education

Walker’s’ snow job ad on education refuted: “Next year, quite frankly, will be brutal”

bluecheddar Scott Walker, Unions, Wisconsin , ,

Despite the fact that there is STILL no snow on the ground in my south side of Wisconsin, there is an accumulation of another sort of precipitation.

I refer to the continued release of snow jobs from Governor Scott Walker’s message machine.

Monona Grove’s Jeff Knudson, a fourth grade teacher, says:

“When the state budget passed in Madison, a lot of us thought we might lose our jobs. We figured if we didn’t get laid off, our class sizes would become unmanageable. But that, didn’t happen.”

Monona Grove superintendent Craig Gerlach says the opposite:

“Next year, quite frankly, will be brutal…We struggled to put together a budget this year.

We made significant cuts in terms of programs, laid-off teachers…we closed a buildling. . …we’re looking at almost $2 million dollars this year and quite frankly, that’s going to be staggering.

I’m concerned that the thought is that we will continue to reduce benefits for staff. I don’t support that. Our staff has given up approximately 8% of their salary this year by contributions to their WRS and healthcare. .. We need to do that, however enough is enough…”

Thanks for this video, Holbein3626.

Jeff Simpson has a more extensive piece on what these cuts to the Monona School District entail over at Blogging Blue.

The REAL story behind the Madison Prep Academy Proposal? Helping “At Risk” Kids is a Cover for Union-Busting

bluecheddar Labor, Madison, Red Wisconsin, Wisconsin , , ,

Madison’s proposed Preparatory Academy is making some new changes to their plans for the all-girls and all-boys charter schools

Now it comes out that the prep school backers want to use non-union teachers & staff. In journalism school, this is called “burying the lede.” The real story here is union busting as an excuse for helping “at risk” kids.

The same thing happened in Milwaukee. About 10-15 years ago, the so-called “school choice” voucher proponents teamed up with Dr. Howard Fuller to do the same thing to Milwaukee Public Schools.

Voucher Schools were sold as superior to regular schools. After all of these years with the most extensive “choice” program in the country, independent studies have shown that the performance of voucher schools is about the same as Milwaukee’s “regular” public schools. Even Fuller himself admits that.

There are some good aspects to the prep school proposal, but they can be accomplished within the framework of negotiating with Madison Teachers.

It’s an old story–use a group of underserved minorities with genuine needs as class war pawns with the ultimate result leading to no real improvement and continued erosion of the middle class.

And no. I’m not a teachers’ union member. I’m one of the 99% who is tired of being manipulated by the agenda of the 1%.

Related:
Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s War Against Public Education from blue cheddar blog

Madison School Board’s Ed Huges can’t wait for teachers’ contracts to expire at SLY’s blog

Chalkboard: Will Madison School Board go for non-union Madison Prep? from CapTimes

An important message from WiscNet. Take action.

bluecheddar Red Wisconsin , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why I’m upset and why I urge you to call or write your legislator today:

WiscNet is still under threat in the budget. If legislators privatize what WiscNet does in the way of high speed internet delivery to rural Wisconsin, they restrict information to rural counties and all public universities and line the pockets of AT&T. WiscNet is a cost-effective extensive cooperative non-profit service . Privatizing the internet service and charging for it will cost Wisconsin libraries and schools 2-3 times as much. In the end,  they will wind up getting less and paying more.

This will have a huge ripple effect across the state.

 

UPDATE from WiscNet:
After intense and difficult negotiations that lasted much of the night last night, and contrary to what’s now trickling into the media late yesterday into early this morning, WiscNet and the broadband grants appear to be back on the table for discussion today (Wednesday).


K12’s and libraries have carried significant weight throughout this process with your voice. We need the pedal to the floor.
We’d appreciate it if you could call your legislators, legislative leaders, and Governor Walker and remain engaged with them throughout this budget bill process.

 

“…seventy-five percent of our public schools and ninety-five percent of our public libraries get Internet access via WiscNet – anot-for-profit network service under the auspices of the UW-Madison. The provision in this legislation will very likely make it impossible for WiscNet to continue offering Internet access. If our schools and libraries must use other Internet providers most will pay at least 2-3 times more than what WiscNet now charges.” – Statement by Wisconsin State Superintendent Tony Evers

We need your help letting your Legislators know about the serious consequences associated with the removal of high quality, high capacity, cost effective broadband in Wisconsin. Wisconsin deserves MORE network options, not LESS!

WE URGE YOU TO TAKE THESE ACTIONS TODAY:

info @ wiscnet.net.
As a cooperative, we like to share information for mutual benefit.

Sample letters and more can be found at http://www.wiscnet.net/.