As the administration goes stumbling forward at its own pace, and in its own distinctive stumbling style, the mischief being worked in the states can no longer be confined to our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' on down there. For example, a couple of Republican governors are waging enthusiastic combat against higher education in their states. In New Mexico, onetime rising star Susana Martinez has decided to veto a whole carload of stuff, including spending for higher education, because the state legislature, which has displeased her, keeps sending her bills that (horrors!) raise taxes.

The customary pissing match has ensued. From KOB4:

New Mexico's traditional streams of tax revenue have been eroded by relatively weak energy prices and a stagnant local economy, with reserves nearly depleted. Martinez says she will call a special session to resolve a $156 million budget shortfall, but has not specified when. She is urging lawmakers to support a tax-code overhaul designed to improve the state's business climate by eliminating hundreds of tax breaks, including long-standing exemptions for nonprofit organizations. The reforms would lower standard tax rates on sales and services…in vetoing funding for state colleges and universities, Martinez chastised the state Senate for refusing to hold hearings on her nominations for regents. She says funding issues for higher-education and political appointments can be addressed during an upcoming special legislative session.

But Martinez, whose national ambitions continue to burn brightly, doesn't plan to stop at stiffing the state's university system. She's going after the legislature that will not bend to her will.

Martinez also vetoed major portions of a $6.1 billion spending bill for the coming fiscal year, including funding for higher education and the Legislature.

In other words, if the legislature doesn't give her what she wants, she's going to defund the legislature, at least partially. (By the way, this is another example of why giving the president a line-item veto over the national budget is a terrible idea.) But if we're talking about governors who easily dispose of public education, from kindergarten through graduate school, we have to go to Wisconsin. That's where Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage this particular Midwest subsidiary, has acted with unconcealed contempt for everything that Wisconsin once stood for in terms of educating its citizens.

First of all, the man couldn't quite catch up to the B.A. that hung on my wall has determined that teachers should leave those kids alone! From The Washington Post:

A proposal in Walker's new budget plan calls for ending the state's current minimum requirements — 437 hours for kindergarten, 1,050 hours for elementary schools and 1,137 hours for secondary schools — and allowing school districts to do what they want in terms of seat hours for students. Districts and schools would then be judged on their state report cards, which are produced annually by the Department of Public Instruction, based largely on standardized test scores. During a recent visit to a school in Waukesha to talk up his budget proposal, he said: "To me, the report card is the ultimate measure. It's not how many hours you are sitting in a chair."

This, of course, simultaneously ends one state role in education—namely, determining how many school hours are required for students—while expanding another, the state's judging a school's effectiveness based on standardized testing. The snake oil on this has been bubbling for a while now.

But it is in line with thinking of school reformers such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who are pushing school choice as a top educational priority. That includes a broad increase in digital learning, which can allow students to do academic work on computers whenever they want and take only as much time as they need to learn their assigned work. Public education advocates have warned that digital learning can help certain populations of students but that is a bad idea to park most students in front of computer screens for most or all of their school day.

Note: unless the word "reformers" is in quotes, in this context, the word is misused. Moreover, if Walker gets his way, his digital learning pipe dream will restrict teacher availability, if not eliminate it entirely. Even Wisconsin Republicans attached to other really bad ideas are dubious of this notion. From The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

State Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), a member of the Joint Finance Committee and the head of the Senate Education Committee, said he was OK with dropping the minimum hours for public schools and private voucher schools because the report cards were in place to track outcomes. But in a recent state budget hearing, he appeared leery of freeing virtual schools from mandates for teacher availability. "If you sign up and no teacher is available..." he said at the finance committee meeting on K-12 spending."... There could be nobody there," said state Superintendent Tony Evers, finishing Olsen's sentence while testifying at the hearing. Evers is not in favor of the proposal and said schools were still free to be innovative with instructional time even with the mandate in place.

And then there's Walker just being a vandal because he can. For nearly 100 years, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has produced a popular magazine aimed at keeping the state's citizens abreast of the latest environmental news, as well as hunting and fishing opportunities around the state. The magazine currently has 90,000 subscribers. If you were looking for proof that hunters and fishermen can also be strong environmentalists—something that I, for one, believe—this magazine would be Exhibit A, as its readership always has been robust among hunters, tree-huggers and anyone in between.

Scott Walker's budget is zeroing out the magazine.

Naturally, Walker and Cathy Stepp, the horror he appointed to manage the state's natural resources, both of whom have been meddling in the editorial content of the magazine for a while now, have concocted any number of bogus reasons for this move, and they've sent out the usual drones to try and pitch them. From The Progressive:

Asked by Glen Moberg of Wisconsin Public Radio to comment on "the criticism by some who claim it is an effort to suppress sensitive coverage of certain issues, including the effects of climate change in the state," Walker press secretary Tom Everson responded, "That's a ridiculous claim. The DNR is realigning to become more efficient and effective. This magazine is not a part of the DNR's core mission. It is not the government's role to produce magazines that duplicate what is available in the private market."

A former editor of the magazine took to the pages of The Chippewa Herald to call the inevitable bullshit. She also gave an account of how the job of editing the magazine changed once Walker and the rest of them took over.

During my stint as editor, I saw the level of editorial oversight dramatically increase after the magazine ran a 2013 insert on climate change funded by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. From then on, all stories were vetted by officials within the state Department of Natural Resources. They spiked stories having to do with climate change, a federally endangered mammal living near a proposed iron mine, and challenges to the privatization of groundwater. Neither I, as editor, nor my direct supervisor was permitted to join the "strike team" assigned to decide if the magazine was "core work" at DNR. When the public, through taxes and license fees, pays for much of the work you do, reporting back to stakeholders should be considered core work.

Well, that used to be the case, anyway. I don't know what the necessary amount of class time for the average student is, but I'm fairly sure that Scott Walker didn't get enough.

The only ray of hope in this whole mess has come from the bipartisan outrage that Walker's assault on the magazine has engendered. The Progressive provides a sample.

"What is wrong with this state that you would end this publication[?]" wrote Brian Coon of Delavan, Walker's hometown, on February 14. "I say it is a very bad move. I will join up with any others ready to defend this publication."

"I have been a supporter of yours since the day you took office and continue to be to this day," wrote Scott Williams in a February 15 email. But in light of the governor's decision to end the magazine, he said, "It is starting to become hard . . . ."

"Your stated intention to eliminate the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine has ended my remaining respect for you," wrote Harry Syke of Ashland in a letter dated February 17. "You have systematically degraded this state's environment and educational system. . . . Our children and grandchildren will bear the damaging costs of your legacy."

"HOW MUCH MORE ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE AWAY FROM US BEFORE YOU LEAVE OFFICE?" demanded Marjorie Peterson of New Berlin in a typed letter dated February 14. "I'm glad I'm 92 and won't have to live through much more."

Live to be 114, Marjorie. Your state needs you.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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