Greenfield School Districts Stands Up For Its Students

It's good to see people aren't rolling over and taking the crap that the Teapublicans are dishing out:

Greenfield’s interim superintendent David Ewald said the voucher program and other initiatives like charter schools don’t have a proven track record, and questioned the economic feasibility of expanding the voucher program.

“The intent of voucher schools was to give school choice to students who live in poverty,” he said. “But if it spreads, creating another school system in addition to the one we have would be a huge cost.”

On Monday, the School Board is likely to unanimously support a resolution crafted by board member Robert Hansen denouncing the voucher program and expressing the district’s unified opposition to it.

Board member Rick Moze said one of his biggest issues with the voucher program is its lack of accountability.

“As far as I know, it’s the only state-funded program with no regulations,” Moze said.

State Representative Mike Kuglitsch - whom I'm afraid is now my gerrymandered representative and whose only claim of fame is running a bowling alley in the middle of nowhere - showed that he's gotten his head stuck in the return chute once too often with this inane comment:

In a statement earlier this week, State Representative Mike Kuglitsch (R-New Berlin), who district includes part of Greenfield, praised the expansion of the “promising school choice program.”

“Not all students learn the same way, and we must give parents the tools to send their children to a school that best fits their needs,” he said.

The only tool I see in this deal is Kuglitch.

But what does he care as long as he keeps cashing in his two paychecks - the one paid for by the taxpayers and the one paid for by ALEC.

Teacher Resignations Higher Than Expected, And That's Just The Beginning

Well, well, Act 10 isn't all it cracked up to be after all:

Greenfield School Board member Cathy Walsh on Monday said that 16 teachers either resigned or retired at the end of the school year, which she said presents a more serious picture of staff turnover than the School Board was led to believe.

The administration had provided the board with resignation and retirement numbers for all staff. Those numbers showed no inordinate exodus. But Walsh said she separated teachers out and found 16 had left, compared with the six or seven that she found had been the more normal turnover over the last nine years.

The gentle reader might remember that the Greenfield School Board received some unwanted attention last fall when they tried to ramrod through a draconian employee handbook and were called out on it by the teachers.

The board's attitude towards the teachers was so egregious and outrageous that the negative response they received inspired them to be one of the few, if not the only, school board to issue a press release in an effort to try to cover their behinds.

It really shouldn't shock anyone that teachers are resigning, especially from the districts that treat them with such disrespect. People will only tolerate so much before they look for greener pastures where they can get paid better and be treated better. Unfortunately, because of Act 10, many of our finest teachers have and will continue to find those greener pastures outside of Wisconsin, further contributing to the brain drain the state is suffering from.

As with the Milwaukee County child welfare system, we can also expect that the turnover rate will continue to greatly escalate as they continue to put the screws to the teachers as far as their pay and working conditions go.

The end result will be either a completely broken system opened up for education profiteers or a need to substantially increase the spending to maintain a system that meets the minimum expectations of the community. Either way, I would expect that the cost will end up being much greater than any savings that Scott Walker might trumpet about.

Act 10 has already cost the state dearly, and we are only at the beginning of the misery it will cost us.