Here & Now

Here & Now for March 16, 2018

Announcer:

The following program is part of our “Here and Now” 2018 Wisconsin Vote election coverage.

Crowd:

Hey, hey, ho, ho. The NRA has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho. The NRA has got to go.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wisconsin students rally for gun control at the State Capitol Wednesday. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here and Now,” we will talk school safety issues, including Governor Walker’s call for a special session on the topic. Madison Public School Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham is here. After that, financial trouble for western Wisconsin farmers and what one woman is doing about it. And we’ll look ahead to what Tuesday's Pennsylvania election results may mean down the road in Wisconsin. It’s “Here and Now” for March 16.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here and Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Scott Walker late this week called a special session of the legislature to take up his school safety plan. The plan includes an Office of School Safety within the state Department of Justice, which would apply $100 million worth of grants for schools to make security improvements, hire officers and conduct training. The plan would require mandatory reporting of any threats of school violence and ensure that live video streams of schools can be shared with law enforcement, among other prongs. This executive order calling for the special session came one day after a nationwide walk-out on the part of school students over gun violence. Wisconsin students joined the national “youth empower” call for gun control on Wednesday. Wisconsin was represented by schools from dozens of cities and towns across the state, from Milwaukee to Ashland, in Wausau and La Crosse, in Green Bay, Eau Claire, Rhinelander and Viroqua, among many others. “Here and Now” reporter Marisa Wojcik covered the story at the State Capitol.

Crowd:

Gun control now!

Marisa Wojcik:

On Wednesday, March 14, thousands of Madison students joined a national movement to send a message about gun control. A team of teenagers from the city’s four high schools coordinated the Madison walk-out. They headed down East Washington Avenue and ended at the State Capitol. Despite the healthy rivalry between these schools, the need to send a message about guns brought them together.

Caitlin Houck-King:

We are the generation to put — to start putting an end to this. I think the more students we have, the more united we are and that’s exactly what we need right now. We need unity amongst every student because everyone wants to feel safe.

Marisa Wojcik:

School administrators worked with the students to ensure their safety during the walk-out.

Crowd:

This is what democracy looks like.

Marisa Wojcik:

The Madison East High School principal always encourages students to stay in school, but he says he takes pride in the activism of students.

Female student:

We don’t need your apologies. We need you to change the policies.

[cheers and applause]

Marisa Wojcik:

The youth organizers underscored that change needs to happen with their vote.

Female student:

There's a voter registration booth on site. Volunteers from Dane County Voter ID Coalition, Indivisible Madison and the ACLU are here right now registering voters and answering questions about voter ID laws.

Lydia Hester:

The students are not going to stop until there is change. And even if it takes a few years, like we’ll be at the polls soon enough. I’ll be able to vote the next presidential election. And it’s just such a powerful thing for student voices to be out here because we are the next generation.

Crowd:

Gun control now!

Marisa Wojcik:

Last year, Democrats introduced a slew of bills in the state legislature addressing specific gun control laws. But not much action has been taken on these bills.

Male student:

We are the future!

Marisa Wojcik:

Governor Scott Walker on Thursday announced his own legislation, funding increased safety on campuses. However, it did not address gun restrictions. The students hand-delivered a letter to the governor’s office with five demands: universal background checks, raising the minimum age to buy rifles, banning bump stocks, limiting magazine capacity and making gun safety training more accessible.

Emma Falk:

I truly believe that like we can get people in office that — you know, that our voices and our new generation is really going to make that difference in the polls.

Marisa Wojcik:

The student organizers are determined that if the current legislature can’t get it done, they’ll find others who will.

[cheers and applause]

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. From students to teachers and administrators. What is the response to the student action and the governor’s call for school safety? We turn now to the Superintendent of Madison Schools, Jennifer Cheatham, for her take. And thanks very much for being here.

Jennifer Cheatham:

I'm happy to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is your reaction to some 3,000 students, most of them from your school district, taking part in the walk-out and march over gun safety?

Jennifer Cheatham:

I've got to tell you, I am incredibly proud of the youth. I feel strongly. I know our school board does and the educators in Madison, that we’re preparing students to graduate from high school, ready for college, career and full participation in their community. And we think this is an example of students becoming college, career and community-ready. They have an opinion. They want to voice their opinion. And I'm proud of their participation.

Frederica Freyberg:

So my next question was whether or not the Madison School District sanctioned this action and it would sound as though you do.

Jennifer Cheatham:

I think it’s a little more nuanced than that. We sanction student voice. It is a core value of our school district. And it’s important to know that we didn’t organize the event. And by no means did we do so. We always encourage students to stay in school, and we did. And we communicated with parents, if their child chooses to participate in a demonstration of any sort, we want to make sure that they’re communicating with their children, making plans so that children are doing so safely.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your overall reaction to the governor’s school safety plan?

Jennifer Cheatham:

You know, that’s a great question. I am glad to see that he’s proposed something. I think that’s very positive. And I don’t think it yet gets to where we need it to be. I think a couple of concerns that I have are the one-time funding. School districts are continually working on safety and security measures. It’s not something we do once. We do it continually, which means a continual investment. So it concerns me that the proposal is for one-time funding. I’d like to see a commitment to ongoing funding for safety and security.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you have a number in mind that your district would need to make itself secure going forward?

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's a great question. No, I don’t. But I think it would be interesting to see a per-pupil amount that was ongoing to support safety and security measures and for school districts to be able to flexibly use those funds to align our safety and security practices to best practices.

Frederica Freyberg:

So his plan would include these grants, as you say, to make security improvements and hire resource officers. What does your district need in terms of those kinds of enhancements?

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's a great question. There are several kind of components of safety and security. There are facilities investments. We want to make sure that teachers, for example, can secure their doors, you know, if there were to be a threat in a school. We want to make sure that there are front entranceways that allow for clear visibility of what’s happening outside of the school, right? So there are facilities enhancements. There’s also ongoing training. It’s, again, something you don’t do once, but every year we have to continually train staff. So there are investments in that area. And then of course there’s staffing. We have security assistants, for example, in many of our schools. We pay for an education resource officer at each of our high schools. We fund that fully as a school district. So, again, I think there are multiple facets and we’d love to see some funding dedicated to all those areas.

Frederica Freyberg:

And those education resource officers are police officers and they carry guns.

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's true, yep. We have one Madison police department officer trained specifically to be an education resource officer assigned to each of our four comprehensive high schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

One officer for hundreds and hundreds of students.

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's right.

Frederica Freyberg:

The governor’s plan also calls for incorporating trauma-informed care into training programs. How robust or lacking is that kind of training right now in your district?

Jennifer Cheatham:

Yeah. We have certainly made investments in training on trauma-informed care and we’ve actually taken it beyond there. We invest in integrated mental health and a subset of our schools are expanding that program in the coming year. And we work very closely with the county, funding a program called “Building Bridges” that allows families and students to get the mental health services that they need. So I say that mainly because trauma-informed care is one piece of a larger package of I think essential initiatives to provide the mental health services that students and families need.

Frederica Freyberg:

Critics say that the governor’s school safety plan does not address the gun issue like universal background checks. Is that something as school superintendent that you want to weigh in on?

Jennifer Cheatham:

I do. The Madison School Board has already stated its support for common sense gun reform. They approved a resolution at our school board last month along those lines. We would like to see that included in the governor’s package.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to leave it there. Jennifer Cheatham, thank you very much.

Jennifer Cheatham:

All right. Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now to agricultural news and challenges facing farmers in the western part of the state. In tonight’s closer look, low crop and milk prices are taking a toll that’s both economic and emotional for state’s farmers. “Here and Now” contributor Andy Soth reports on how one small southwestern Wisconsin community is responding, led by an owner of the local feed mill.

[high school band music]

Andy Soth:

In Seneca in Crawford County, in the state’s southwest corner, the talk of the town has been the basketball team’s conference-winning season. It’s what they’re talking about mornings at Olson's Feed Service on Highway 27.

Man:

We couldn’t shake them. We only beat them by ten.

Tammy Olson:

Sometimes I joke that we’re the feed mill, but sometimes we’re the rumor mill or the conversation mill.

Andy Soth:

Seneca’s success on the court has been a welcome distraction. Talk of tariffs and potential trade retaliation from foreign importers are weighing on these dairy farmers’ minds.

Man:

We got to get milk out of the country, grain out of the country.

Tammy Olson:

Absolutely.

Andy Soth:

At the feed mill, they’ve seen the economic strain already-low milk prices have put on local producers. Feed is a major production expense. At the mill they make custom mixes of grain products and minerals specific to each herd’s nutritional demands. Then they deliver the product directly to the farm, where it’s rationed to the cows.

Chris Olson:

What I try to do is just try to match the best ingredients, the most cost effective ingredients for the animals to make them the most profitable.

Andy Soth:

Requests for those more economic solutions have gone up.

Tammy Olson:

They’ll try to come up with something that might be a little less expensive or maybe you don’t have to feed quite so much of something.

Andy Soth:

But for Tammy Olson, the real barometer of hard times has been the mood of her customers.

Tammy Olson:

Want a donut?

Man:

Sure.

Tammy Olson:

Normally we have very upbeat, happy people that walk through here and we’re always laughing and joking around. And it just hasn’t been that way. I’m like, “How are you doing today?” And I kept getting the same answer. “Well, why are we doing this? Who in their right mind works in an industry where not only are you not making money, but it’s almost as if you’re paying to work in this industry.” It’s been very sad, very “What am I going to do?” They’re frustrated. They’re distressed. It’s despair.

Andy Soth:

Despair she recognized when reading online about a rise in suicides among farmers.

Tammy Olson:

And I found that to be very disturbing and heartbreaking. And then I found out that western Wisconsin led the nation in bankruptcies in 2017.

Andy Soth:

Farm or so-called Chapter 12 bankruptcies have increased steadily in the U.S. bankruptcy courts western Wisconsin district, doubling from 2014 to last year.

Tammy Olson:

And I'm like how could I be proud of that statistic? I’m proud of the fact that I'm from Wisconsin and that I participate in our dairy production and the real seal and I can’t be proud of this.

Andy Soth:

On the feed mill’s Facebook page, where Olson had been posting updates on her recent bear sightings, she started sharing the hard news. But she knew she had to do more than post about the problems.

Tammy Olson:

And uncharacteristically I reached out and I made some phone calls and sent some emails to my state representatives, and much to my surprise and much to my happiness, they sent me their schedules, and we found the date of March 16 and we are now having our own town hall-type meeting.

Andy Soth:

The event won’t just be elected officials. Government agencies and industry will be represented. And perhaps most importantly for those feeling despair, information on how to get help.

Tammy Olson:

These programs are out there. And I think it’s important people know that and realize that they’re available to you and use them. There’s no shame. Nobody’s going to turn their back on you.

Frederica Freyberg:

That report was supported by the O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University, where Andy Soth is a fellow this year. Now joining us by phone is Tammy Olson, fresh from the meeting she organized in Seneca that took place earlier today. Tammy, thank you so much for being here.

Tammy Olson:

Oh, thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how did the town hall go?

Tammy Olson:

Very much as expected. We had 110 chairs and they were full and I would say there were probably at least another 80 people plus standing. It was overwhelming, the support that we received. And for a brief moment I was worried that nobody was going to speak. And that worry was unfounded. We had wonderful conversations, emotional conversation. And I think that most people were able to get their questions answered. If not answered, we led them in a direction that they can follow up. Everybody got contact information that they need.

Frederica Freyberg:

How hard is it for farmers to, quote, kind of get involved in something like this?

Tammy Olson:

I think that once it was organized, they were very happy to have a forum. They’re busy people. There’s nobody harder working than a farmer, whether it be beef, grain, dairy. They don’t have time to organize what I tried to organize for them. And they were certainly appreciative of it and they showed up in full force with their voices. And I was glad they did.

Frederica Freyberg:

Was it a relief for farmers to have the ear of policymakers today?

Tammy Olson:

I'm not sure if it was a relief, because, you know, there’s no quick answer to this. And they knew that coming in. And I think when they realized this is their forum to tell them what they need, then there was a little bit of a, okay, yes, let’s do that. And I was very impressed. I’m the first one to jump on the farmer bandwagon. There is no dumb farmer. That is a stereotype that makes me very angry. They are very hard-working but they’re also very intelligent. People in our industry have to be their own mechanics. They have to be their own–sometimes they have to be their own doctors. And they’re not used to having a forum like this but they rose to the occasion. I’m very proud of all of them.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what was the overriding message that was being sent there today?

Tammy Olson:

The overriding message I heard was that our officials are not doing anything for us and what are you going to do now that you heard us. What are you going to do? And we are going to keep asking you this question. We now know how to get ahold of you. We are going to do that. And I hope they do.

Frederica Freyberg:

So were the people there, the policymakers, the lawmakers, the agency people, were they receptive to this message? And do you get the sense that there will be some kind of actual relief forthcoming?

Tammy Olson:

Not only were they receptive, I think they were very gracious. They understood that the emotions did get high. There were some moments when we had to take the pot off to avoid the boil and try to back it down a little bit. And it was Jennifer Shilling, I have to give her all kinds of props because I thought she did an amazing job at bringing that pot back to a simmer and maybe give a little bit of hope that tell me what you need. I do talk to these people daily. I am the one that can get your message across. Unfortunately it’s not going to be Monday morning. It’s going to be when the Farm Bill is introduced and discussed.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Tammy, we leave it there, but we’d like to keep following you and this issue and the people there. Thanks very much for your time, Tammy Olson.

Tammy Olson:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Special session, special election, regular elections. We want to break it all down with our two political commentators Bill McCoshen, managing partner of Capitol Consultants, and One Wisconsin Now Executive Director, Scot Ross. Thanks you guys for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So first reaction to the governor’s call for a special session on school safety?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, seems to be a little disagreement between the houses on whether or not there will be a special session. The speaker, Robin Vos, and the governor agreed there should be a special session. The governor introduced his agenda. Majority Leader of the Senate Scott Fitzgerald said not so fast. We’re going to pass bills in regular session next Tuesday when they met. So it sort of remains to be seen whether or not this is going to actually happen.

Scot Ross:

Aside from the fact Republicans can’t govern even though they’re in charge of everything, let us not forget this. This is a plan Scott Walker is doing because he has a political problem. And so course his plan does nothing about — his plan to keep guns out of schools does nothing to keep guns out of schools. In fact, giving $100 million slush fund to Brad Schimel, a guy who a week and a half ago said we should put guns in schools, seems like the worst possible idea you could ever have if you really want to keep guns out of our schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think about the optics of the governor being way, way out of state, up north when thousands of students marched on the capitol over school safety?

Scot Ross:

I'll give him a break on that. I’m sure it was probably scheduled. He has been traveling non-stop around the state as he’s getting ready for his re-election campaign. Whether you’re in Florence, whether you’re in Ladysmith, whether you’re in Madison, you know that Scott Walker is in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. The guy’s gotten $3.5 million from them. One of the biggest elected official grabs in all of America.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about–go ahead.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah, I would say, I agree. The governor’s traveling all the time and you can’t adjust your schedule because one group of protestors going to happen to show up on a particular day. But I would say school safety is a big issue nationally now largely because of what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida. Now different governors are taking different approaches. I think this is a reasonable approach on behalf of Governor Walker. It remains to be seen whether or not the legislature’s actually going to act on it. But it is an issue voters are focusing on right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

We did see a recent Marquette Law School poll that said 81% of the respondents were in favor of universal background checks and 56% of respondents were in favor of banning assault-style weapons. So is the approach that Wisconsin is looking at somewhat tone deaf?

Bill McCoshen:

No. I don’t think so. Walker is in favor of background checks. President Trump’s in favor of background checks. I don’t know why that’s not part of the package here. It probably could have been and maybe will be before this thing is all done. But as far as it relates to guns, that’s a trickier ones. The guns weren’t the issue in Florida. It was a failure by law enforcement, both in the sheriff’s department and by the FBI that really caused that to happen.

Scot Ross:

I'm going to be very quick. I’m going to tell you a story. Scott Walker authored a bill to put concealed carry on the street. In 2002 he ran for county executive and voted against conceal carry. As governor he signed concealed carry into office. Scott Walker has one way to deal with things politically. He has a problem because people want real common sense gun reforms. But instead of doing that, he is throwing money at Brad Schimel. That is not a solution. It’s not going to keep guns out of our schools unfortunately.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you say the issue is not the guns?

Bill McCoshen:

It's not the guns. No, not in this particular case. What happened in Florida was a failure on the part of law enforcement. There’s no question about that. They had dozens of notices about this kid and they didn’t do anything with them. And then the guys that did respond stood outside and let this shooting continue. What happened from law enforcement there is a lesson to law enforcement across the nation what you cannot do in a situation like that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let's move to Pennsylvania. Scot Ross?

Scot Ross:

Yes. It’s actually Pennsylvania 18. I grew up there. My dad and my brother still live there. And this was a utter shellacking for Donald Trump and for Paul Ryan. They went in and Paul Ryan spent $13.5 million and lost a seat that Donald Trump won by 20 points. I mean the last time a Democrat held that office I think I was in my late 20s. This is a huge, huge victory. And an indication that there is a big blue wave coming.

Frederica Freyberg:

Indication of that?

Bill McCoshen:

Oh my god. Not even close. This race is separated by 600 votes. It’s likely to go to a recount. Perhaps Conor Lamb wins, perhaps he doesn’t. I would say this about Conor Lamb. He’s the kind of Democrat that my mom and dad would have voted for in the past. He’s pro-life. He’s pro-gun. He’s pro-military and he’s anti-big government. This guy came out against Nancy Pelosi. Those are things my parents would have related to. Likely Scot’s parents relate to. He’s a moderate Democrat which is very different than Democrats are offering anywhere else in the country.

Scot Ross:

I will add this. My mom absolutely, if she were still alive, would have voted for Conor Lamb because he’s pro-union and she was a union public school teacher for 35 years and you’re totally right about that. But Conor Lamb, let’s not kid ourselves, he came out against Trump’s tax cut, against Trump’s cuts to Obamacare, against Paul Ryan’s attacks on…

Bill McCoshen:

He’s for the tariffs.

Scot Ross:

Yeah, of course, on social security Medicare. He said no more restrictions on abortion even though he is pro-life.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you reject the idea that a conservative Democrat won, because he was a conservative Democrat as opposed to a tide against Donald Trump.

Scot Ross:

I would say this. Many, many, many elections–what? 90, 95% are won on filing day because you get the right candidate for the district. He was the right candidate for this district. But to paint him as a Republican, which is what Paul Ryan and the Republicans are trying to do because they got shell lacked I think is disingenuous to say the least looking at the facts.

Bill McCoshen:

I’m not painting him as a Republican, I’m just saying that’s what Democrats used to look like. They don’t look anything like that today.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are you saying Republicans aren’t worried about this?

Bill McCoshen:

They ought to be. It’s a wake-up call. Donald Trump won this district by 20 points. There’s no question about that. The president himself went and campaigned 72 hours before the final vote yet his candidate or our party’s candidate lost by 600, at least by this point in time. So it’s a wake-up call for sure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So millionaire anti-Trump millionaire Tom Steyer is setting up shop in Wisconsin. Tammy Baldwin is being bashed by big money already on the airwaves. What kind of moneyed warfare should we be expecting going forward?

Scot Ross:

I think there’s going to be a lot of money spent. I mean, what, they spent the most money of any Senate race against Tammy Baldwin so far. There’s opportunity here. It’s why Scott Walker is refusing to hold special elections in the 42nd Assembly district and the 1st Senate district. We have an election coming up on April 3rd, which literally, oh god, the eyes of America are going to be back on Wisconsin politically because what happens here with that in the fact that progressives have a first chance in a generation to win an open Supreme Court seat is pretty big news.

Bill McCoshen:

Electoral history is on Tammy Baldwin's side at this point in time, but Republicans see this as a golden opportunity. It’s one of their top ten targets nationally. Look for about $50 million or more to be spent in this race.

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross, thank you.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

That's our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here and Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

For more information on “Here and Now’s” 2018 election coverage, go to WisconsinVote.org.