Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Well, that was weird. Madison Schools Superintendent Carlton Jenkins keeps what can most charitably be described as a low profile in the community. But he penned a column on Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal editorial page in which he flew at 30,000 feet over the big, big picture issue of the need to invest in schoolsContinue reading “Jenkins’ Weird Column”

Wisconsin Republicans are arguing that we need a flat income tax — and a huge tax break for our wealthiest citizens that would go with it — to remain economically competitive. There’s no evidence to support that. Let’s look at the states sharing a border with us — Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa. Minnesota hasContinue reading “Flat Tax Won’t Help Economy”

Lots of good stuff in the papers this morning. Let’s get to it. She’s not a believer. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway continues to duck issues. The city has a very good plan to marry transportation with land use by providing for higher development densities along corridors that will soon be served by Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).Continue reading “Mayor Needs to Get Religion”

Jay Rothman is making a solid, even obvious, business decision. I still think he’s wrong. Rothman, President of the UW System, has decided to shut down the UW Platteville – Richland Center campus. In 2014 that campus had almost 600 students and today it has only 60. When Rothman goes to the Legislature to askContinue reading “Save UW Richland”

These are tough days for One City school. The charter school, founded by native Madisonian and former corporate executive Kaleem Caire, recently announced that it was shutting down its ninth and tenth grade programs this month and the last round of test scores showed poor performance from its students. Those scores were not good, butContinue reading “Give One City a Chance”

I was surprised to learn in yesterday’s morning paper that Madison East High School had to cancel its drag show. My surprise stems from not knowing that Madison East had a drag show. But, sure enough, somebody at East thought this made sense. The response was what you’d expect. Conservative talk show hosts and commentators,Continue reading “What a Drag”

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway probably had little or nothing to do with the significant decline in crime in the city last year, but she’ll get credit for it. That’s fair because had crime gone up she’d get the blame, again whether or not she had had anything to do with the increase.  Last week ChiefContinue reading “Reyes Needs Another Issue”

When the predicted big red wave washed harmlessly ashore in November I was delighted. Now I’m not so sure. Democrats, including this one, took no small amount of pleasure in watching Kevin McCarthy twist slowly in the wind for a couple of days, tormented by the very hard-right populist forces he helped unleash. But theContinue reading “Dog Wagged By Tail”

Kay Le Clair is a con artist. Le Clair is also an artist. The Madisonian, who grew up in Sussex, claimed to be Native American and lived off that identity for years. Le Clair got an appointment at the UW and an exhibit at the Overture Center. Le Clair also was acknowledged as an expert,Continue reading “The Value of Victimhood”

It’s welcome, but odd, that Damar Hamlin’s heart stoppage has produced so much soul searching on behalf of NFL players and fans — and so much well-orchestrated concern among NFL executives. Hamlin’s heart stopped after making a hit in a Monday night game. He plays defensive back for the Buffalo Bills and the Bills wereContinue reading “NFL: How Can We Watch This?”