Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here up north on a Wednesday morning.
December 17, 2025, Parker Olson producing things down in Madison, Elie Bordeaux standing by to talk about the daily newsletter we put out at Up North News later this hour.
Our friends Chris Hamburgboil and Heather Dubois born on from the Wisconsin Public Education Network for our final visit in a weekly segment called Home Room.
talking all about public education in Wisconsin.
These two women got me started on the concept of having a segment dedicated to public schools in Wisconsin, so it'll be nice to close out the chapter with them.
Speaking of which, if you missed me mentioning it last hour, although the show comes to an end after this Friday, there will be two weeks worth of highlight shows.
Parker's been busy putting together all kinds of highlights from the best of 2025, and we have sprinkled in there some new material as well.
We have an end of the year
Look back with Joseph Pecky and Melissa Baldoff.
We have Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands visiting with us.
Author Laura Bird has some book recommendations for the new year.
We will have a special segment of playing all of the announcement ads from all of the candidates for governor back to back to back so that you can hear them all and see if there's anything that stands out that maybe there's a candidate you weren't sure about them.
Maybe you'll see.
something that you or hear something you like about them in that.
So all that plus lots of great highlights from the course of the year coming up.
Not to mention the full story of Pigeon Quest with Melissa K. That will be one of the segments coming up in the next couple of weeks.
But Melissa K also joins us before we wrap up our show today to tell us more about Pigeon Quest.
If you weren't there for it, if you didn't know that rescue pigeons were a thing, you do now and you're going to learn more in just a bit.
But first, it is time to talk to the Oracle of Economy Walk, Ellie Bordeaux, our newsletter editor, who we bring in with a little Beatles.
Well, McCartney's a little bit older than Ellie here is today, but still, I hope you appreciate the sentiment.
Nonetheless, Ellie, happy birthday.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
I love it.
Okay.
Well, that's great.
Let's see.
And you said it right in the newsletter.
I mean, apparently you haven't reached the age where we're not supposed to ask a woman her age and you put it right out there to tens of thousands of readers.
Yeah, I mean, I don't really have any shame in that.
I don't mind.
24.
24.
24.
I don't think we're old enough to really mind.
I guess I guess not.
Rob says good morning from Tigerton.
It's partly cloudy 32.
It was 39 degrees overnight.
I have a doctor's appointment in Shawno and then some possible freezing rain and temperatures on the roller coaster and he concludes by saying happy birthday Ellie.
Thank you Rob.
Thank you.
And and then Tony of course.
Oh no.
25, so old.
You're gonna do that thing next year, aren't you?
Where you're gonna go, I'm a quarter of a century, oh my gosh.
Probably a little bit, I can't lie.
But
I'm
safe from it right now.
Oh yeah, you're safe for another one more year of youth that you've got for yourself.
Are you doing anything?
I mean, midweek birthdays are always tough.
So either last weekend or next weekend, are you doing something special?
So tonight, I'm going out to dinner.
day I'm pretty casual.
Tomorrow I'm celebrating with my family.
We do, our family has a lot of Christmas traditions so one of the things we always do is decorate Christmas cookies and we always kind of use it as a little bit of a birthday celebration too so doing that tomorrow and then this weekend we're, I've got a group of friends, we're going to our local dive bar, we're watching the Packer Game and we're just gonna hang out which is
my dream way to celebrate my birthday.
Yes, it is with friends.
No, I think that's that's that's great.
So having a birthday this close to Christmas, would you say I mean, a week away is that far enough away that you actually do get some birthday time?
Or do you feel like it is getting lumped in and you're only getting one present a year instead of two?
Honestly, like, I feel like all of my friends and my family have done a very good job.
keeping it very separate.
I don't ever feel like it's been lumped in.
I also don't know any difference.
So even if it was being lumped in...
I wouldn't really know.
I think that's a that's a very good attitude.
And so baby Jesus is not mad at you.
You have a good mindset about that.
So good for you.
Ellie Bordeaux puts together a newsletter.
You can sign up for it at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And we've had a lot of fun talking about the locals love section in the newsletter, where people talk about favorite this or that.
And the this or that last time around was supper clubs, which I always
you know, love hearing about, always looking for a new place to go.
Do you feel like you learned much of anything by getting some of the reader contributions to that?
Yeah, I mean, I always learned something new in these Locals Love sections, and that's why I love it so much.
Because there are so many places that I've never heard of, and I'm like, well, now I got to go try this.
So we got a ton of submissions.
The Ranch Supper Club in Hayward, Dreamland Supper Club in South Range.
Digger sting restaurant in the cross which came in from the radio show So we got a we have some people from the radio show that came in and submitted things so it's always so fun we For dreamland supper club we had someone say it's been years since we dined at the Wisconsin supper club But decided to try dreamland for our anniversary.
We make it our annual anniversary spot The food was outstanding everything cooked to perfection and such a good value So it's so great to hear and highlight these local businesses that people love and
get people through the doors, you know?
Absolutely.
So again, you'll see that locals love section in our weekday newsletter and looking ahead on that.
You've got a nice holiday theme here, holiday markets.
Yes, yeah, tis the season.
So we, in our Badger state buzz section as well, we have talked all about different holiday things going on and holiday markets are
in no shortage in Wisconsin, that's for sure.
So there are plenty of holiday markets, holiday light shows, different ways to celebrate the holidays throughout the state.
So we wanna hear your favorite holiday markets, ways to spend the holidays, those kinds of things and send them in with photos.
We'll feature them and.
It's going to be great.
I'm looking forward to
it.
Yeah, a true holiday theme for our local's love section.
Are you also appreciating the fact that at Courier Newsroom, we have a very generous holiday policy.
And that includes the full week off between Christmas and New Year's.
That's the good news.
The bad news is still being a newsroom and media company.
We still have to prepare things that have to publish pretty much every day during that time off.
So yeah, you get the time off, but you're kind of working at double speed leading up to that.
I have a feeling you've got a couple of different newsletter templates and you're busy trying to fill those out for the holiday week.
Yes, this is true.
We actually only are going to be sending one newsletter throughout that time on December 30th.
I believe
it
is.
And we're going to kind of do a little look back at some of our favorite stories throughout the year.
Some of our favorite photos, different submissions that people have had in because of our Your Wisconsin Views section.
It's great to highlight those photos that people have sent in too.
So we're going to be taking a look at some of just our favorites from the year.
Nothing too heavy just because it's the holidays.
We want to keep it light and that kind of thing.
So we'll only have one
throughout that time but yeah be sure to keep an eye out for
it.
Okay that sounds good and another section in the newsletter is our civic check-in all about you know ways that you can boost your civic engagement and one key way to do that is to let elected officials know what's on your mind and you help people do that.
Yeah absolutely so that's what we focused on today we wanted to
teach people how to contact their lawmakers and why it's so important.
And so sometimes I think people don't really know how to go about that.
So we gave you all of the tools to do so.
There's a place on My Vote Wisconsin where you can enter your address and see all of your elected officials.
And then there's contact information available.
for your Madison representatives and legislators and your U.S.
senators and U.S.
representatives, where you can see all of their contact information just by entering your address and seeing who represents you.
And so we talk a little bit about why this is so important, and it's a good way to participate in democracy, obviously, but it also is, that's how they know.
what's on your mind that's how they know what their constituents need and so they won't know that unless you contact them and be sure you don't need to be an expert on the topic but share your thoughts it's important to let them know what's happening what you think and they will take that into consideration hopefully.
Right I mean I can say as as a legislator it's not you don't necessarily see every phone message or email
depending if like an avalanche of them come in, but you've got staff that, you know, hold them all up and they give you a summary and they let you know.
There's a whole lot of people that are thinking about X or there's a whole lot of people that are opposed to Y and that.
won't happen in a vacuum.
It takes people that will take the time to call in.
And by the way, I add parenthetically, if you call in to your, your congressman's office, your senator's office, your legislator's office, be nice.
These are staff people.
You're not, you're not talking to the actual politician and these staff people are, you know, they have jobs just like you.
It's customer service type work.
So, you know, mind your manners, state your business, state, state that you're vehemently opposed or in favor of something, but
Don't take it out on the nice people who are taking your phone calls.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's a very good point.
And again, your personal experiences matters to them.
And they want to hear those things, but that's a very good point of be nice.
These people are just trying to do their jobs, that kind of thing.
And
They will get your message across.
Oh, yeah.
And by the way, if you do have a particular personal story or angle, sometimes that does get passed along because every legislator wants to know about unintended consequences or things like that.
So do feel free to share.
And one more note that Ellie mentions the My Vote website.
That's myvote.wi.gov.
And a reminder that if you wait till after the first of the year when the calendar year starts,
you go to myvote.wi.gov.
There is a box that you can check off and all of the absentee ballots for the entire calendar year will be sent to you rather than having to go election by election by election.
If you just know now that absentee voting is what you prefer, it's the way to go.
f from January 1st onward, you can check just one box if you choose to and have all that year's absentee ballots mailed to you.
It's a great feature, along with everything else.
Ellie talked about, you know, it'll tell you who all of your representatives are, Congress, legislature, county, school, on and on.
It's just a great resource that Ellie's highlighting in the newsletter at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And I believe we had one more.
Oh, yes, we can't skip the photographs.
Holy cow, Ellie.
Yes, yes.
So I actually spoke with this photographer.
His name is Peter Wagner and I spoke with him earlier this week and he has a really incredible story about how he's making a difference and giving back to the friends of the Apostle Islands through his photography.
So he is a business member from them and he's a part of their program where if people
by one of his prints.
He gives back to this organization and he's an incredible photographer.
And this is a story that's going to be featured in the newsletter that's coming out tomorrow.
So just keep an eye out for that to learn more.
But he had just such a great story.
He talks about he had this goal to hit
or see all 50 states before he was 60, and he did that two months before he turned 60.
And he just has a really incredible story.
So we're really excited to feature him and tell his story.
And so just keep an eye out for that tomorrow, for sure.
Well, for tomorrow, that means you got to get subscribed today.
If you're not already, head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Click Subscribe and the banner at the top of the homepage.
And give a look at what Ellie's putting together on the weekdays and what I do on Sundays.
Ellie, enjoy the rest of your birthday.
Thanks for taking time out of it to visit with us.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
All right.
No, we appreciate it very much.
All right.
Have a great day.
Have a great birthday.
2024.
I'm trying to remember 24.
24 was oh yeah, it was 1988.
We were pregnant pregnant with child number one.
So very, very long ago.
the old days.
I'm going to go reflect and look at some old black and white photos.
We'll be back.
I'm Pat Crite Low live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network, our homeroom segment coming up in just 15 minutes.
855-755-CIVIC-855-752-4842, if you'd like to call, use that number to text us as well, or use the Civic Media app to call us or text us or leave us a voice note with any questions, any comments on things in the news.
For example, the crushing of any final hopes that before the end of the year, Congress might take a vote and extend the
tax credits that had helped keep health insurance more affordable to some 20 million Americans.
There have been plenty of moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives asking, demanding of Speaker Mike Johnson, that a vote be held.
So they can at least go on record as saying that unlike a lot of their extremist friends, they actually would like to see people be able to afford health insurance and not just say
Well, because we jacked up your rates, therefore, you know, the Affordable Care Act doesn't work.
And Speaker Mike Johnson had some closed door meetings with Republicans, came out and said this, we looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve of a vote.
And it was just not to be.
That's how Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans jacked up your health insurance prices with the words, it
just was not to be.
It could be just schedule the damn vote.
It's not that tough is to hold a clean, up or down vote on whether healthcare costs should go up for 20 million Americans.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people that are perfectly happy with that.
Think of Derek Van Orden, for example.
Think of Tom Tiffany, for example.
You know, Derek Van Orden recently tweeted that, you know, the Affordable Care Act is a house of cards and would send hundreds of billions of dollars to insurance companies as opposed to making healthcare more affordable.
To which I again ask the Congressman, what's your plan?
And all we've heard is, well, let's send that money back to the American people.
Well, because then the American people allegedly have this extra money, which apparently is like $1,000.
And health insurance costs are so much higher than that.
If you really, if you were honest and did not want to send more money to the health insurance companies,
you would find a way to make sure that Americans weren't sending more money to health insurance companies.
But you really don't care about that.
I would go so far as to say you're lying.
You're actually very happy that health insurance companies are about to get a lot more money and that you have no interest whatsoever in helping your constituents afford health insurance.
Now if you want to tackle affordability in health care from a different
standpoint, something that affects the way that hospitals and doctors are reimbursed for care or something like that.
I mean, have at it.
Seriously, all ideas are welcome.
But the only idea we've heard so far is let's give everybody $1,000 and put it into a health savings account, which will do nothing.
It will help a few people who already have the bucks to afford higher health insurance premiums, but it won't actually bring the premiums down.
Mike Johnson knows that, Derek Van Orden knows that, Tom Tiffany knows that, and yet instead of proposing something else that would make health insurance affordable, they just say, well, the system doesn't work.
The system that we have been trying to break, the system that we have been trying to repeal for more than a decade,
doesn't work, and we have nothing else to replace it with.
So I mean, you're literally doing less than nothing other than trying to make political points by thinking that you're somehow, what, tap dancing on the grave of the Affordable Care Act?
It doesn't work that way.
Everybody sees it.
And again, there are plenty of Republicans who see it.
Take Texas Republican Chipproy.
Again, with whom I have very little in agreement.
Some of the things that he says I think are just truly awful.
But when it comes to health insurance and health care coverage, he gets it.
And he's listening to some of his Republican colleagues talking about doing nothing and that this will really show Americans and this will show the insurance companies and all that.
Chip Roy in a hearing yesterday just ripped into his fellow Republicans.
He said, now we're sitting here and we're listening to nonsense about health care.
My colleagues on the other aisle are saying, well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive expensive cost of health care.
And he says, because all his Republican friends are offering is, quote, milk toast garbage.
And he says that all members of Congress must go.
When a fellow Republican calls your work pathetic and milk toast garbage and won't even allow a vote to maintain the one thing that is keeping health insurance costs affordable, you know you've got a problem.
You've lost Chip Roy on this issue.
You've lost Marjorie Taylor Greene on this issue.
These are people who are so extreme on so many other issues, but they understand
the bread and butter of health care and having it be affordable.
We can fight about all these other things but it doesn't matter if you're not doing something proactive that would help Americans and you've got nothing to offer.
I look through the rest of Derek Van Orden's recent Twitter feed and it is again nothing but dozens and dozens of insults and sarcasm
And making fun of somebody's genital size?
I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.
This is how Derek Van Orden is spending his time.
Not searching for any kind of solution, but echoing the same old tired talking points claiming he doesn't want Americans sending a bunch of money to health insurance companies.
Well, again, I say Congressman Van Orden, Tiffany and the others.
What the hell is your alternative?
And as soon as you've got a real one, could you let us know?
Because we keep hearing it's two weeks away from Donald Trump.
And that doesn't seem to be, I think you guys might be lying to us.
Our final edition of Home Room is coming up next, talking about protecting and strengthening public education in the state of Wisconsin.
I'm Pat Critewell.
You're up North.
All right, if you missed it, it's story time again here as we talk about our homeroom segment.
The homeroom segment got started with a simple conversation.
I wanted to learn more about how do we explain to folks the ways that the school funding system in our state is just broken?
And can we convey that to folks?
Maybe through a video or a video series or maybe an interview or two.
And it was pretty clear after having more conversations with Heather Dubois-Bornan and Chris Hamburg-Boyle from the Wisconsin Public Education Network, it was going to take more than that, that this is something that should be ongoing.
And a segment was born where we hope that over the past couple of years we've been able to fill people in on the need to support and strengthen
our public schools in Wisconsin and defend them against some very well organized efforts to to undermine public education and to bring some transparency to taxpayers.
I don't know if it if it worked well enough or not.
It it must have because the the people who started this with me are joining me here now.
That includes the aforementioned Heather Dubois-Bornan and Chris Handbook Boyle from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Hello to both of you.
Good morning.
Good morning, Pat.
Good morning.
And then you went and brought friends.
You wanted to test the limits of my computer window over here, so also from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
We bring in Brynn Horton and Denise Gomer Hutchison and Camden Harbgrove are all here from the network as well.
Chris, Heather, what the heck is that?
We're here to celebrate you, Pat, and to thank you.
I really have appreciated your knowledge and your persistence of that knowledge.
Your news evoking conversations with your listeners about public school funding.
You're so, so, so appreciated.
Your statewide dependable factual voice that helped us do our work is going to be really missed.
But I hope we do something going forward that might even knock the socks off Wisconsin even more.
I think I think you Chris Heather I think I can I can see that happening in the 2026 and you know the whole reason that I'm kind of shifting gears here is that 2026 it's going to be a big year Heather there's there's a lot to tell people about
Well, there is so much and we are so grateful Pat to the role that you've played in helping tell the stories of folks around the state and how they've been impacted by policy, what they need in their local schools, what they have to celebrate in their local school districts and just.
generally being a positive voice for all of the amazing things that are happening statewide to support Wisconsin kids.
So we all just wanted to come on and let you know how much we appreciate that and how much we're looking forward to joining you in whatever your next steps are so that we can keep telling those stories and getting the word out there that there are so many opportunities for folks to take action with us.
Well, thank you.
And it only happens because there are folks who are willing to have a big picture state view of these things, but also all the people
that are working at a local level or a regional level.
Denise Gammer-Hutchison, you're definitely one of them.
It's been great to have conversations about you to get the word out that while we hear about it in the state capital all the time, the difference is really made in each little hometown, in each community, at each school board meeting.
And it's been fun to watch you get people informed and get them energized to stand up for their local schools, Denise.
Thanks, Pat, and we couldn't have done it without you because you helped us keep that ripple of information going across the state.
You know, Green Bay was the first to do the actual on-the-tax bill notification about what's going on with the taxpayers and with vouchers and the impact.
And men, is it having an impact?
The tax bills hit this last week and we are hearing about it all over the city.
What do you mean I'm paying for that?
you know what do you mean that's you know coming out of my tax bill and you helped us make that happen so thank you
thank you Denise and that and that actually is the question that started all of this is I wanted people to look at their
property tax bill and say, wait, I'm paying for what?
And I know that Chris very early on was doing that in the Eau Claire district was trying to help people understand that taxpayers are paying for two school systems in the state, not just one and that they don't see the breakdown of the cost of the voucher program.
But thanks to to your work and everybody else's, that is really starting to happen.
But there's there's more that happens than just that one issue of taxpayer transparency.
There's
just a myriad of bills that come up in the legislature, some designed to support education, some frankly designed to, you know, hog tie education efforts in our public schools.
And Bryn Horton is an absolute rock star at tracking all that.
Bryn, I really appreciate all that you do and hope that, you know, we're going to keep talking about the ways that we keep our legislators accountable.
Yeah, Pat, there's not a lot of people I get up and talk legislative with it at 730 in the morning.
So I appreciate having this space to do it.
And I'm just going to say call out while I'm still here is there's an education committee hearing at 1pm today on bills that aren't going to do anything to help school districts in the slightest bit.
So we'll keep calling it out and hopefully in partnership with you.
Oh, absolutely.
In some way, shape, or form, we appreciate doing that.
Camden Hargrove is one of the newest voices over at the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
And so since we're talking about it in a school frame, Camden, I'll say, what have you learned so far, working with the network about not just what you've learned, but what is the right thing to do going forward?
What is the strategy toward having outcomes next year that will make our public schools even stronger?
Yeah, well, thank you for having me tonight today and Look I said tonight.
I'm I'm not that much of a morning person So that's why maybe I haven't been on at 7 30 all the time with these other ladies But I have learned a lot
I didn't necessarily come straight from the education background in the same way that some of them did.
So I, coming from an organizing background and loving being involved with youth organizing, have learned so much about education in vouchers and the history, the
like racist origins and how impactful they are now still, but for financial reasons and how the lack of knowledge about them is kind of how they keep persisting.
So the work that's
being done to get them on the tax bills has been really, really useful.
And I've loved learning about that.
And I think that in the future where we're going, I think it is all about the one-on-one relationships and talking from a value standpoint, because that's...
really where we're coming from.
That's what's most important.
And if we're really going to take care of the kids, it's values first.
That's right.
Camden is here along with Denise and Bryn and Chris and Heather from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
We do have to take care of a little bit of newsy business.
So Heather, I'm going to take that one to you.
And it is this notion, this talking point that
I would really like to see nipped in the bud but it appears to be gaining some traction because it's the only message Republicans in the Legislature have is that the reason property tax bills are so high this year as people are looking at their bills they keep coming back to well Governor Evers did that with his 400 year veto the 400 year veto the 400 year veto now last I checked
The governor of a state doesn't have any taxing power.
So you've heard this, Heather.
What is it you want everybody to know when they see that in their social media pages or hear about it over coffee?
Listen, what Governor Evers tried to do in that veto of his a couple of years ago was restore what we call the Tommy Thompson Standard, which is the ability of school districts to have a little bit of an increase to keep pace with inflation every year and how much they're allowed to spend.
The state's job then is to provide the funding so they can spend it.
What happened this year was they didn't
give a single dollar inspendable aid to public schools at the legislative level.
Wisconsin Republicans and some Democrats who also voted in favor of the bill pushed forward a budget that provided $0 inspendable aid.
That's why your taxes are going up.
because the state isn't paying a share and our kids are paying the price.
This is why we see record numbers of referenda across the state.
We're in our 18th year in a row of budgets that haven't even kept pace with inflation or have been cuts and something's got to give.
Who do you think is going to pay the school bills?
The lights still have to go on.
Somebody's got to be the grownups and it has to be us this time around.
You don't like the way your tax bill looks.
You're going to have to demand your legislators do better.
And if your legislators aren't going to do better, you're going to have to get better.
legislators.
Simple as that.
You know, Denise, you're hearing that as well over there, and probably have to take a moment to explain to people, you know, what that veto did in terms of, you know, the ability to, you know, raise the revenue limits that are on school districts.
But that that means nothing if the legislature doesn't hold up their end of their obligation to educate our children.
It's in our Constitution.
and they are not honoring our Constitution and fulfilling our requirements as part of this Constitution.
It's been in place for a whole lot of years, so you think they'd understand what we have to do to fulfill the words in our Constitution.
That is providing all children across the state with an equitable education and they're not doing it.
No, and we'd love for them to take that issue seriously, Chris, but it's been so much easier to play politics with it.
But when I look at, I mean, one of one of our very first articles at Up North News from January of 2020, January, February featured you and others talking to the Eau Claire.
County Board and helping people understand this whole notion of you know you're paying for two different school systems.
I believe it was a resolution to recognize private schools week or something like that and to say hey that sounds like some routine thing let's put out a resolution recognizing a private schools week.
Hey before that happens you should know how much they're you know skimming off the top here and
seeing you in that article, I believe Julie Nemerson put it together, really caught my attention and helped other people understand.
I hope you appreciate the difference that you've helped make for getting people to understand and expose what's happening with our tax dollars that aren't going to our public schools the way they should.
Pat, thank you for bringing that up, but I just want to say that two years ago when this all started,
you got in your car and you came down to South Milwaukee.
Tom McCarthy from the Department of Public Instruction was doing a session on funding and you walked in that door and sat in that room and I was monitoring the computer watching the whole room with you in it and I'll never forget my realization that the questions were deeper, the room was more full and you were there to represent a voice for across Wisconsin as part of civic media.
And we've done 63 pages of planning over the several last years.
And we
just keep adding to the Google Doc.
And it's people like you and other people in that room that have taken this on.
And we are in a different place.
It's still hard work.
And we still have a lot of work to do.
But
if
we have each other, I think we're going to.
hopefully be
okay.
And we do and we will.
And again, my deep appreciation goes right back to all of you as well.
We're we're trying to do our best to serve our state in this way.
And I cannot wait to see what we're going to be up to next.
So Chris Hamburg, Boyle, Heather Dubob, Orinon, Denise Gomer, Hutchison, Bryn Horton, Camden Hargrove.
Thank you.
This was a very nice surprise.
The most pleasant ambush I could have wanted before today.
Like today.
Happy holidays to all of you.
And we'll talk again real soon.
Thanks,
Pat.
Take care, y'all.
Thanks, Pat.
You bet.
Thank you.
All right, and happy
holidays.
Thank you.
Earl Ingram's coming up right after the 8 o'clock news, so stick around.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
really not expecting six people on that call there.
And it was very nice of them, but I got so discombobulated that I failed to mention, and want to make sure I mentioned it here, that long before I was advocating for public education on the civic media airwaves, Todd Alba was doing the same thing.
And you can't mention the Wisconsin Public Education Network and the work they do without the advocacy of Todd, a wonderful friend.
And we will be finding other fun things to do together that, again, do all that we can to
preserve and strengthen public education in our schools on behalf of all all the educators and all the school board members you know people like Jimmy Koska who joins us mostly to talk sports but you still have your fair share of other school duties as well.
Yeah just set a school board meeting this week in fact and going through a lot of the board materials ahead of both the state education convention and then obviously the
deadlines for referendums in the state.
You know, it's going to be a pretty big year for referendums again.
I know people are opening up property tax bills right now and there's some sticker shock there for some communities, but you know, schools cost money and they're certainly valuable to have for communities.
It's just, I know that, you know, for the rural districts, like the ones that I live in and the one that I'm on a school board for, you know, there's not a whole lot of mechanisms.
can use to make sure that schools are funded, kids are taught, special education, IEPs are taken care of.
There's a lot that goes into schools that goes far beyond all the common arguments of, oh, there's too many administrators.
You need a couple, you know a lot of staff and a lot of things that kind of get done So
it's just it's so much easier to say that you know when you when you're above it all like oh You have too many administrators and yet you put in all these mandates that somebody has to to manage and track That it really let's not let's not over complicate things.
It's a lazy legislature lazy Leadership in the legislature and we know who's leading it Saying we don't have to hold up our end of the bargain.
We'd we'd rather you know send
tax dollars to private schools.
And so I'm glad we've been able to shine a light on that and hope more people understand what I've said a million times.
If you don't like all these referendums, say yes to the referendum, say no to the legislators who made it that we have to have all these referendums.
And Jimmy, thank you again for agreeing to serve on a school board.
It is one of the more thankless jobs that are out there, but thanks for stepping up and doing
that.
Well, and I appreciate all the advocacy for a public education as well because that's a
That's what I grew up in.
And that's what my kids are in.
And it's certainly valuable to everybody in Wisconsin.
Yeah, let's turn our attention to sports here.
And I mean, if you're looking for a big story in sports, we'll get to the Badger volleyball team in just a bit.
National semifinals tomorrow.
But you actually got to start with the football squad at the University of Wisconsin River Falls.
They're going to be playing this weekend.
Yeah, I talked to coach Matt Walker, and he's like, thanks, buddy.
I think we can do it.
He's feeling pretty confident going into.
going into Saturday's game.
I'm pretty excited for it.
This is by far the best team in the WIAC this year.
I got to watch the film of their game against Platteville as prep for some of my other broadcasts this year.
And it's amazing just the trajectory of UWE River Falls.
The Falcons were kind of at the bottom of the WIAC for a number of years, even under Coach Walker.
This is a program that when I was in high school, we used to go to their wishbone camp.
The Pottinger wishbone camps, learning how to play wishbone quarterback.
It's a lot different now.
They run a full-on spread.
90 plays a game.
They call it the Top Gun Offense.
And they've broken virtually every record you can break at this point.
WIAC records broken this year as well.
They are a juggernaut.
And they are in the national semifinals for the first time, playing Saturday against Johns Hopkins.
I got to tell you, I've
followed this conference for so long.
This is one of my favorite stories that I've gotten to follow and not necessarily be a part of, but I was there when they won the Isthmus Bulls the first two years, which is what really jump-started this run for the last few years.
And I think
For them, I think just for Wisconsin in general, having so many different college football teams come out of the WAC, make these deep runs, whether it's Whitewater or Oshkosh or whoever, it's just incredible.
So if they beat Johns Hopkins, I believe the fighting scrubs, they're called, whatever it is.
And they go to, what's the national final?
What's it?
The Amos Alonso Stag Bowl, which is on January 4th.
And it would likely be against the defending national champion North Central, but that's based in Naperville.
That that is a That that is something maybe that could happen in a couple of weeks, but is that a
neutral site game or
yes?
Yes, it would be neutral.
Yeah, it'll be in Canton, Ohio.
I believe this year at the Hall of Fame
Oh, very nice.
Okay.
So we will be wishing all the best to River Falls this weekend against Johns Hopkins.
So now we go to the Badger women's volleyball team, which they also are in a national semifinal, and that will take place tomorrow in Kansas City against Kentucky.
I'm imagining that that's ESPN, right?
And then I think if they make it to the final, the national championship match on Sunday, that's ABC, if I'm not mistaken.
So either way, a little national exposure for the Badger women.
Yeah, and I'm excited too, because my good friend John Audius, who's their radio broadcaster, who's actually joining us on our Saturday show, the one that Parker and I do, I make the call.
We only have a chance to talk to him a bit, but it is really cool because this was kind of a reloading year for the Badgers.
It's supposed to be the year they make the run.
And here they are with a Player of the Year candidate, and they're sitting right here in the Final Four.
Why not win it?
I love the T-shirts this week, too.
I can't say that on the air.
I'll get in trouble.
Oh, no.
T-shirts are great.
OK, well, I guess I know what I'm googling during the news over here.
That's fine.
Again, it wasn't supposed to be their year.
We said that about the brewers to enjoy the run and keep your fingers crossed.
Hopefully this one results in going a little bit further than the baseball team did.
There's that other basketball team, the Bucks.
They host Toronto tomorrow.
And then, of course, you've got the Packers playing on Saturday night against the Bears.
And you've got the Badger Men's basketball team taking on Villanova at a tournament in Milwaukee on Friday at 6.30 is when coverage begins across the Civic.
media radio network.
So there's definitely things we're going to have to pay attention to over the next few days here.
Not it's not a big crowded sports calendar, but these are some pretty important matches.
Yep, a lot of fun.
And Pat, before I go, non-sports related, I want to thank you for having me be a part of this.
You've been a lot as someone to work with here at Civic.
And obviously, with your work in the Chippewa Valley, where I grew up, I just greatly appreciate being able to be a colleague of yours here at Civic Media.
I really hope that what you do next is just amazing.
Oh, it's been my pleasure.
And talk to somebody so well-rounded, whether it's about sports, education, everything else, Jimmy.
It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right.
We'll talk to you later.
And again, coming up after the eight o'clock news, we'll talk to Earl Ingram.
Melissa Baldoff has our climate check and much more.
I'm Pat Crite, low from Up North News.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
