unions, but I'm very much in favor of anything that might help Walker figure out that we do still have a system of checks and balances in place, and there's good reason for it.  :P
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Callie Del Noire

One of the reasons I started looking at Walker, and others, was the 'unions serve no purpose' comments and the fact that SEVERAL of these people also want to gut OSHA and deregulate anything that contains the words 'safety measures'. It makes me itch when canidates who have never done anything 'blue collar' say that they understand the 'working man's plight' or that unions never did anything but serve their own interests.

I come from parents who grew up in a 'company town' in the textile industry. Safety was a big issue in the early union issues, as well as 'wage imprisonment'. Without the check of a union, a lot of companies were serf lords in company towns. I have family ties to industry areas that were terrible before unions came around. In the sections of West Virginia/Kentucky where coal was mined, Pennsylvania and further south in Textile towns.

Growing up I saw more than a few folk who were missing fingers from 'spinnning machines' and one old man was missing over half his hand from a textile machine. My dad, who lost his dad @ 40, grew up picking cotton, working the mills and worked his ass off to get through college told me more than one story of how this or that neighbor lost someone in their family before the unions cleaned up things.

To have a man like Walker come along and denounce unions and then selectively hammer only a handful, tells me a LOT about his plans. His type of politician is becoming more and more common sadly.

I know of one senator who won't get my vote in a couple years (Marco Rubio) because of 'what I say..what I do' have been so radically different.

Valerian

I've been meaning to post about the latest election debacle in Waukesha County.  That's where Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk, miraculously discovered 14,000 votes from the town of Brookfield that she totally forgot about, two days after the election, just in time for David Prosser, uber-conservative state Supreme Court justice, to win re-election.  (Brookfield managed a startling 52% voter turnout based on that number, by the way, which beat the state average turnout by about 19%.  No, nothing suspicious there, I'm sure.)

Anyway, this time around, her wonderful, new, foolproof system for counting the votes failed miserably, to no one's shock.

QuoteProblems with Nickolaus' reporting system were evident soon after the earliest municipal clerks delivered, in person as she required, the voting machine memory packs and paper tapes showing vote totals. When Nickolaus' staff tried to upload results from the memory cards into the county clerk's reporting program, it wouldn't work.

"We were shocked," she said Wednesday, noting that she and her staff had tested the reporting program "many times."
There's a picture at the link above showing the workers, with paper tapes sprawled out everywhere, adding everything together, which really doesn't look all that reliable to me, I must say. 

Thankfully, in the wake of this mess she's stepping aside for the upcoming recall election and leaving things to her deputy while she handles stuff like marriage licenses.  I hope she's better at that, or there might be all sorts of people in Waukesha who aren't legally married.  :P


And speaking of the recalls, the GOP is running no less than six "Democrats" in the recall elections: for governor and lieutenant governor, plus one for each of the four Republican senators being recalled.  The GOP says it's not spending any money on the campaigns, but the link above disproves that, since at least one candidate got over $5,000 from the St. Croix County Republican Party.  (I guess that doesn't count as real money to the Republicans.)  This is actually a Class I felony under Wisconsin law, punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and 3.5 years in prison, but since they've already done this before I don't imagine they'll get in any more trouble this time around.

Walker hasn't gotten into trouble for his illegal defense fund yet, either, and I'm still fuming about that.  He holds press conferences to announce his illegal activities and still doesn't get in trouble?  It's ridiculous.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Valerian on April 06, 2012, 02:14:32 PM

Walker hasn't gotten into trouble for his illegal defense fund yet, either, and I'm still fuming about that.  He holds press conferences to announce his illegal activities and still doesn't get in trouble?  It's ridiculous.

Somehow I imagine he thinks with his UNLIMITED funds for the recall he's sure he'll stay in place and nothing will come of it while he has control of the state government.

Right now I'm sure there is a federal prosecutor looking at events and going 'hmmmm'. I'm sure the feds are not quite as forgiving of this.

Valerian

I hope so.  Certainly the federal courts haven't been very helpful to poor Walker when they review his legislation, at least.

And I just found Walker's latest -- he likes to do things on Friday in hopes that people will forget about them over the weekend, or not notice in the first place.  He's just signed two anti-abortion bills into law.

Quote
The first bill requires doctors to speak with a woman seeking an abortion alone to ensure no one is forcing her into the procedure.
Sounds reasonable and all, but it also opens the door for a doctor who is against abortion to attempt to force the patient to change her mind.

Quote
The other bill bans abortion coverage in policies sold through a health insurance exchange except in cases of rape, incest or medical necessity.
Again, doesn't sound so bad, but some of the wording seems too vague to be useful.

Quote from: Assembly Bill 154
This funding prohibition does not apply in the following circumstances: 1) the abortion is directly and medically necessary to save the life of the woman and a physician so certifies; 2) the abortion is performed in the case of sexual assault or incest, a physician so certifies, and the sexual assault or incest is reported to law enforcement; and 3) due to a preexisting medical condition, the abortion is directly and medically necessary to prevent grave, long-lasting physical health damage to the woman and a physician so certifies.

For instance, does it matter when the rape or incest is reported?  Lots of cases aren't reported at all, much less right away, and the text isn't clear on that.

I'm thinking some of this is inspired by Walker's bitterness over the federal health care law.  It certainly isn't, y'know, creating any jobs or anything.  :P
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

itsbeenfun2000

#110
He also signed a bill repealing the rights of workers to sue over discrimination, and public schools teach abstinence as the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy.

In essence on the first one he voted away equal work for equal pay in the state for all women.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: itsbeenfun2000 on April 07, 2012, 02:35:26 PM
He also signed a bill repealing the rights of workers to sue over discrimination, and public schools teach abstinacne as the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy.

In essence on the first one he voted away equal work for equal pay in the state for all women.

Geeze. You guys need to find someone to run against him in the recall. Rolling back equal pay is dangerous but then he's never shown a lot of common sense anyway has he?

Callie Del Noire

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wisconsin-governor-moves-to-block-hospital-visitation-rights-for-same-sex-couples/

Okay.. I got to ask.. does this guy have a check list of 'how to shit on everyone who didn't vote for me'?

Valerian

I guess I'd have to say yes.  There's some question over whether his plan is legal or not -- he's basically the defendant in a lawsuit over this, and would be walking away from an active court case -- but that's never stopped him before, so I doubt it will this time.


It's also looking like Scott Walker may have some serious effect on the presidential race.

Quote from: Obama campaign spokesperson
As he campaigned across Wisconsin, Mitt Romney repeatedly praised Governor Scott Walker’s leadership, calling him a ‘hero’ and ‘a man of courage’. But with his signing yesterday of a bill make it harder for women to enforce in court their right to equal pay, Walker showed how far Republicans are willing to go to undermine not only women’s health care, but also their economic security. Does Romney think women should have ability to take their bosses to court to get the same pay as their male coworkers? Or does he stand with Governor Walker against this?
The Obama camp is pushing Romney to take a side, which leaves him with an unenviable choice: dare to disagree with Walker, the darling of the Tea Party and future GOP presidential hopeful (please, please, let him be indicted so that doesn't happen); or say he thinks Walker did the right thing and lose still more of his failing support among women.  He hasn't yet offered an opinion, so I guess he's stalling in hopes people will forget he was ever asked such a question.

Someone may have actually gone off-script with this, and I'm not sure who, but maybe the Koch brothers need to meet more often with the general GOP leadership or something, so they don't keep stepping on each others' toes like this.  :P
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Callie Del Noire

I hate to say it Val.. the main leadership of the GOP has well and truly drunk the kool-aid. You're not going to see any rational thought and coherence till the leadership is overturned. Too many big money men like the Koch family have their hands into the party leaders, like surreal muppets, and that in turn lets them control who gets elected.

Till something really really stupid like.. getting caught in a fraud they can't buy their way out of. Or having their puppet sell them down the river for a lesser sentence.

I think that Obama will win the next election, but without a clear and charismatic leader like him to step up next time..the GOP will get one of their current flavor of 'leaders' in. And with folks like the Koch brother's backing them.. we'll all be screwed.

Valerian

There's some indication that Tim Russell, walker's former Chief of Staff and current defendant in an embezzlement case -- he's the one who stole thousands from veterans and their families -- is planning to turn on Walker, who has cut himself off from Russell and seems fully prepared to toss him under the bus.  If Russell had any of his ill-gotten gains left, they're gone now and he's pretty much broke, apparently, and unable to fund a good defense lawyer.  He's probably seriously considering flipping on his ex-boss.  Let's hope.

There's a lawyer named John Dean, former Republican and current independent, who worked for Nixon as White House counsel and who took a plea in the Watergate scandal (so some, er, interesting credentials there).  He's written a book called Conservatives without Conscience, and, by popular demand, has now written an article about whether or not Walker is a "double-high authoritarian".

Quote
[T]o fit the definition of a double high authoritarian, a person must score highly as both a dominator/leader, and ironically, also as an authoritarian follower (because such people see themselves running the world, and believe that others should always follow leaders, like themselves).

The first part of the definition is further broken down into Domination, Opposition To Equality, Desirous of Personal Power, and Amorality.  The second part consists of Submission to Authority, Aggressiveness on Behalf of Authority, and Conventionality -- in this sense, basically being as mainstream as possible.

Walker scored high on all these areas, which is no surprise; but as something of an amateur student of psychology and sociology I found this analysis very interesting, if more than a little terrifying, since people like this are traditionally difficult to stop.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Valerian

Today is the primary vote here in Wisconsin -- primaries that the Republicans forced to happen by running random Republicans as Democratic candidates.  That's actually illegal, but since the state attorney general is pretty Republican himself, no one seems inclined to do anything about it.  So, since it can't be fixed, here's a list of the actual Democrats by district for the senate recall races:

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 13:
Lori Compas

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 21:
John Lehman

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 23:
Kristen Dexter

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 29:
Donna Seidel


For the governor's race, it's mainly a dead heat between Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, though Kathleen Vinehout and Doug LaFollette are also running.  The fake Democrat -- this one is apparently there out of habit or something, since it was pretty clear that there would be a primary here -- is Gladys Huber.

For lieutenant governor, Mahlon Mitchell is considered the front runner and has the Democratic Party's endorsement, but Ira Robins, who appears to be a real Democrat, is also running.  Playing the part of the fake Democratic candidate, we have Isaac Weix.

The fake Democrats are so the Republicans have more time to raise money, of course, though since they're already outspending the Democrats by a considerable margin, I'm not sure why that's necessary... unless it's to find new ways to rig elections, now that Kathy Nicklaus has mercifully stepped down.

I've pretty much given up on anything other than ousting Walker getting the Republicans to stop and think, but I'm crossing my fingers for a high turnout from the Democrats, which might at least make them a little nervous.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

ShadowFox89

 I didn't recognize any of the vice-governor names.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Callie Del Noire

Can't the Feds investigate the AG for failing to investigate alligations of voter fraud?

Valerian

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on May 08, 2012, 07:17:07 PM
I didn't recognize any of the vice-governor names.
Mahlon Mitchell is a firefighter in Madison, currently president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin.  He was active in the protests in Madison, organizing the firefighters to protest even though Walker made them exempt from his union-bashing bill.  He isn't terribly experienced politically, but at this point that almost seems like an advantage.  Ira Robins is an investigative consultant in Milwaukee, which I'm guessing means private investigator.  I didn't bother researching the Republican shill.  :P


Quote from: Callie Del Noire on May 08, 2012, 07:29:49 PM
Can't the Feds investigate the AG for failing to investigate alligations of voter fraud?
I would think so, but I'm not entirely sure how that works.  Most of the time that sort of investigation only seems to lead to a fine of some sort, unfortunately, which won't be much of a deterrent considering the money the Republicans are raking in.  At this point what I'd really like would be for the feds to find something on Walker that they can prosecute.  That would leave us with Rebecca "same-sex marriage is like marrying a clock" Kleefisch in charge until the recall election, which is obviously not ideal.  As far as I can tell, her main contribution so far has been to make Walker look intelligent in comparison to her.  But at least there's some chance the Tea Party won't want to support a governor who's out on bail, even their golden boy, and we can be rid of him that way.

I'm sorry that Barrett won the primary, though.  I voted for him initially only because he was preferable to Walker -- both of them seemed about equally unintelligent to me, but Barrett seemed less amoral.  But Falk had some really good ideas for improving the economy, I thought, and I would have liked to see her run.  Barrett has better name recognition statewide, though, and I suppose people wanted to choose the candidate they felt might have the better chance to beat Walker, since that's the main point.  The unions and other groups that were supporting Falk are now supporting Barrett, so hopefully this will work.

The state is running at about five or six percent undecided, which is extremely low, and at this point it will likely come down to who can get the most people out to the polls.  I'm already dreading the accusations of fraud, no matter what.  But at least that injunction is still in place, so voter ID won't be an issue, which will hopefully help the Democrats.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Callie Del Noire

I read up on the democratic winner. I don't understand why the party backed him.. he lost against Walker the first time..and he doesn't seem to have tangibly changed in any real manner. Add in the truly EPIC amounts of cash Walker has on hand to run now.. he's gonna get creamed. A better tactic would have to put the other candidate into the spot.

I got yelled at by a friend last night for getting all bent of shape about it.. 'Why bother when it's not our state' he asked.. I pointed out that practices like this spread.

Valerian

Yeah, like I said, there wasn't much to choose between them the first time through -- I basically reasoned that stupid was probably better than stupid evil, even if not by much.  It's almost a grudge match between those two.  Walker was Milwaukee County Executive while Barrett was Milwaukee mayor, and they've hated each other ever since.  The city of Milwaukee is basically the entirety of the county, so obviously there's a lot of overlap, and at least some of the problems Milwaukee has had recently were because the two of them were more concerned with 'beating' the other than what was actually good for the city.

Mitchell is actually reasonably popular, from what I've seen.  Polls show Kleefisch ahead, but not by much, and she's woefully underfunded compared to Walker.  (He apparently hasn't figured out a way of sneaking her money, or at least that's what she says, that he can't just give her some of his funds.)  So there we might have a better chance... and I have to admit, even if Walker wins, I'll laugh a little through my tears if he then has to deal with a pro-union, staunchly Democrat lieutenant governor for the rest of his term.

Everyone in the U.S. should be concerned, though, you're right -- Walker really is the Tea Party's darling, and if he gets kicked out it would be a serious setback for them.  I'm sure they'd scream fraud, say the unions bought the election, etc., but in a year or two all anyone would remember is that a majority in Wisconsin didn't want him around.

But if Walker wins, it would be the signal to all the other Tea Party, radical Republicans that it's open season for them and they can get away with whatever they want.  They already don't believe that checks and balances apply to them, and a Walker victory would be taken as proof of that.  I shudder to think of the tactics they'd use.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

itsbeenfun2000

Walker's latest revelation a few weeks ago is that no public employee should get what he calls "add ons" to their pay. That means a teacher with a masters degree will be getting paid on the bachelors level if he has his way which would be a substantial pay cut for them.


Kind of like Cambodia but instead of killing the teachers so the population can't be educated they are simply making it so undesirable to be or become a teacher that no one will want to stay or go into the profession. If I had children right now there is no way I would move into my state.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: itsbeenfun2000 on May 10, 2012, 12:49:41 AM
Walker's latest revelation a few weeks ago is that no public employee should get what he calls "add ons" to their pay. That means a teacher with a masters degree will be getting paid on the bachelors level if he has his way which would be a substantial pay cut for them.


Kind of like Cambodia but instead of killing the teachers so the population can't be educated they are simply making it so undesirable to be or become a teacher that no one will want to stay or go into the profession. If I had children right now there is no way I would move into my state.

I know it varies from state to state.. but isn't there usually a required 'continuing education' requirement for teachers to continue working or advancing their pay? IE... to get a higher payscale (or even keep their jobs in some states) they have to earn so many credits in their field over time? I only ask because I recall my highschool music teacher had to work high and middle school to stay working because he was a doctor of music and the school board couldn't afford him otherwise.

Valerian

I'm not a teacher, so this is based on some quick online research, mostly here.  Certain educators (it seems it's based on when the teacher was certified) are required to take a minimum number of credits in order to renew their licenses.  That seems to be considered an "add-on", which would normally have some effect on salary, but I'm not positive.

There's a good description of Walker's devious plan here.  Basically, it allows schools to pay a teacher with a doctorate on the same pay scale as a teacher who has a master's degree.  It also allows schools to ignore things like overtime and merit pay (Walker's new favorite thing, incidentally; he's giving it out to all his cronies, to the tune of over a quarter of a million dollars so far), which are now also considered "add-ons" -- it almost sounds like they're calling such things luxuries, which is a depressing thought.

Practically speaking, that equals a 30% pay cut for Wisconsin teachers (about 80% of whom are female).  Individual schools can, if they wish, restore that funding, but again, on a practical level, most will not have that much money to spare, given all the other cuts.

From what I've been reading, it's too ingenious for Walker to have come up with it on his own.  Someone helped him with his homework.  The most likely result will be that districts simply lower their teachers' pay about 30% -- but teachers will not be laid off.  If they quit, hey, that isn't Walker's fault.  Education will crumble more slowly, with fewer immediately obvious effects.  We'll have to go through a couple of cycles of standardized tests first, I suppose, by which time Walker & Co. can reasonably suppose that the general public's short attention span will have moved elsewhere.

Quote
[State Representative Mark] Pocan, framing the debate against Walker's recent bonuses for cronies said, "Ask Wisconsinites if they'd rather take money out of the pockets of experienced public school teachers with advanced education or give raises to a select few:  I guarantee you, Wisconsin won't stand with Walker."

Pocan's reference is to the "I Stand with Walker" signs the GOP has been handing out.  Personally, I like this variation better:



Another person has been granted immunity in the ongoing John Doe investigation, by the way, which brings the total to twelve.  So maybe some of his cronies really will get to stand trial with him.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE