Curmudgeon's Corner

Winners & Losers - March 2nd

Posted by Al Campbell on March 2, 2010

Education, Germantown, People Making A Difference, Political, Quality of Life, Wisconsin

Losers are the students and parents who believed in what Governor Doyle told them about the funding for their educations.

The Wisconsin Covenant Scholars program that was announced in a self-aggrandizing manner by Governor Jim Doyle was never funded as would have been necessary to provide for the promises that were made by the Governor.

Rather than to let this badly conceived program die, the Governor continues to foist the program on the state’s young scholars who thought it was going to pay for their college education, as was promised by the chief executive of our state. 

More than 50,000 students have signed on to this program pledging to graduate from high school, take college prep courses and maintain at least B averages while keeping their respective noses clean.  The first graduates arrive this year looking for what was promised them, and this is what they might receive:

·         Students from families that can contribute nothing toward the child’s education will receive $2,500 per year for the first two years.  Anything in the third and fourth years will be contingent upon whatever money remains in the kitty (and given our state’s financial condition, that is very likely to be zero).

·         Students from families that can pay for some but not all of the costs will qualify for grants of from $1,000 to $1,500 for the first two years, with any amounts after that to be determined as discussed above.

·         Students from families with incomes high enough to disqualify them from financial assistance will receive grants of $250 for the first two years.

This is better than nothing, but it is a travesty and our Governor should’ve been able to figure that out even before he made the original announcement.  He thought that he could cover the costs by gathering contributions from companies in Wisconsin and from the taxes we paid.    So, in spite of the tenuous nature of his promises, he continued to push the program.  It had staffing and quarters to help drive it forward.  The program announced has become a mere shadow of what was claimed for it a short while ago.

We wonder why our population is increasingly distrustful of politicians and of our governments, but this is one clear example of why that has occurred and will continue to escalate.

A real winner is Jesse Thielke from Germantown who has become just one of 47 wrestlers in state history to win three state titles   His record this year is 47-0, a school record, and is the second undefeated season in his three years.  Jesse Thielke is now 137-1 in three seasons.

He will likely not have to worry about funding of his college education if he decides to go on following graduation from Germantown High School.  This looks like a ‘full ride’ in the making…and well deserved at that!

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Tax Increases Almost A Certainty".