Emails Show Walker Chief of Staff Oversaw Changes to Wisconsin Idea
"The uproar forced the governor, who did not attend the UW System and failed to graduate from Marquette University, to explain his intentions. When asked by reporters that morning, he initially argued that the changes to the UW mission were made "so that the focus would be honed in ... making sure that we prepare individuals in this state ... for the jobs and opportunities that are available in the state."
But as the story was going national, Walker was forced to backtrack. The changes, he now told his followers on Twitter that afternoon, were the result of a "drafting error." But suspicions lingered. In search of answers, the Journal Sentinel began to page through the massive drafting file and uncovered that Walker's budget team at the Department of Administration (DOA) had specifically asked for the changes.
Walker then issued a lengthy statement on February 5 blaming "miscommunication" between his executive office and his budget staff in the DOA. "Unfortunately, when my office told the budget staff to keep it simple, they took that to mean that we only wanted workforce readiness language in the mission when we really wanted the language added to the existing mission statement," the statement explains.
In other words, Walker's staff had instructed DOA to include a statement on workforce readiness, but instead DOA budget analysts went rogue and struck the Wisconsin Idea—something which caught Walker's office by surprise. On February 6, Michael Heifetz, the State Budget Director at DOA took responsibility.
However, new emails obtained by CMD under an open records request tell a different story.
Walker’s claim that "miscommunication" caused the workforce readiness provision being added to the exclusion of the "search for truth" and other mission language is contradicted by an email from Nathan Schwanz to Walker’s policy advisor Waylon Hurlburt explaining that the instructions came from Walker Chief of Staff Eric Schutt"
