Scott Walker, best known as a right wing Republican radical, has used his line item veto to support academic freedom at the University of Wisconsin!
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker issued a line-item veto to strike an unconstitutional ban on faculty speech and research from the Wisconsin state budget. The vetoed measure would have kicked the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism off the UW-Madison campus.
Gov. Walker: “[T]he Joint Finance Committee’s proposed prohibition is extreme in its breadth, preventing faculty from performing any number of academic functions. For example, under the ban, faculty would be unable to read or discuss articles published by the WCIJ, to comment to WCIJ reporters on issues related to their scholarship or on matters of public concern, to assign WCIJ articles to students, or to cite WCIJ work in their research. The ban’s vagueness is similarly problematic, as it forces faculty to guess at the precise boundaries of the ban on “any work related to the Center,” no matter how seemingly remote. Laboring under the chilling effect engendered by such uncertainty, many faculty will rationally choose to self-censor—a deeply depressing outcome that contradicts the necessary function of our nation’s public universities. For these reasons, the ban is flatly unconstitutional and must be rescinded.”
NEW FACE OF THE GOP? Imagine Scott Walker running for President in 2106 with Rodney Tom running here for Governor. Click image for more on Tom.
The veto came along with numerous advances for the Governor’s right wing supporters. Among the victories: an income tax cut, an expansion of school choice, the rejection of additional federal Medicaid funds, a cut to the state’s environmental stewardship fund, a tax credit for private school tuition and additional work requirements for food stamps recipients.
In a Republican 2016 scenario with Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and immigration damaged Rubio the boy .. this could be a brilliant step toward a campaign for President based on Scott Walker looking like the adult in the room’
To see Walker portrayed as a statesman is too much for some on the left to bear. On the right, however, the story is very different. The voucher veto did limit the number of students who can participate in an expanded school voucher program to 500 next year and 1,000 the following year, making the Governor rational, but , the school choice program, allows Walker to declare a victory for vouchers that is important to the GOP base and reaffirms his status as the darling of national conservatives.