… replacing it with a résumé-based system for merit hiring.
I think I know what will be required on the résumés to be hired under the current administration.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article continues:
Republicans have already made changes in recent months, eliminating the Office of State Employment Relations as part of the state budget and replacing it with a new Division of Personnel Management in which Walker can appoint the person responsible for the state’s merit hiring rules.
I wonder if an analogous measure could be profitably applied for university applications. Who needs to do math, or be able to read in order to learn accounting or physics or writing?
Update, 9/29: My colleague Don Moynihan has published a more formal argument for what should and should not be included in civil service reform.
This, indeed, could be a dangerous precedent. When the next Democratic Party governor is elected, those jobs will only go to those with UAW, SEIU, or similar on their resumes.
Civil service exams may not be the perfect approach, but the method to improve should come off a standardized baseline. Obviously, top jobs go to the connected.
MMMMM???? Who on Walker’s team owns a resume writing business??
NASA is one of the few agencies that does not do exams. I got hired because I listed a friend as a reference. That friend worked in the division I was applying to. A friend that I told to take the job at NASA and never look back. Sometimes you get lucky. Very Lucky!!!
Dear Dr. Chinn,
The release of the State’s local unemployment rate press release sets me thinking of several things.
https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsreleases/2015/unemployment/150923_august_local.pdf
1. There seems to be a growing recognition that just focusing on the unemployment rate does not necessarily indicate how well the state is doing:
http://www.wpr.org/economist-cautious-latest-wisconsin-jobs-report
2. One of the few bright spots in the state is Madison. http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.wi_madison_msa.htm The labor force seems to be growing and the unemployment rate is consistently the lowest in the state.
But, instead of determining what is working well there and supporting it, legislators seem determined to keep supporting extractive resource industries that do little to grow local economies long term and, but, rather are highly dependent on boom and bust cycles. http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/sep/27/as-oil-slides-wisconsin-suffers-sand-bu/
3. Short sighted management of transportation funding to bolster claims of “austerity/small government” politics rather than providing the required services can lead to push back from those populations impacted. http://www.gazettextra.com/20150926/our_views_freeway_delay_disgusting_dangerous
Thank you.