BELOIT – Long-term goals, or stretch targets, are what grassroots movement organizer Dave Baskerville believes will help improve the quality of life in Wisconsin.
He spoke at the Rotary Club of Beloit on Tuesday about his nonpartisan movement called Stretch Targets. Baskerville hopes to address Wisconsin’s most serious problems: an economy that since 1980 has been growing more slowly than the rest of the nation and a K-12 education system that has been performing well below the rest of the world for at least two generations.
For the last year and a half, Baskerville has been focusing on his movement to persuade state and local leaders for a commitment to the movement’s two goals: A 10 percent per capita income above Minnesota by 2037 and a global top 10 education ranking for the Wisconsin’s 15-year-olds in math, science and reading by 2037.
Baskerville is releasing a scorecard twice a year that is meant to track progress in a way the average citizen can understand. He said more than 400 members have signed up to receive the scorecard. So far, it is mostly from officials and politicians from both sides of the aisle.
“We don’t really acknowledge these are long-term issues,” Baskerville said. “People are frustrated…if you’re frustrated and have a goal out there that one can understand and track, then you’re channeling some of that frustration in a way that’s positive.”