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Legislator looks out for taxpayers
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Also by Cassie Kornblau:
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by Cassie Kornblau
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
State Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, is always concerned about how to effectively spend Wisconsin taxpayers' money.
Jeskewitz, a member of the state Legislature's Assembly Colleges and University Committee, said she is not a supporter of the various collective bargaining movements University of Wisconsin System faculty have taken, and added the unions that exist for technical college faculty are unfair to the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
"Salaries are high for technical college professors," Jeskewitz said. "I think in all fairness to the taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin, we need not to continue to do this."
Jeskewitz said she understands the state has an obligation to pay professors well, but all universities are having difficulty with professors and their salaries.
In addition, Jeskewitz feels domestic partner benefits are not a necessity to the state, again because of the high cost to taxpayers.
UW College Democrats chair Oliver Kiefer disagrees, saying Jeskewitz's position is very troubling, and domestic partner benefits are essential for the university to step forward and not lose ground.
"Domestic partner benefits are a generational issue and not many older folks support it," Kiefer said. "It proves how out of touch the Legislature leadership is with the university community."
Kiefer said he agrees with Jeskewitz that spending taxpayer dollars efficiently should be a priority, but added professors and Wisconsin residents are going to go elsewhere if too much damage is done to the UW System.
"You can invest in your community and reap the benefits," Kiefer said, "or reap the consequences."
Jeskewitz said it is essential for the UW System and the state of Wisconsin to continue to build a strong relationship, though she believes the system needs to understand the Legislature always has to balance their resources with all the needs of the state.
Currently, Jeskewitz said she would like further collaboration between the UW System and state in actively developing a clear system on how credits transfer between technical colleges and UW Systems schools, saying 60 percent of all college students in the United States transfer.
Jeskewitz proposes that all state system colleges and universities lay out their expectations and accurately communicate these ideas to students. This way, a student will know how to best transfer credits from technical colleges to UW institutions.
"If we are a system, we need to be a system," Jeskewitz said. "There are too many divisions in the state, including the technical colleges, four-year colleges and UW colleges."
Jeskewitz said although transferability is becoming more accessible to students, it is unfair credits taken at technical colleges are on average less expensive than credits taken at UW System schools.
"There are different tuition formulas," Jeskewitz said. "Technical college credits are a third of the cost compared to the university system, and students need to be paying a comparable cost to what the university would charge."
Jeskewitz approves of Wisconsin's efforts to encourage "brain gain" in the state by offering more high tech and baccalaureate degrees, but added the state does have problems attracting high-paying professionals from other states.
UW College Republicans chair Sara Mikolajczak echoed Jeskewitz's belief in "brain gain" and said the state does offer benefits for students to stay in Wisconsin.
For example, Mikolajczak said students who attend UW Law School are exempt from taking the bar exam if they practice in Wisconsin, and the nurses who graduate from nursing school are likely to get a job in the state.
"We need to try and keep highly educated students in the state of Wisconsin," Jeskewitz said. "It is the only way to continue to grow our economy."
Anonymous (December 11, 2007 @ 9:12am):
The only people the legislators in WISCONSIN take care of is farmers and teachers. Both groups have powerful unions and lobbyist.
Anonymous (December 11, 2007 @ 1:08pm):
WEAC is not as powerful as people tend to believe and the Farmers' Union is very weak as far as unions go.
Anonymous (December 11, 2007 @ 5:59pm):
"It proves how out of touch the Legislature leadership is with the university community."
and vice versa
Anonymous (December 12, 2007 @ 11:43am):
According to the article: [Jeskewitz, a member of the state Legislature's Assembly Colleges and University Committee, said she is not a supporter of the various collective bargaining movements University of Wisconsin System faculty have taken, and added the unions that exist for technical college faculty are unfair to the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
"Salaries are high for technical college professors," Jeskewitz said. "I think in all fairness to the taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin, we need not to continue to do this."]
Certainly this is a different perspective from some, who would argue that instead of the tech colleges salaries being too high, the UW salaries are too low (which, coincidentally, can be verified by comparing UW salaries with others in the Big 10, UW is on the lower end but is one of the most respected schools in the nation by many different rankings).
Mmm, maybe the legislature's salaries are too high. With how much work wasn't done during the budget crisis, maybe it would be reasonable to go back to a part-time legislature since they don't work that much now that they're full time! ;-)
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