Education
Letter to Citizens of the State of Wisconsin
Dear Citizens of the State of Wisconsin:
The right to a high quality, free, public education is fundamental, and education at all levels is critical to our future.
Public schools give all students the opportunity for success. They are at the heart of our communities.
Today, Wisconsin is ground-zero in the fight to regain and maintain the standards of excellence and effectiveness which made Wisconsin a benchmark for others to follow.
That fight requires a steady, compelling voice in the media, yet none currently exists.
To answer the call, PEIS*, with the ...
CALL TO ACTION TO SAVE OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
CALL TO ACTION TO SAVE OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
I signed a petition on Action Network telling Members of the Wisconsin State Legislature to STOP the Takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools.
Republicans Senator Alberta Darling and Rep. Dale Kooyenga have proposed legislation to take over many Milwaukee Public Schools that educate mainly African American and Latino children in high-poverty neighborhoods. Our communities reject this takeover of our schools.
We want vibrant, public community schools that welcome and serve all children, offer special education services and ...
CAN YOU IMAGINE CLOSING ALL NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
CAN YOU IMAGINE CLOSING ALL NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
By Joyce Luedke
Can you imagine closing all neighborhood public schools in a city and replacing them with 40 different privately managed charter schools, a Recovery School District, funded by taxpayers?
Can you imagine no centralized oversight of these 40 different entities to guarantee that the needs of all students are met?
Can you imagine firing 7,000 school personnel and replacing 4500 teachers with unlicensed personnel holding alternative certificates who have no training in child development, ...
A Business Owes Nothing in Taxes & Gets a State Check?
A Business Owes Nothing in Taxes & Gets a State Check?
"Why doesn’t the press cover what’s happening with refundable tax credits?” I asked the journalist. We were chatting about what I found in the state budget. “Because the press doesn’t understand them,” she told me.“Doesn’t understand them?” I thought. “There has to be an easy way to describe what’s happening...”Imagine if you had no state tax taken out of your paycheck. You filed your tax return but you owed nothing. Now imagine the state sent you a refund check. Wow!
This is like ...
RE-PURPOSING GOVERNMENT
REPURPOSING GOVERNMENT
This commentary is a distillation of Mike McCabe’s keynote speech at the Wisconsin Grassroots Network festival in Mazomanie on March 28. It was first published as an opinion column by the online news site Wistopia on April 3. It is reprinted from the Blue Jean Nation website at: http://www.bluejeannation.com/commentary04-13-2015/
It’s easy to be consumed by what or who we are against rather than what we are for. But if we are going to get Wisconsin and our nation out of the rut we are in politically, we cannot afford to dwell on what ...
TAXES BUILD COMMUNITIES
Philip Anderson has been working with Duluth, MN activists to organize events for the week of Tax Day. They are planning a teach-in, a rally, and have created the following survey to show REAL people's public spending priorities. Please take the online survey! It is important that many people take the survey. This will be the message for the April 15 rally. Congress is doing this.... but people want better priorities! "How would you spend $1 trillion?” www.surveymonkey.com/s/V5LYJQK Please pass this survey on to your contacts.
Everyone loves to hate taxes ...
VOTE “YES” FOR OUR CHILDREN’S AND COMMUNITY’S FUTURE
Tuesday, April 7th, voters in the Wausau School District get a chance to approve some much needed repairs and upgrades for our children in the Wausau School District. As a result of four years of community involvement and planning, two referendum questions will be on the ballot.
Question #1* allows the school district to raise money for needed maintenance and neighborhood school building renovations. The bond money will be used to:
Provide additional space for students at overcrowded John Marshal, Rib Mountain, Hewitt-Texas, and South Mountain elementary schools,...
QUESTIONS ON OUR APRIL 7 BALLOT….
You will be asked to vote on these questions. They are printed here for your convenience.
QUESTION 1: “ELECTION OF CHIEF JUSTICE
Shall section 4 (2) of article VII of the constitution be amended to direct that a chief justice of the supreme court shall be elected for a two-year term by majority of the justices then serving on the court?”
QUESTION 2: ADVISORY REFERENDUM:
“Shall the City of Wausau establish the position of city administrator, reduce the Mayor’s position to part-time, and transfer administrative and operational responsibilities from the ...
RETURNING THE BRIBE
Recently, I sent checks to five public schools in Wisconsin along with a letter explaining my actions. I can't in good conscience accept the "bribe" of a so-called tax refund when it impacts the welfare of my grandchildren and over 800,000 students attending public schools.
I believe in investing in our great public schools and the children who attend them. The generations who came before me invested in my public education. I am forever grateful to them. The previous generations wanted a better life for us and knew that a public education was the key to that ...
Your Freedom Matters
First they came for our voting freedoms and I did not speak out
Because I didn’t vote
They came for my work place freedoms/ protections and wages
I didn’t speak because I didn’t understand why it was so important
Then they came for freedom to learn all that is possible through a great public education,
I didn’t realize public schools are the heart of equal opportunity for all communities
Quietly they attacked our state’s freedom to enjoy and protect our beautiful land and water
Very few have noticed because it ...
