Dear Group,
It is as if the Koch donor group-funded Washington Policy Center and its local Republicans anticipated last week’s series on the origins and details of the Washington school funding crisis. On April 21 the WPC came out with a half page ad in the Spokesman on page 10 of the Northwest Section. Their ad extolled their featured speaker this year for their Tuesday, May 14th, “Solutions Summit” at the historic Davenport Hotel, running from 7:30AM to 5:30PM. Who is this famous man? None other than “Governor” Scott Walker of Wisconsin. (WPC also placed some “sponsored content” in the online version.)
You can read the whole agenda here. For me the standout among many choices is “Government Reform: Protecting Washington’s Competitive Advantage: No Income Taxes!” I thought that was especially pertinent in a forum sponsored by Koch libertarians in Washington State, the State with the most regressive state tax system in the nation, a State where “… the lowest 20 percent of income earners (families making less than $24,000) contribute almost 18 percent of their annual earnings to state and local tax coffers, while the top 1 percent (those making over $545,900) pay just 3 percent of their income.” This is a State where Republicans crow about having stonewalled against any sort of progressive tax to “amply” fund the State’s biggest obligation: to educate its children, opting instead to rearrange existing revenue sources, pretend they’ve done a lovely job at school funding, and blame teachers and the teachers’ union for the pain they’ve produced.
I grew up in Wisconsin in the 1960s. I am a product of what was then an amply funded public education system that prepared me well for higher education. I have many friends still living in Wisconsin who tell me the quality of public education suffered miserably under Scott Walker and his Republican-majority Legislature. The Washington Policy Center bills Scott Walker as “Governor.” They crow that he is the only governor in United States history to survive a recall election. The WPC neglects to mention the spark for the recall was his defunding of public education after they set the stage by demonizing teachers and the teachers’ union. Nor does the WPC mention Scott Walker was voted out of office in 2018, once enough citizens realized the damage he had caused. The Washington Policy Center, of course, would prefer its audience to think Mr. Walker either stepped down voluntarily or was term-limited, not that he was voted out of his incumbency by disgusted voters.
In September of 2017 the Washington Policy Center had Nigel Farage, “Mr. Brexit,” to Spokane as their featured speaker I never imagined they could top their bad taste. Never underestimate. In bringing Scott Walker to town they may have outdone themselves.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry