"Governor still has time to fix school financing" - overdue reform!
Yes, Governor Jim Doyle - YOU DO HAVE TIME TO "JUST DO IT!"
The Janesville Gazette reprinted today the excellent editorial from last Monday's (8/17) issue of the Wisconsin State Journal “Still time to fix school finance.”
I posted cited that editorial in my blog posting on Tuesday, August 18 complementing the Wisconsin State Journal. IF you did not read that editorial before, I urge you to read it now because it calls our Governor to accountability. Yes, he tweaked the K-12 public education funding in the 2009-2011 WI State budget as “ordered” by WEAC. NOW, what about completing the task so that WE THE PEOPLE (voters & taxpayers) are served too, Governor Doyle?
GLAD to see the “Letter to the Editor” from former WI Assembly Representative, Debi Towns, in today’s Gazette, “Robson, Hixson vow support for education, vote otherwise." I agree with Debi! I KNOW how conscientiously she worked with commitment to support K-12 public education while she represented the 43rd State Assembly District. I can report that she worked very cooperatively with SD-Janesville and SD-Milton on changes in public policy vis-à-vis K-12 public education. THANKS for keeping alert and staying involved, Debi!
Readers of The Janesville Gazette will gain more information and perspective on the issue of the use of testing for evaluating K-12 public educators/teachers with Stacy Vogel’s feature today, “What’s the right answer? Officials have more questions than answers on teacher pay for student performance." I was glad to see the discussion of the issues as readers commented on my blog, "’Race to the Top’ – Change WI state law” (August 12 2009).
DISappointed to read today that NOW the National Education Association is going to PLAY POLITICS on the issue of meaningful K-12 education reform as reported by Nick Anderson in the Washington Post’s feature, “44 – The Obama Presidency "NEA Attacks Administration’s Education Reform.”
Knowing that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," I must urge that IF you want Governor Doyle to complete the REFORM of K-12 public education funding in WI so that it is FAIR to WE THE PEOPLE (voters & taxpayers), YOU contact Governor Doyle - Office phone: (608) 266-1212 or use the e-mail form for the Governor. DO IT TODAY!
Tomorrow we move into the last full (all 7 days) week of August 2009! School starts on September 1, 2009 – remember: WI State Law PROHIBITS any public school – K-12 and UW system – from starting before September 1! Here we go…
Mr. E.
John Eyster lives in the Edgerton area. He is an adjunct professor of political science at UW-Waukesha and an advocate for democracy/civics education in Wisconsin high schools. John is a community blogger and is not a part of Janesville Gazette staff. His opinion is not necessarily that of the Janesville Gazette staff or management.
Aug 23, 2009 at 8:17 p.m.
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Good point Goodboy. I just find it interesting that the online conversation about education reverts back to someone not even in office. Nobody really has anything to say about Hixson and Robson when it comes to education because, well..they've never done anything with the issue....and Doyle, he talked about doing something early on about reforming the way we pay for education, but here we are looking at the end of his tenure and the discussion is the same.
Aug 23, 2009 at 6:17 p.m.
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Back to the topic... I don't get how the governor is going to be able to fix anything unless he comes up with a new, bigger, better source of funding. It's either that, or he figures out where to cut the school budgets by hundreds of millions of dollars. Anyone out there willing to volunteer to take the hit?
Aug 23, 2009 at 10:54 a.m.
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A Republican who was seeking out the correct way to deliver 4-year-old kindergarten is just the type of crossing of party lines and doing what's right that some of you on here seem to support. However, when you run for office, a party affiliation is immediately linked to your name...and forever after, people from the other side will attack you despite your best efforts. Rock County, you really don't have anything to worry about. Last time I checked the state's website, Towns wasn't running for anything. You got what you wanted. An empty suit filling a chair on the Assembly floor, and your schools are in a world of hurt. I'm not sure how you are better off by having a candidate that WEAC payed over $500,000 to put in office?...But whatever, I'm sure some of the experts on here will step up to the plate, run for office and figure it out.
Aug 23, 2009 at 7:44 a.m.
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Just wondering JE - was Towns "conscientiously working with commitment to support K-12 public education" when she tried to kill 4K in this state? (She was thrown out of office before her committee finished its work.)
While she at least understands the issues (unlike Hixon) she is, unfortunately, on the wrong side of almost all of them because she knows she cannot do what is right for Wisconsin's students and get anywhere in Wisconsin's state republican party.
She was more interested in her political aspirations and opposing anything that WEAC supported to ever seriously attempt to actually address the problems inherent in the way Wisconsin finances its schools.
Sadly, she knew what the problems were from her work as a school district administrator in charge of the budget. She chose to ignore what she knew to be true, toe the party line, stick it to WEAC, and let students throughout this state suffer the consequences.
Aug 22, 2009 at 5:38 p.m.
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"DISappointed to read today that NOW the National Education Association is going to PLAY POLITICS"
Hmmm, I GUESS you could SAY EYSTER DISappoints US by playing the VERY SAME politics he hypocritically SEEMS to DESPISE.
Go figure.
SORRY John..BUT.some of us can SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU.
Aug 22, 2009 at 4:57 p.m.
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I would suspect there were SEVERAL reasons why Mrs. Towns is a "FORMER" assembly representative. One only needs to look at her voting record to see that HER positions on education issues are NO BETTER than Hixson's or Robson's!
The way our legislators and governor look at education reform is through their POLITICAL MONEY contributions. "Follow the money" and special interest groups....and you'll find a correlation with their voting records. It's time to CLEAN house....break-up the corrupt system and elect HONEST, ETHICAL, "citizen" representatives again.....rather than PROFESSIONAL/CAREER politicians!
Aug 22, 2009 at 4:36 p.m.
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Huh -- A bill has been introduced during this legislative session to eliminate the Sept. 1 mandate, but as of yet I don't think it's been voted on by the full Assembly. You gotta be kidding about Hixson and education, right? What on earth has the guy got to show for his time in the Assembly? He voted for a budget that CUT education funding for the first time in recent memory. Towns may have voted for budgets that didn't give schools quite as much money as they wanted, but she never voted for a cut. What was so bad about her record on education?..other than wanting to give school boards the flexibility to make decisions about how long the school year should be? Wait, you seem to want the same thing by bringing up the Sept. 1 date.... Sometimes you need to take off partisan glasses that blind you, and see things for what they really are.
Also, hearing that he's a conservative Republican ought to be news to everybody...including John Eyster.
Aug 22, 2009 at 3:37 p.m.
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huh: Debi Towns is a CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN as is J.E. Now you know!
Aug 22, 2009 at 11:35 a.m.
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1. There was talk for ending the September 1 law. Did that ever pass?
2. I will never vote for Debi Towns. Ever. Her record on education is a lot worse that Robson or Hixson.
Aug 22, 2009 at 10:48 a.m.
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Schools may apply to the state's DPI to open before September 1 per chapter PI 27.03.
Source: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/cr_final/01...
Aug 22, 2009 at 10:23 a.m.
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Will someone please disable his keyboard's shift keys and caps key? His articles are the most visually annoying articles to read.
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