This Just In ...

Tonight on InterCHANGE

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 18, 2010

Here are tonight’s topics on InterCHANGE on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10 at 6:30 with a repeat broadcast Sunday morning at 11:00:


1 – MPS LAYOFFS.

Hundreds of young MPS teachers get layoff notices.  Is it wise for one of the worst school districts in the country to layoff so many teachers?  Is this all just a negotiating tactic being put into action by MPS to force the union to accept a lower cost health care plan?  Or, is the district simply adjusting to economic realities?  Is it fair that the young teachers are laid off while those with seniority keep their jobs, or is “last hired-first fired” simply the way it works in a unionized environment?  Has this union helped or hurt MPS?  Will the union end up accepting the lower cost health plan as a trade-off for doing away with the residency clause?  Will this complicate the honeymoon period of the new superintendent, who starts July 1^st ?


2 – OBAMA / BP.

Is President Obama to be praised for getting BP to set aside $20 billion dollars top address the gulf oil spill problems?  His oval office speech isn’t drawing a great deal of praise.  Does he come across as too weak and too cerebral?  After two months of the oil gushing into the water, has he been too late to make this an urgent matter?  Often presidents are judged by how they react to a crisis that wasn’t their fault and that is beyond their control (e.g. Hurricane Katrina, the Challenger explosion, 9-11, etc.)  How do you judge Obama so far on his reaction to this disaster?


3 – DOYLE / MORGAN / UW.

Michael Morgan, Governor Doyle’s Secretary of the Department of Administration, has landed a $245,000 a year job (about twice what he makes now) as the University of Wisconsin Senior Vice-President for Administration and Fiscal Affairs.  He’s obviously an extremely bright guy, who has had a number of high profile public sector jobs, but did he get this job fairly?  One state lawmaker says this is nothing more than political patronage.  Is this simply the UW System, unfairly giving one of its highest paid and most senior positions, to someone just because that guy was a Jim Doyle loyalist?  The president of the UW System admits that no one else was interviewed or even considered for the job.  Or, is it brilliant to hire someone who knows exactly how the governor’s office operates to work for the school?  He also worked as Secretary of the Department of Revenue, and for ten years he was Milwaukee’s Commissioner of the Department of City Development.  He has undergraduate and law degrees from UW, but should the number two guy for the system have more of an academic background?