Wisconsin's governor, Scott Walker, hasn’t announced a presidential run. But it’s a safe bet that higher education will come up often if he seeks the Republican nomination, as many presume.
That’s because the second-term governor has been cast, or positioned himself, as a primary antagonist of the academy.
During the last few weeks Walker has battled with the University of Wisconsin System over budget cuts and anabortive attempt to edit the Wisconsin Idea, the century-old and unusually beloved mission statement of the university.
The tumult probably hasn't reached the intensity it did in 2011, when Walker challenged collective bargaining for public employee unions, including those of faculty members and graduate students. Back then he also floated a plan for the state's flagship, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to leave the university system.
But the net result has been the view that while Walker's office in the Capitol is a mile from the Madison campus, the two are worlds apart. And that can be an asset to a politician looking to cultivate the Republican base.
Alan Knox, a professor emeritus of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, toldInside Higher Ed that Walker’s budget plan "sounds more like a slogan for the Tea Party and presidential aspirations than a serious effort to look at what would improve the state or the University of Wisconsin System."
Walker had a different take on the budget proposal, which also would grant the university more autonomy.
"The people of Wisconsin deserve a government that is more effective, more efficient and more accountable," he said in a written statement, "and this plan protects the taxpayers and allows for a stronger UW System in the future."
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/16/gov-scott-walker-mixes-it-higher-education-generating-national-headlines