Wisconsin Lawmaker Demands Audit to Get Felons Off State Payroll
by Jim Brown
September 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - The revelation that at least three university professors convicted of serious crimes against children are still on the University of Wisconsin payroll has prompted a lawmaker to call for a state audit to find out just how many felons are currently employed by the UW system. Two of the three convicted professors are still being paid by Wisconsin taxpayers while in jail. One pleaded guilty to several counts of child molestation, yet the university is still paying him a salary of more than $137,000 a year. Another UW professor convicted of stalking charges is still being paid by the school, and may actually get his job back after he has served his sentence. (See earlier article)
State Representative Scott Suder wants the University of Wisconsin system thoroughly audited for the purpose of discovering just how many people convicted under similarly child-endangering circumstances are currently being paid by the university. "We are going to find out, one way or another, what type of felons are working at the UW, where they're working, if they're teaching our youth, and if they are in fact a danger," he says.
"If we are employing child molesters and stalkers and people convicted of child enticement at our UW," Suder says, "I believe we're placing those students at risk. And I think it's an outrage to taxpayers and to parents."
But sadly, the Wisconsin lawmaker notes, since the university is stonewalling media and lawmakers who have requested a list of convicted felons employed by the school, he suspects the revelation of three serious felons employed by the school is only "the tip of the iceberg." Meanwhile, he observes, Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle has been "strangely silent" on the matter.
Yet Doyle's silence is fairly easy to explain, as far as Suder is concerned. "Frankly, our governor is an individual who really is more concerned, I think, about his own re-election than protecting children and protecting students at the UW," he says.
But then again, Suder adds, it is possible that Doyle's silence "speaks volumes" when it comes to matters such as these. The state legislator points out that the governor could stop these state salary payments to convicted felon employees "today, if he wanted to."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
