We have a state budget. One which, according to our governor, will allow Wisconsin’s school children to “make the most of their god given potential.”
(I’ve always been of the smug opinion that my children’s potential has been granted by appropriate upbringing and stellar genetic material. (Does that mean the budget will not allow them to make the most of that potential?))
I took Shara & Egon to the governor’s budget signing/self-congratulatory press conference at the UW Memorial Union this morning. Not that we could see hizzoner: the phalanx of video cameras on the raised platform obscured him, and the charmingly diverse cross-section of Wisconsinites arrayed behind him, from anyone else in the room being able to see anything. Whatever. The room was full of lobbyists, mostly, in sharp suits, stiletto heels, and ultra-fashionable eyewear, completely ignoring the Gov as they worked the room and their Blackberries on issues of immediate, urgent, fantastic importance.
I hate lobbyists. I know, our lobbyists got us the win on Stewardship, but in general they are so ickily self-important and exude such an aura of “I’m in the club and you are most certainly not.” As the Gov droned on about how much money the UW System was getting and how he wielded his veto pen in support of local police and fire departments, I looked around the room and wondered where all the real Wisconsinites were? Where were the beer-bellied Harley riders in their leather and denim? Where were the dairy farmers with missing fingers and permanently dirty hands? Where were the Hispanic farm workers? Where were the deer hunters (oh right – hunting deer)? Where were the single moms fleeing Chicago poverty to try and raise their kids in some stability? Where were the Lutheran grandmothers with their endless weak coffee and sugary donuts?
At one point, the Gov was – again – detailing the investment in higher education he’s made, and provided a long list of the economic benefits of helping kids go to college: these students will be the researchers who power Wisconsin’s bioscience industry, the entrepreneurs who will invest in biofuels, the business owners who will provide jobs…blah blah blah.
I wanted to ask: “What about the artists, the writers, the musicians and bakers, the prairie restorationists and brewmeisters, the athletes and school teachers, who add cultural texture to Wisconsin?”
Anyway, the Stewardship Fund was increased to $86 million/year, starting in 2011. Yay!
