Here & Now; 623

You Welcome to here and now I'm Frederica Fryberg a state virtual school may have some real problems we'll get into that in a moment and even as the scheduled special session on campaign finance reform loses steam a new panel is figuring out how to clean up the campaign road to the state Supreme Court we'll meet the man putting that panel together later in the program also tonight we

hear from the Wisconsin Project a nuclear arms control a Washington DC based group that is closely following the developments in Iran a look at the governor's residence at the holiday decorations there and we will introduce you to a writer for one of Wisconsin's greatest exports the satirical newspaper the onion he's part of a team of authors who just finished a new book for dogs but first virtual schools it's public schooling at home and online and this week the state's largest virtual school was given the legal equivalent of an F by an appeals court in Waukesha the court ruled that the home-based online schooling offered by the Northern Ozaki school district at the Wisconsin virtual academy broke several state laws including the violation of statutes governing open enrollment and for having parents serve as the primary teachers but perhaps most significantly the court ordered the state to stop paying for students to be enrolled in the Wisconsin virtual

academy because most of its students are from outside the Northern Ozaki district last year that district received more than three and a half million dollars in open enrollment funding to run the online school now this ruling could cut short 11 other virtual schools across Wisconsin not to mention leaving some 850 Wisconsin virtual academy students up in the air Rose Fernandez has four children enrolled at the online school and is president of the Wisconsin coalition of virtual school families Lucy Brown represented the state's teachers union also known as WIEC in this case and thanks to both of you for joining us to talk about this Rose I want to start with you what will this mean to your children who are enrolled in the virtual academy this ruling closes our school it threatens this way of learning across the state of Wisconsin affects schools in many school districts who use online curriculum and we don't know exactly what will happen but this ruling is

it's a a very significant loss for us what is your reaction to that it I and hundreds of families like me we are reeling this week don't know what will happen to our school and we it's a feeling of disgust and despair and amazement that a labor union could do this to such a great school where our children are thriving and our teachers are working so hard to bring about learning in a new different way that we see as a way of the future Lucy Brown why did a labor union decide to take this to court we were concerned that the laws that have been written in Wisconsin to assure both accountability and

funding fairness were not recognized they were being violated by the school and these are some of the basic tenants for our great schools in Wisconsin they keep public schools good and we felt they needed to be challenged we would most like to see and what really should be done and we hope will be done following this decision is that the legislature will get involved and address the issue of virtual schooling which is not addressed in Wisconsin's statutes at all well so if the legislature were to get involved and address this what would there be some means in your playbook for virtual schools to exist well I don't decide what the the legislature does but would we act a prove of any virtual school oh their virtual schools operating in Wisconsin right now that are are no problem at all there is virtual schooling it has been for a very long time that goes on in the state of Wisconsin the issue here in

this case was first of all the parents acting as the primary teachers of these students who are considered public school students and also the use of open enrollment to to start the school this school had less than has less than one percent of its students from the Northern Ozaki school district and that that was a real concern that a single local school district is establishing a statewide school and that was taking money from those other districts that is correct Rose let me let me ask you about this why why is it okay for parents to to be the primary teachers in these kinds of at home on the computer type schools well the learning takes place in the home that's where the parents are that's what this model is based upon the each of the schools has a certified faculty the school a question here Wisconsin virtual academy has a faculty of

licensed teachers who all are we act dues paying members whose jobs are at line in their jobs are on the line here their jobs their union put them out of a job with this ruling and I'm very interested in your statements about the other schools the other virtual schools also draw students from other districts are you saying that this ruling that we act is not interested in putting these other schools out of business also they have they operate in the same fashion they draw students with open enrollment from other districts when you're talking about other schools are you talking about the others in Wisconsin I am talking mill there are in district virtual schools that do not draw on on open enrollment and then do not use parents in the home to provide the primary education how about the other virtual public schools that are not

in district schools they will have to abide by the ruling if it is published they will have to abide by the ruling so we at once to close those schools too it isn't just this one school it is not up to we act at this point the the court has ruled and it will be the law of Wisconsin we act filed the suit let me ask Lucy Brown about what in your mind is better about teachers in a bricks-and-mortar type school than then teachers in in a virtual school where the parents have a larger role well the reason Wisconsin has a law that requires anyone who teaches in a public school to be certified is a way of providing accountability that the children who we are paying our public taxes for our taxes to you don't think there's enough accountability and in these virtual schools namely this one that was the subject of the suit okay that's correct what about that these are public schools they operate with the same accountability as any other public school I'm sitting here with you today I

would really appreciate hearing from you as a parent how much involvement is okay with you how much can I do with my own children in their public education I think that's an interesting question I think parents we act as always promoted parents families being involved in a school the education within the school the teaching of the curriculum that is done in the school and during the regular school day should be done by certified teachers we believe now the legislature may choose to change that for virtual schooling situations and that is something the legislature may do and other states where virtual schooling this type of virtual schooling has grown up have all to my knowledge and acted some kind of legislation specifically aimed at virtual schooling I want to get to you and we really just have about 30 seconds left but I

wanted to get the essence from you about why this school has been good for you you've had five children in it one has graduated and and for currently in it what is so what is good about it by all measures this is a great public school this school is an excellent example of teaching in the 21st century this is a wonderful example of individualized learning children move at their own pace parents whose children do not do well in a classroom can thrive here this is an option for a small number of families this is what we want to preserve I'm very interested Lucy you talk a lot about legislation is we act willing to work with us on legislation that will allow schools like this to survive they are willing to work on legislation that would provide fiscal accountability and and academic accountability and yes that I'm not sure if funding the way it's done now which is paying full price for a virtual

education the way it is now we would be very comfortable with we don't decide the legislature does but we would we have said we will work with all groups I know you would get to the funding question eventually we we need to leave this there but we look forward to perhaps the two groups working together to fashion something that works for everyone so thanks very much to both of you good luck thank you one other education note for this week earlier today UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley announced plans to retire in the fall of two thousand eight there will be a new bipartisan panel monitoring the integrity of the Supreme Court during the two thousand eight election season the panel and its goal was announced this week by the president of the state bar of Wisconsin Tom basting who full disclosure also serves as the president of the friends of

WHA a volunteer and fundraising support group of Wisconsin public television he joins us now thanks very much for doing so thank you well tell me first what prompted you to form this group last year during the during the Supreme Court campaign between Linda Clifford and Judge Ziegler there were ads and accusations being made that prompted many of the state bar members the lawyers around the state to talk to me and talk to other people at the bar about the fact that they were really disappointed that the campaign was not really elevated to a higher level that they thought it should be when when we're talking about a Supreme Court election so what will your group your kind of watchdog committee be be looking out for in the upcoming election well in the upcoming election we're you know we're doing a number of things but as far as this election is concerned we're going to be looking at campaign materials put

out by the candidates advertisements put out by the candidates both in the print and television media and we're going to be looking at the advertisements put out by third parties who are not necessarily connected with either campaign but who usually step into these races to to tout their individual interests and what will be objectionable when you're looking at those anything that we feel violates the aspirational rules that are set forth by the Supreme Court in the rules of judicial conduct for candidates which involves really political statements demeaning statements false statements either about yourself or about the other candidate and you feel that that's the direction that these races could go unless a group like yours stepped in yes we we think we think that it very well could go that way from what we've

seen in other states and and hopefully this campaign will be conducted at a high level and this committee won't have anything to do and if you see that kind of thing what will you do what we will do is use the power of the press and go to the public we have a website that we will be able to put things on and go to the public and say the committee has reviewed these materials we think they're demeaning we think they potentially do not comport with the aspirational rules and we're going to say so now I understood that another prong of this committee's work that you've set forth as a goal is to educate the public about how judicial candidates aren't supposed to take positions and serve their constituencies but many in the public wonder with the huge amounts of money going into the Supreme Court races these days what was it 5.6 or 8 million in the last one overall how how do you reconcile

candidates not serving constituencies that come with bags of money well they if you look at the history of the judiciary in this country you would see that judges generally if you look at their decisions are not swayed by the people who supported them they're not supposed to be and we have faith in the people who run for these offices that they understand what it means to be a judge and that they won't be swayed but I would agree with you that these organizations do come in and what they're trying to do or what they think they do is trying to tilt the court in their philosophical direction whatever that may be you'll be asking the candidates to take a pledge what does that entail and have any of the three candidates so far decided they will sign out there's a letter going out probably as we speak and the candidate should receive it next week which will have a copy of this I've been calling it an

agreement rather than a pledge although it is a pledge but it's an as I see it it's an agreement between the candidate and the citizens of the state of Wisconsin where the candidate will say I agree to abide by these rules I agree to take responsibility for the ads that are run by third parties in my favor and disavow them if they cross over the line we've had two of the candidates so far say that they probably will sign that although they haven't seen it yet that would be Justice Butler and the gentleman who's running from Sun Prairie whose name escapes me at the moment and I apologize to him for not recalling his name and Judge Gabelman the other announced candidates says he'll take a look at it and then decide we will take a look at it as well and we'll be watching you work as the as the campaign progresses Tom Basin thanks very much thank you it's a pleasure to look at Iran is back in the news this week American intelligence released Monday says that Iran halted

its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is it true an arm of the UW law school has been at work in Washington DC tracking nuclear programs around the world since 1986 it's called the Wisconsin project on nuclear arms control the lead Iran investigator for the project is Valerie Lindsay she joins us now from Washington DC and thanks very much for doing so thanks for having me well what exactly are we to believe because this is a total you turn from what we've been hearing from the administration well it's true it is a you turn but I think that you know there's been a lot of sort of political attention paid to this and what we're trying to do is to bring people back to Iran's program the fact that it exists and is continuing and the fact that the national intelligence estimate assessment that the nuclear weapon program was halted may lead people to a false sense of comfort in terms of the threat posed by

Iran well I want to I want to ask you about the specifics of that threat in your mind but as an expert in this area monitoring this region what was your reaction when this national intelligence estimate came out saying this we were floored we were quite surprised both by the content and in the way the way in which the information was presented as you say this is not exactly what the Bush administration has been saying these last few years it's not what the international atomic energy agency which is monitoring Iran's nuclear program has been saying it's not what the European governments have been saying so I think a lot of people were caught by surprise what do you think the reason was for the estimate saying these things well apparently the estimate is based on some new intelligence and since we have not had access to the classified portions of the document it's difficult to say that the document has been

politically manipulated so we've sort of focused on the details of the of the assessment and sort of finding flaw in the organizing principle well tell me what your belief is in terms of whether or not Iran is actually engaged in a nuclear weapons program we believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon capability we believe that the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community creates a sort of artificial division between some of what it calls civilian nuclear work and military nuclear work Iran is pursuing the creation of nuclear fuel which could be used to fuel a nuclear weapon unfortunately the intelligence assessment calls that work civilian which we believe to be misleading well why shouldn't we though believe these intelligence operatives who have delivered this news I think we can believe the operatives I

think it's the way in which the information was characterized I think it's fine to say that Iran ceased it's fine for the intelligence agencies to say that Iran ceased some military nuclear work in 2003 and may not have started up that work again but it's misleading to say that some of the other things that Iran has pursued during this time are not sort of part of Iran's nuclear weapon effort what what is your belief about what Iran's end game is in terms of what whatever its efforts are in the nuclear realm well we continue to believe that Iran would like to attain a nuclear weapon capability and it has managed to continue improving its nuclear infrastructure it's created a plant at Natanz a uranium enrichment plant at which it can make nuclear fuel and we believe that it is trying to convince the world that this effort is a civilian effort and it could with this these type of plants sort of convert the

know how to make weapon rather quickly and so it wants to create what we call a breakout capability the ability to break out and to make nuclear weapons on short notice the rest of the world must believe this as well because the UN continues to seek sanctions against Iran yes we it's true that the rest of the world is suspicious of Iran's nuclear activity our concern is that this intelligence assessment may undermine efforts to get further sanctions at the UN which we continue to believe to be the best chance of ruling back Iran's program well we will continue to watch this and we we thank you for your expertise in this area Valerie Lindsay from Washington thanks very much thank you we switch gears now to a new book that will be a great holiday read for your dog it's called the dangerous book for dogs and it's

written from the perspective of dogs a concept like this could only be the product of America's finest news source the satirical newspaper the onion and indeed it is one of the authors of the dangerous book for dogs joins us now it's name is Joe Garden and Joe thanks very much for being here thanks for having well take us through some of the the themes of this book the dangerous book for dogs well essentially the the important thing to remember is it's sort of it's a parody obviously of the dangerous book for boys which the thesis of that was that boys were spending too much time indoors playing video games and they weren't getting down to the boy essentials like building for its and shooting both narrows and if ever there was another group that was true for it would be dogs because you have a period where you have dog perfumes and dog dogs carried on in purses and you know and dog spas and organic dog biscuits and you know it's not like a dog knows it's in a dog bakery buying an organic or getting an organic dog biscuit anything is an organic dog biscuit to

a dog because if it's edible it can be digested or even if not or even if not so that's the whole thing we just sort of we took the idea that dogs needs to be sort of reeducated about their their roots and we went we went from that from that angle well give us some sense if you would do you have a little bit of the book that you like sure I'm going to read for a chapter entitled it's the first chapter it's entitled things you can chase which seems obvious but you know sometimes dogs need to be reminded and this is one of the items you could chase includes balls sticks cars the frisbee and for experts only there's cars but not to be you shouldn't catch them you should just chase them but the thing I'm going to be reading is your tail the great thing about your tail is that it's always there ready for a good time even when you're in trouble for licking the meatloaf and no one will play with you your tail is always up for being chased it sits behind you wagging just asking you to go after it if you are a breed that has a short tail no tail or you had a tail then lost it then it is obviously a challenge in this case you can substitute rump for tail even

though it doesn't quite wag the same the question then is whether you can catch it or not the answer it doesn't matter in this case the thrill is in the chase and the chase is awesome do me this favor as well and read me some of the chapter headings that you have absolutely we have there's foul smells you can every dog can roll in there's constellations which sort of explains what those things are in the sky to dogs the constellations case the main ones are bonious major and beefus minor the big bone and a little steak and then there's also some stories about courageous dogs in history including the dog battles there's actually some real life stuff in there including the story of struck and belka the cosmonaut cosmonaut dogs it went went to space and returned alive I should say there's also the story of PD the three-legged pirate the scourge of the seas there's there's also things like questions dogs have sure absolutely some of the questions are you know why is there only one

dinner time a day and the obvious answer is that there should be much more but some things you can't control open the face exactly there should be there should be a trough of food ready for the eating at all at all times there's also some other chapters squirrels explaining those pesky devils there's even something about the about poop which is a very important topic to dogs because you don't really yeah absolutely maybe twice maybe three times daily things you should just feel comfortable knowing about it let me move along to your work on the onion the the newspaper what is that like to try to have to be constantly funny it's like sort of trying to give birth except for instead of doing it once every nine months to once every year it's every it's once every week not not actually it's not that it's not quite that painful and it's over a lot quicker and it takes a lot less pain killers to get through it but it's it's good it's it's definitely there's definitely a

challenge to it because you want to be able to deliver good quality material you want to be able to do like jokes you want to you're always judging yourself based on the jokes you've done in the past or jug jokes that have appeared to other places and so you you never want to thread the same ground and so you're always trying to your only as good as your last joke exactly one last question on this house is book doing she's been doing well we we have a reading in Richland Center tonight which is pretty exciting it's my hometown so and we she we talked to the owner and she said she'd ordered 75 and they're only 30 left so do people bring their dogs to these readings sometimes they do and that's encouraged if we have a reading of people should definitely bring the dogs all right we need to leave it there but it's it's in your book stores Joe garden thanks very much great thanks thanks for having the name of the book is the dangerous book for dogs and this is a funny book that is our program for tonight join us next week when an inside commentator Peter Lydie will be back with some musical holiday tidings in the meantime we leave you with a look at the holiday trimmings at the governor's mansion joy and for here and now I'm

Frederica Freiburg