Hundreds rally in Madison
for school-funding reform
Several hundred people showed up in Madison on June 16, 2009,
to deliver a message to state government loud and clear: Enough
is enough. It’s time to change Wisconsin’s school-funding
system.
People from all over the state came together for the 10th
anniversary of the Walk on the Child’s Side,
an event first held in June of 1999 to draw attention to the
effects of the way the state funds public education. At the
time, walkers left Butternut and covered the 240 miles to
Madison to build support for funding reform.
One of t
he event organizers — in 1999 and 2009 — was Phillips
teacher Teri Hanson. “Ten years ago we told the state
what would happen. We told the Governor and legislators that
children’s education would be hurt,” Hanson said.
“We were right and now we have a statewide crisis.”
“Toda y’s Walk on the Child's Side,”
Hanson said, “was to remind folks of those predictions
and to tell the Legislature we haven’t gone away and
will be back pestering them until they do the right thing.”
Han son is a member of Price County Citizens Who CARE. That
group, along with Northern Tier Uniserv (NTU) and the Wisconsin
Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES), organized the June
16 Walk.
Between 300 and 400 school board members, parents, students,
and educators walked from the University of Wisconsin Library
Mall to the State Street entrance to the Capitol for a brief
rally. The highlight of the noon event was the appearance
by a handful of legislators that resulted in an ovation from
the crowd.
Speakers at the rally — who echoed Hanson’s call
for lawmakers to address the state’s school-funding
crisis — were:
Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, Middleton,
chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a legislator
who has actually sponsored legislation to change the way
Wisconsin fund its public schools;
Randy Kunsch, teacher in the Phillips
School District and an organizer of the 1999 Walk on
the Child's Side;
Mary Bell, president of WEAC;
Kayla LaPlante, Pulaski High School,
and Thomas Aiken, Whitefish Bay Middle School, both officers
in the Wisconsin Association of School Councils;
Randy Braun, superintendent of the Cameron
School District and veteran of the original Walk on
the Child's Side;
Jennifer Morales, former board director
with Milwaukee Public Schools, and John Smart, member of
the Park Falls School Board speaking about the importance
of a rural-urban coalition; and
Art Rainwater, former superintendent
of Madison Metropolitan School District and participant
in an earlier Walk.
