Principals decry loss of funding, local control under Scott Walker

[riversedge]

And the kids lose again!


http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/principals-decry-loss-of-funding-local-control-under-scott-walker-b99551230z1-321290831.html

Principals decry loss of funding, local control under Scott Walker
By Matt Kulling of the Journal Sentinel
Aug. 10, 2015



............The principals from high schools such as Waukesha North, Waukesha West, Arrowhead, Oconomowoc, Pardeeville, Milton and Lake Mills said they're concerned about how changes passed under Walker forcing schools to compete will result in more segregation. The model will result in an exclusionary system between the "haves and have nots," they wrote.

And they point to how Walker has pledged to reduce big government, yet they feel power "of the people, by the people and for the people" is less in the people's hands than it once was.

"The people in local communities have far less voice today than they did only a few decades ago," the letter states, saying that school boards have less power now to make policy, funding and testing decisions.

The message from high school principals comes as Wisconsin schools have undergone major changes under Walker's tenure. The Act 10 law signed by Walker in 2011 curtailed the power of unions and actually gave school boards more control over setting work rules, wages and benefits for employees.

But they could not control other changes in state education policy. For example, the latest state budget signed in July further expands programs that send public money to private, religious schools, while holding funding mostly flat for public schools...................

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Holy shit, when you've lost the richest districts in the state, you're doing something wrong.

Walker is over.

[riversedge]

2. WashPost- Wisconsin principals tell Scott Walker: Stop hurting our schools

Glad to see WP has picked up on this story


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/11/wisconsin-principals-tell-scott-walker-stop-hurting-our-schools/


Wisconsin principals tell Scott Walker: Stop hurting our schools
By Valerie Strauss August 11



https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484
Republican 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker speaks to attendees at the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, Georgia August 8, 2015. REUTERS/Tami Chappell




Some 35 school principals from Wisconsin have sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker — who is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination — saying that state education policies and budgets are hurting their schools. And they told Walker that his war on “big government” isn’t really returning power back to the people but actually making it harder for communities to have a say in local education decisions.

Walker last month signed a new state budget that, over the next two years, slashes $250 million from the University of Wisconsin, one of the country’s great public institutions of higher education; ensures that most K-12 school districts will get less funding than they did last year; expands the state’s voucher program that uses public funds to pay for tuition at private schools, including religious schools — even though there is no evidence the program has helped improve student achievement in the past; and creates a new “special needs” voucher law that cuts into protections for special needs students...................

[Scuba]

3. Destroying public education is Job #1 for Squat Wanker.

[Still In Wisconsin]

4. Right you are.

Once all those public schools have been decimated, for-profit "schools" can move in and make serious bank.

[murielm99]

5. Isn't Waukesha a very wealthy, repubbie area?

I seem to remember some indication that there was cheating on the Walker recall voting in that area, too.