Legislators tell forum participant
show to get results from Madison
It wasn’t the largest turn-out of the six community
forums, but the 50 people who did show up on Saturday morning,
Feb. 19, learned a great deal about the answers to Wisconsin’s
school-funding crisis and how to share that news with legislators.
The event was co-hosted by Congregations United to Serve
Humanity (CUSH) of Kenosha; the NAACP; the Racine Interfaith
Coalition (RIC); the Racine and Kenosha PTAs; WISDOM; and
the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools. Gateway vocational-technical
college in Kenosha was the site of the forum.
John Lehman, Democrat and 62nd District representative from
Racine—after listening to the school-funding challenges
in southeastern Wisconsin— told the crowd how to reach
their elected representatives. He urged constituents to form
relationships before they need “favors” from legislators.
Rep. Lehman also encouraged people to stay current, stay involved,
and stay timely, talking to their legislators about current
issues.
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State
Senator Bob Wirch, a Pleasant Prairie Democrat
representing the 22nd Senator District,
listened to the presentations and panel
discussion at the Racine/Kenosha school-funding
reform community forum. |
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Also speaking at the forum was 22nd District Senator Bob
Wirch, Democrat from Pleasant Prairie. His theme was persistence.
Sen. Wirch told those attending to let their elected officials
know you “aren’t going away and that you will
hold them accountable” for the cuts, increased class
sizes, teacher lay-offs, and decline in education caused by
decreased funding.
The forum was hosted by Nancy Holmlund, a member of RIC.
She introduced several people who talked about their experiences
in the Racine and Kenosha school districts linked to inadequate
funding.
Parent Jennifer Burns talked about the overcrowding at Kenosha
Tremper High School. She said that the district can’t
afford to buy enough textbooks so that everyone can take one
home for homework. Ms. Burns said there isn’t even enough
time to get all 2,400 students throw lunch efficiently.
Sue Share, a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School, talked
about more and more cuts to her budget in every passing school
year. Teachers are using greater amounts of their own money,
Share said, to buy supplies for children from families who
can’t afford them-expenses the district used to meet.
She also talked about the district’s health curriculum,
for which there is no textbook, and continual lay-offs among
the teaching staff, especially in technical, art, and music
classes.
Finally, Tremper High School student Colleen Burns told the
crowd how her student government has taken on many of the
duties once fulfilled by custodians, such as painting the
restrooms. They are also raising money to replace 40-year-old
folding chairs and to meet other facility needs. Burns talked
about the addition of another portable classroom at Tremper,
to meet overcrowding, and a discussion about going to shifts
in the near future.
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About
50 people were on hand, Feb. 19 for the
Racine/Kenosha school-funding reform community
forum held on the Gateway technical college
campus in Kenosha. |
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Two speakers tried to lend some perspective to the testimonials.
Ken Hall, of the Racine Taxpayers Alliance, talked about the
trade-offs Wisconsin made when the Legislature began to invest
large amounts of public funds in the prison system. Not only
did those investments limit the amount of revenue available
to public schools, Hall said, but they proved not to be as
cost effective as education.
Citing experience in Minnesota, Hall said that the data proves
there is a better way to fund the correction system, handle
criminals and make a larger investment in education-all of
which will benefit society more.
Jack Norman, research director for the Institute for Wisconsin’s
Future, followed up on Hall’s research and detailed
the Wisconsin Adequacy Plan, a school-funding reform system
that links revenue to the academic goals and standards the
state has for its children and their actual needs.
The system we have not longer works, Norman said, and unless
we do things differently the quality of children’s education
will continue to slip and, eventually, their futures will
be more and more limited.
Reacting to the testimonials and the speakers were members
of a panel moderated by Kenosha alderman Everett Butler. Taking
part were Bill Johnston, finance director of the Kenosha Unified
School District; Eric Olson, president of the Kenosha Unified
School Board; Susan Kutz, treasurer of the Racine Unified
School Board; Russ Carlson, representing the Wisconsin School
Board Association; Beth Adelsen, president of the Kenosha
Education Association; and Michael Anton, president of the
Racine PTA Council.
Kutz talked about how funding shortfalls are stretching programming
and beginning to diminish the quality of education, not only
in southeastern Wisconsin but all over the state.
Anton cited specific examples, talking about $38 million
in budget cuts in Racine over the past 11 years, with most
coming in the last five years, and another $11 million forecast
for the 2005-06 school year.
There have been cuts in music, theater, and extra-curricular
activities, he said. Anton also explained how more and more
money is going to meet safety concerns, but because there
is little or no state funding, those resources must come out
of other programs and services.
Following a period for questions and answers, RIC member
Joyce Behlke introduced Rep. Lehman and Sen. Wirch, urging
those attending the forum to talk about school-funding reform
in their PTAs, their classrooms and boardrooms, and at home.
Behlke said it is important that the system be changed, not
only for the children of southeastern Wisconsin but also for
young people from all 426 state school districts and for the
futures of every community in the state.
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