BTC represents the best locally available, highly-subsidized, instructor-centric ADULT DAY CARE CENTER around. Even students who are not remotely likely to get a job in their "chosen field" are encouraged to attend (BTC won't turn down an FTE in the face of all odds, and a quick survey will confirm there's no shortage of "odds"!). Accordingly, BTC will certainly dumb down its classes to keep student numbers up so it can metastasize its operations even further!
A completely wasteful and useless over-designed entrance atrium (nice picture effect for ads, though -- makes it look like it's a "real college"!); ill-designed, inconvenient and incompetently widely spread out parking lots; four (count 'em, FOUR! -- check out WCTC for a functional layout) very expensive 24-hour electronic message boards at the TWO entrance drives to advertise (what else?) BTC!; and all-night lighting, even in the parking lots! All at taxpayer expense!
What's next -- family fairs, airshows, mud volleyball, beer gardens? Fireworks and Sunday services in several languages? Then it might even be able to compete with the New Life "church"! But why not? Both organizations operate primarily on a heavy dose of "faith" over reality, and both get a completely free ride on taxation of their assets and income!

I'm sure this will end up being reflective in everyones property taxes, even though the bulk of the training is geared towards retraining displaced workers from the GM fallout, in fact what happened to the millions that our state granted GM to keep the Janesville plant going, should that money be taken back and used for funding the retraining and not put on Rock Co. tax rolls

Instructors at BTC are given approximately 3% pay increases every year even when the inflation rate is higher than that, they are also required to continue their education to keep their employment that they are not fully reimbursed for unlike other companies including GM. Shouldn't we be going back to see what raises were given to others such as administrative staff to fully place these things in context. Privatization would mean fewer nurses and other medical personal adding to the already high cost of medical care.

Just a short question indirectly related to the issue: Is it necessary to keep BTC's lights on all night?! Don't tell me it is for the cleaning crews either. The lights are on all night! Energy is money. (Thank you. Now you may return to your regularly scheduled forum.)

I work part time as an instructor at BTC (in addition to my full time day job) to make ends meet. I have to say, the teachers I see work very, very hard. Partly because of the wages, BTC has had a hard time recruiting and keeping instructors. BTC instructors do not make what they would make in the private sector. Also, there are not enough qualified teachers to keep pace with the massive increase in enrollment. The State of Wisconsin (Jim Doyle, where are you??) should be THROWING money at BTC, U-Rock, and any other non-private, non-liberal arts institutions to equip people with skills and education needed to get them working.

Full time instructors have prep time and non-student contact hours built into the schedule. This may vary with the part time instructors.

For the record, Blackhawk Tech's enrollment doesn't "drop with a bad economy" - it RISES. When times are bad in the local economy (as they are now), BTC is very busy because people are retraining for job changes. When times are good again, enrollments tend to return to normal. In short, BTC's activity level is inverse to what's happening in the job market, and in times like this its role is doubly improtant. And, so long as the economy remains slow, I can guarantee that BTC's teachers will be working their buns off to accomodate those in need of retraining.

Comments below by videogame2009, nurse4u, and opinion80 ring true.

If Blackhawk Tech is increasing salaries then tuition needs to be adjusted accordingly to offset those costs. The taxpayers are already shouldering the burden of paying for the remodeling and expansion of the school. Some may argue that an increase in tuition would be a limiting factor in getting an education, however, it is nothing compared to the skyrocketing costs of tuition plus room and board that four year colleges have seen over the past several years.

The entire admin staff at BTC is laden with overpaid arrogant people, (just look for Eric Larson in his car some day and take a peek at the license plate), why shouldn't the teachers, the ones that really do all the work at BTC, get paid just as well. The increases won't even bring most of them close to the salary Gohlke and other admin are earning.

Remember the article about the title change to for Gohlke and a couple of other job titles a year or so ago. Huge increases in salaries were given with the title changes but no apparent added responsibilities. The teachers are the ones doing all the work there, please don't complain about their pay. I'll bet most of the full-time teaching staff spends 60+ hours a week doing their jobs. That comes out to about $22/hr at 68k a year. Less than what a line worker at GM was making. Cut them some slack. Don't forget, our tax dollars pay for the admin too and the board always seem to approve pay raises for them, this truly is taxation without representation.

They deserve every penny.

BTC helped me achieve my career goals. All of my instructors really care about their students and their success. They go above and beyond their job descriptions.

Pam Hendricks, nursing instructor at BTC, every year sponsors a family at Christmas with the help of students and faculty.

Yes I See all of the work that the teachers put in. I am an out of work Lear employee that is going to Blackhawk. BUT with the economy as bad as it is riht now I think that an increase in pay that comes out of the tax payers for any thing is the wrong place and the wrong time. Even back in November the economy was bad and heading to worse.Please stop adding burden to the tax payers. A little here a little there = alot of money that people dont have right now.

never mind misread it

last line came out wrong.

Hey Gohike and Westrick . WAKE UP your tuition and book fees are high enough.. Now you want to give these teachers raises in the toughest times we ever had? The economy was bad in november when you decided this. Are we
supposed to feel sorry for these teachers?

This is TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION at its' finest.

The board that approves these raises is NOT elected and Does NOT answer to the taxpayer.

It's time to change that.

Teachers don't work 9 months out of the year. There is a lot of prep work, classes, and administrative work done during the summer months. Also, during the school year, if you can find me a teacher that works only 8 hours a day, I'll give you a gold star. You're right they should be grateful they have a job, but they also put in a lot of hard work. I don't understand what this country has against teachers. Without them, people would be running around illiterate and unprepared for a new life. I for one am smart enough to know that my teachers played a huge part in my future.

rep-of-1, Believe it or not, I think you are right. I'm just saying that it sounded like (in your statement ""Gm's emergency closure could have been restricted as enrollment became full.") GM workers should not have been let go so fast. I'm sure I was just misunderstanding your meaning, and wanted to know what that statement DID mean.
On the other hand, they should not be double-penalized by not being allowed to enroll because others who had the luxury of time had enrolled first.
You are correct of course, in that the quality of your education could very well suffer because the same number of teachers are teaching many more students. If those teachers get a raise, will their teaching ability suddenly get better? (I do understand, of course, that they will undoubtedly work harder, but, through no fault of their own, the benefits to individual students will be far less.)
The remark about GM workers (in response to your wish that they hadn't crowded the campus) was because of people denigrating them so often in previous stories. Often comments referenced their lack of education, their desire to get one, and/or telling them to get one and work for their money the way everyone else had to.
I certainly understand your position. Recent events and economic trends have been unkind to almost everyone (not counting kiowamohigan, who is apparently making a killing in the stock market.)
The best solution, if possible, would be to hire more teachers. If they could, and if necessary and in fairness to the students (the very purpose of the facility) suspend salary increases in favor of faculty increases.
No, I am no longer a student.

I've never gotten pay raises like that even in the best of times.

RUserious are you a student? Did you start in a program that has the equipment and staff to handle 12 students and now has 22? The nursing program had a petition process that has been scrapped for now with the current situation. The fact is and will remain BTC did what it could to take on as many students in the two year allotment that money is being offered for education from displaced workers. The plan is short sighted and when the dust settles things will go back to business as usual. I am all for anyone getting an education don't pin that on me. However I paid for a quality education I should get what I paid for.

I'm sure they will pay for the raises by raising our property taxes, which they do every year without worrying about the consequences, because they have a non-elected board.

rep-of-1: "Gm's emergency closure could have been restricted as enrollment became full."
Does this mean what it sounds like? Do you really think that would have been feasible?
Keep in mind, many people commenting on those stories about GM workers suggested they go back to school and "earn" their keep the way most people do, by educating themselves.
I am aware of course that it is a story about BTC, a great local educational facility. I wonder about the comment "contract was tentatively agreed to in November, so the increases were based on last fall's economic situation, not those of today." I didn't recall the economic climate being that rosy 3 or 4 months ago, but it wasn't ratified until just yesterday.
Too bad the increased enrollment situation couldn't have put more educators to work.

Btc is still one the bargains in education we have that trains for the job/career market. Enrollment in the course of hvac/r I'm in has nearly doubled(glad I'm almost done). Little was done to accommodate the gm influx other than handing the instructors more class loads and increasing class size. Being a student I don't have enough tools and resources at my disposal now with the influx. Gm's emergency closure could have been restricted as enrollment became full. It makes the rest of us that are in BTC prior to shut down have to suffer with no compensation.

Blackhawk Tech should be privatized so workers face the same realty as the private sector workers who pay their wages.

UAW EXTINCTION,your goofy! If anything the UNIONS are going to get stronger in the coming years. Without them,most would be on welfare,by wage comparison.

union contract no doubt. btc is shortsighted in that layoffs will occur there too in the forseeable future. now would be the time to nip it in the bud, but they won't. unions are by definition selfish. now that the uaw is facing extinction, they too are looking at massive give backs. it remains to be seen if they are too late or not.