The Americans for
Prosperity Poverty recently did a little tour around the state telling us why they wanted to take our children's education money. He
re is a recap of their stop in Beloit, WI. Unfortunately it was written by a stenographer who either didn't want to ask questions, or wasn't allowed. Since this reporter dropped the ball....allow us here @cog_dis to pick it up and run with it!
* Kristi Lacroix makes $74,000 a year which is more than anyone in our district or Janesville's district. What is she in the top 5% of teachers paid in the state? i guess the union really screwed her over!
* I wonder how much @afp-wisconsin pays her to run around to these things.
* More from Kristi:
She said schools afraid of competition should get it together or get
out of the business of education. And she doesn’t accept excuses of kids
not performing well because they are poor or come from bad homes.
- Schools are NOT a business, there is no profit margin, Schools are an INVESTMENT!
- Secondly, to
dismiss poverty as a factor in learning shows you do not know how to google, or you are being paid to not Google.
* more Kristi: "
Stressing that the best teachers won’t lose their jobs in the event of expanded school choice,..."
- Without Collective bargaining agreements and the redefinition of "just cause", what do you base that on?
* finally with Kristi;
“I’ll save you tons of money. Let me watch the best teachers in the
state,” LaCroix said. “When school choice really opens up in Wisconsin,
it’s not going to be to suburban schools, it’s going to be to successful
schools who invested in their teachers.”
-Well one thing Kristi, we as a school district are only able to "invest in the teachers" up to the CPI and not a penny more! I will give you a break on that one as I am sure that economics is not your strong suit and you obviously have no idea what ACT 10 says.
* Next comes Tony Katz, who they flew in from out of state(for some reason) then put together a false video for him to show and get the blame for(with friends like @AFPWI , who needs enemies?).
Katz played a video presenting statistics, including a claim that “51
percent of Beloit schools were failing,” which prompted Beloit
Superintendent Steve McNeal to interject that the claim was false.
* We only get a few glimpses of AFP director Luke Hulgemann;
- “We believe that competition drives innovation and results for all
children,” Wisconsin State Director of AFP Luke Hilgemann said. “We need
better results. We are falling behind other states and other
countries.”
- (speaking to the false video) Hilgemann said the statement comes from reading the Wisconsin Department
of Public Instruction (DPI) report card. In October the report cards
indicated that School District of Beloit has seven of its 14 schools
meeting or exceeding expectations, and half of the schools in the
district meeting fewer expectations.
Yet we get enough to know that Hilgemann is NOT the sharpest pencil in the box, but probably plays the role of stooge for his Masters very well!
Kudos to those who showed up to bring sanity to this parade of propaganda, but it appears that people actually spoke up and said "thanks but no thanks" to the AFP snake oil!
Some attendees voiced concern over the images shown, and what they considered to be exaggerated claims.
Parent Rick McGrath noted the images shown weren’t from Beloit.
“Images can be very powerful. Those were very dour
and provocative photos. You’re casting the wrong impression of my
community,” McGrath said.
McGrath said Beloit just passed its $70 million referendum and hasn’t had time to act out its plan yet.
Teacher Kathleen Woodman said she felt hurt by the
video, and said it implied the School District of Beloit is failing,
which she rejected.
“I want choices for our kids, but we also must speak about public education with honest facts,” Woodman said.
Finally, local rep Amy Loudenbeck showed up and realized that this is a losing proposition distanced her self from it(also obviously trying to pretend that the mess the republicans made when they rammed through the 18 of ACT10, which she proudly voted for): :
Loudenbeck said she would like to see a parental choice debate
focused on the children and families that could benefit from school
choice and private school vouchers, without targeting individual school
or district performance.
“I realize that may be difficult, but I am willing to
work with community members to continue a respectful and open
discussion on this issue,” Loudenbeck said.
With such a false and sloppy presentation, do we really want these people in charge of educating our children???
Posts
