The heat is supposed to break a bit at some point today. It’s posed a problem in some schools across the state, who have postponed their opening until Wednesday. For most of Wisconsin, the school year begins next Tuesday. Surely we will have cooled off by then.
Let’s get right to today’s Key Reads.
Speaking of school, one Republican lawmaker has heard a common complaint from his constituents, so he’s vowing to author legislation to ban cel phones from classrooms.
Lawmaker wants cellphones banned from classrooms | The Center Square
Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, released a column that outlines what he says is the need for a cellphone ban.
“There is a push in several states to push cellphone restrictions in the classroom. From red to blue states, legislatures across the country are coalescing around the idea that too much screen time is a negative mental health outcome. More succinctly, they are a significant distraction in the classroom and lead to a loss in learning,” Knodl wrote.
Currently, local schools set their own rules for cellphones in schools.
Some school districts have district-wide policy, while others allow principals in individual schools to set their own rules.
Green Bay Schools, for example, allow some high school students to use their phones when they are not in class.
Waukesha Schools allow students to bring phones to school, but say they must be “stored out of sight” during classes.
West Allis-West Milwaukee banned cellphones in class at the start of the 2022-2023 school year in an effort to cut down on the number of fights in school.
Knodl said it is clear that cellphones in school pose huge problems.
“Teachers are constantly battling with students over cellphone use and enforcement and punishment policies vary wildly leading to confusion from school to school and district to district,” Knodl added. “I plan to propose a new state law to alleviate this burden on our teachers and to take away this distraction from our students. I believe this will be a positive policy reform in our schools.”
Knodl hasn’t introduced that legislation yet, but there are some examples that Wisconsin could follow.
“Last year, Florida passed the first state law to limit cellphone use. Their law bans cellphone use during instructional time and the school’s Wi-Fi prohibits access to social media sites,” Knodl explained. “Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia have followed suit. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, signaled he would sign a bill going through their legislature. In addition, the largest school district in the nation, New York City, will follow through with these restrictions this upcoming school year.”
There will be no changes to a court order banning the uses of pepper spray at Wisconsin’s youth detention facilities.
A group of 15 Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, and Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said in a letter sent to the Department of Corrections earlier this month that “attempting to be fully compliant with the consent decree is causing more harm than good.”
But on the same day, Evers sent a letter to Peterson asking to preserve the consent decree that was put into effect in 2017 to halt the overuse of pepper spray as well as limiting the use of mechanical restraints and solitary confinement against the youth held at Lincoln Hills and the neighboring Copper Lake School for Girls….
The renewed scrutiny of the facilities came after the death of corrections officer Corey Proulx, 49, in June. Proulx died from injuries he sustained during an altercation with 16-year-old Javarius Hurd, a student at the school for troubled boys.
It turns out, the Supreme Court here couldn’t figure out how to sell kicking the Green Party candidate off the ballot while keeping RFK Jr. on the ballot. So they signaled their desire to keep them both. A cynic would say the activist liberals on the bench determined Kennedy would take more votes from former President Trump, than Stein would take for Vice President Harris.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will not take up a challenge from Democrats, who sought to block Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein from Wisconsin ballots.
The unsigned order issued Monday by Wisconsin’s high court clears the way for Stein to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot in a state known for its razor-thin election margins.
Speaking of the Presidential race here…
Harris, Trump in a tug-of-war for Wisconsin union voters | The Cap Times
Union voters have long been a bedrock of support for the Democratic Party, both in Wisconsin and nationwide. At the Democratic National Convention last week, a parade of labor leaders touted Harris and her policies as pro-worker.
But Trump has appealed to union voters, taking the unconventional move of inviting Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to speak at the Republican National Convention in July.
Wisconsin has loomed large in the national labor movement for decades, even as state-level policies caused a decline in union membership. Who wins union voters could ultimately shape the results in the Badger State.
For a team like the Packers, training camp is about depth. With almost all the starting jobs secured before practices began, the last few weeks have been about filling out the depth chart. When it came to a backup to NFL star quarterback Jordan Love, the backup was found several hundred miles south of the state line.
Packers acquire QB Malik Willis in trade with Titans, sources say |ESPN
…The Packers on Monday traded a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to the Tennessee Titans for quarterback Malik Willis, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Willis is expected to backup Jordan Love this season.
The Packers held a summer-long competition between second-year pro Sean Clifford and rookie Michael Pratt to serve as Love’s backup – a job Clifford held last season as a rookie…
While both had their moments, neither stood out enough to convince the Packers that they could win games if something happened to Love.
If only the Packer Way could be replicated at the local government level. We wouldn’t have broken budgets and beleaguered bureaucrats sticking around for several years while students suffer the consequences. The Packers have high standards, so should elected school board members who decide key administrative hires…
