Scott Walker Doesn't Want Wisconsin Workers to Have a Living Wage
That's the only logical conclusion to reconcile the facts. On “Fox & Friends,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, one of the leading Republican presidential candidates, was asked by host Brian Kilmeade whether or not he thought the minimum wage should be a living wage. Walker responded:
I don’t want to fight about the minimum wage. I want to lift everybody up, and the way to do that is through education. You don’t do that through a government dictate, you say let’s get people the education and the skills and the qualifications they need for careers that pay far more than the minimum wage. That should be our ultimate goal. People will be better off if they get the skills they need to be worth more to their employer, and they’ll be making more than that $15.
While those certainly aren't the words of an educational champion, it's not the worst quote ever. Walker's certainly said, and done, much worse about issues important to workers. But if you truly believe that education is much more important to improving the lives of workers than having a good minimum wage, then why would you do this?
Walker proposed a state budget that would slash $300 million from the University of Wisconsin over two years and cut $127 million from public primary schools. The state budget also continues a freeze on state special education aid for the eighth year in a row and erodes teacher licensing standards by requiring the state Department of Education to give permits to teachers who haven’t completed a bachelor’s degree, according to The Washington Post.
Also, according to Think Progress, Wisconsin has had the biggest decrease in per-pupil spending of any state during Walker's term in office. So, if you claim that education is the key to a living wage, and you cut education spending, what does that say about your commitment to a living wage?
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This has been reposted from the AFL-CIO.
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Image by DonkeyHotey on Flickr.
