My guess would be a 15% hypocritical discrepancy coming from both sides - 15% of those originally voting for Walker will sign the petition out of regret, while 15% of those actually signing the petition will actually end up voting for him in a recall election if one is forced.

Based on the numbers from the Prosser v Kloppenburg election, senatorial recalls, and recent polling, I predict this discrepancy will end up being an even wash that balances itself out.

Easy for him to make himself look good with his own version of the truth. Wait until after the next year or two when all of his "tools" run down. How will we draw the best and the brightest into education when they have no say in their future. Good luck with poor investment in education and adding a downgrade of good environmental policies. Scott Walker would not have had to take away collective bargaining rights if he did not funnel all of the big tax breaks to corporations. Sad!!

@J H RDH -

"How will we draw the best and the brightest into education when they have no say in their future."

If what you say is true, then how do you explain the overall academic successes of private schools that are non-union shops? Meanwhile, all we were doing was throwing money at union represented public schools while academic performance continued to suffer and even decreased in many instances.

"Scott Walker would not have had to take away collective bargaining rights if he did not funnel all of the big tax breaks to corporations."

Both Politifact and FactCheck.org have rated this leftist talking point as being FALSE. Maybe you should try coming up with some new material, as no one is buying into this LIE anymore, expect of course Rachel Maddow who still continues to fight with Politifact over this claim! I guess denial of FACTS really is a part of the liberal strategy.

I'm not sure that education attracted the 'best and the brightest' before Walker's reforms were put in place. I know that with the seniority system and union protections, it was certainly difficult to weed out the underperforming teachers. I would hope that most teachers would prefer a system that rewards their actual work as opposed to their years of service...

How much of the deficit was actually caused by the 'big tax breaks to corporations'?

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/

I have no problem with recalls, as public officials should be held accountable to the people they represent and the people should have a mechanism by which they can fire a public official that they are dissatisfied with, so long as such recalls are fairly and legitimately performed. However, what I don't like is the cost involved to the public (taxpayers) and would propose the following changes to make the recall process more fair to all involved.

1) The committee initiating the recall should have to reimburse the state and effected localities for the costs involved if the recall effort is unsuccessful. This would be effectuated by requiring the recall committee to post a bond with the GAB in an amount representing a fair estimate of such costs together with their recall petition filing.

2) What ever time a sitting candidate is forced to spend campaigning because of a threatened recall instead of actually governing shall be added on to that candidate's term of office if such candidate is successful in defeating the attempted recall.

I also don’t like how the will of a smaller electorate (in the recall election) was able to subvert the will of a much larger electorate (in the general election) in the two recent successful recalls of Republican senators. Something about a smaller group of people subverting the will of a larger group of people just seems un-democratic to me. However, true democratic government is reliant upon active participation by it’s citizens!

Mr Hoffa, Private schools can pick and choose who they want to educate. Public school teachers try to educate a wide variety of special needs students. Maybe you should spend a little time in a public school classroom setting. I just talked to a very bright teacher , a Marquette grad who said she will probably go back for a different major because she is seeing very little positives in her initial teaching experience. She is trying all she can to get students who are failing to respond to her help, but if they do not respond and simply don't care if they fail, she will be penalized for it. She has a mentor teacher who has to mentor two additional new teachers because of cuts in funding. Sad to lose quality teacher prospects like her.

What makes you believe that this person is really a 'quality teacher prospect'? And what makes you think that she will necessarily be penalized for students not caring if they fail?

If the class has a long history of failing students, she certainly isn't doing any worse. If her class is the start of a downward trend, then perhaps she deserves some credit for that.

Maybe she just doesn't have what it takes to reach the students or inspire them to care about learning? Teaching is not an easy profession, and if she is not up to the challenge, perhaps it is better that she leave teaching than to push forward into a career that she really isn't suited for or doesn't really enjoy.

@J H RDH -

That's not exactly true - private schools aren't free to discriminate against student's solely premised on constitutionally protected classifications, of which there are federally mandated and individual circuit court mandated protections to date.

Both Jaime Escalante and Joe Louis Clark had to work with the worst possible student’s imaginable, in schools located in the poorest neighborhoods/districts in the country – far worse than anything we have in Wisconsin. And both men were so exceptionally successful in their endeavors that films were made chronicling these successes, “Stand and Deliver (1988)” and “Lean on Me (1989),” respectively.

Both of these men, in their respective books, complained vigorously about how the teacher’s unions were constantly attempting to inhibit their ability to teach as they saw fit and resisted the changes that were being implemented at the administrative level. Two of the best public educators that we’ve ever known, and both complained about the teacher’s union (both report having been threatened with violence if they didn’t discontinue their practices immediately). Neither men demanded huge salaries, benefits, or even job security (especially Clark, who was constantly begging the District to fire him).

If Escalante and Clark could effectively turn around the worst of the worst, then any decent teacher should also be able to. Anything less is nothing but an unacceptable excuse.

Wow, Why are you so bitter? My sister is a teacher who put herself through school working full time and going to school full time with two small children. She worked as a cook in a hospital,in a group home with mentally impaired adults, with migrant workers in a canning factory and other jobs too. She has been employed as a biology teacher for 12 years. She accepted her pay cut from making $48,000 per year to $42,000 per year. What she said really upsets her is how Scott Walker and his policies will effect the environment of the State of Wisconsin she loves. I think my sister knows what a real job is and has seen her share of slackers in the private workforce. She is a great teacher and I feel that she may leave teaching because it is becoming so stressful and the political rhetoric has demeaned the teaching profession as a whole. We are going to lose a lot of quality teachers like her and it is so sad to llisten to bitter , bitter people who probably couldn't last as week in a classroom!

Let us know when she leaves teaching and enters the private workforce. Until then she can stick with the slackers in the public workforce.

I agree - the bitterness isn't necessary.

No one should be vilifying anybody else.

It's just a function of reality - the economy suffers, as it has been for the past 3+ years now, means that the tax base suffers and isn't able to provide as much revenue to the government as it previously did. That means the government has a choice to make - either borrow money to pay the bills, print more money to pay the bills which would inflate the currency and hurt people even more, increase taxes on people who are already hurting which would hurt them even more, or cut expenses out of the budget including public sector worker's compensation packages (a huge part of the overall budget).

What other options does government have?

Walker campaigned on cutting compensation packages and state programs, the pubic voted for him, ergo, it was the will of the people to cut as opposed to exercising any of the other options available to government. It’s the same choice that you’d make if your family budget was faced with similar circumstances, right? Or would go even deeper into debt during a down economy?

What more can be said about this? It's no one's fault per say - just the reality of the situation. A part of the risk inherent in deciding to go into public sector employment - your wages could (and should) go down when the taxpaying base is suffering. That's just simple logic.

And if you want to blame someone for the present economic situation, blame your Toyota/Honda/Nissan/etc. driving neighbor who helped to sell out our industrial/manufacturing base because of their consumerist greed – they’re the real criminals and reason why we lost a majority of our single-provider family sustaining jobs!

Not true--lots of people who are not involved in unions want to recall Waalker because they know he is only concerned with one thing--the political career advancement of Scott Walker!

@J H RDH -

And what exactly will the personal motives of a Democratic challenger be in a recall election?

@J H RDH -

I agree - let's try and keep this new thread civil and idea driven as opposed to personally attacking others (including Walker) or groups driven.

How does the old saying go? Simple minds talk about others while great minds talk about ideas!

@Jerry -

Exactly! We need to look at the big picture and long-terms solutions instead of individual special interests and short term solutions! Balancing the budget responsibly and by actually cutting costs and reducing spending is the first step in this process.

Are the corporate citizens of this country who are making record profits but not channeling any of those profits to their employees or not hiring additional employees because they can milk their existing employees to the max thinking about our children?

@J H RDH -

What corporations are taking advantage of their current workforce, and how are they doing so?

What are your proposed solutions to the problems you identify?

I don't know what the solution is. I see many people who have worked for companies that are rewarding their CEOs with generous bonuses and are cutting their employee numbers and almost doubling the workload for their remaining employees. The current employees cannot object because they are trying to hang on to their jobs. Is this just how it will always be in the future in this country? Occasionally you will see a business like Costco highlighted whose CEO believes in really good wages for his employees and doesn't feel he needs to only embellish his own earnings. But I think many companies now really don't value their employees no matter how hard they work. Is that why so many people are so bitter with people who have unions in their corner? Isn't that why unions were formed?

J H RDH -

Your assessment accurately portrays the purpose of private sector unions that engage for-profit companies on behalf of their members.

However, public sector unions are inherently different in that the government that they're 'negotiating' with is not a for-profit entity, but rather made up of taxpayer revenues.

There are many companies that treat their employees well, absent unionization. SC Johnson is a great local example. I thought that maybe you’d be able to provide a concrete example of a bad company, or one that operates in such a manner that you’ve described here generally.

While Costco maybe a great company regarding treatment of its employees, one could also argue that they are a part of the problem with a business model that emphasizes purchasing low cost (often foreign made) goods in bulk thereby allowing the company to sell those goods to its customers at deeply discounted prices – thereby effectively undermining main street business and severely disadvantaging American made goods. It’s a similar model to the one currently followed by WalMart.

Personally, I believe that to fix the problem on a macro-economic scale, you have to start by fixing trade policy. The only way to do this though is if you can get all of the ‘fair’ players together in a consensus alliance to take on the unfair players that use exploited labor, environmental, and governmental policies to create an artificial/unfair business advantage.

cjj:

You haven't seen so much hate in you life? I take it that you weren't in Madison back in the February/March time frame? There were lots of hate-filled protesters there...

ok....

...and you are bringing up Mr. Cain because?