WHAT SCARES ME ABOUT EDUCATION

I am truly scared when I read the WEAC 2009-2010 legislative agenda:

* Repeal the Qualified Economic Offer law
* Repeal revenue caps
* Make preparation time for educators a mandatory subject of collective bargaining
* Increase funding for SAGE to provide $2,500 per low income pupil beginning in the 2009-2010 fiscal year
* Implement voucher accountability
* Make attendance of 5-year-old kindergarten mandatory and a prerequisite to admission to first grade
* Treat education support professionals the same as teachers under the Wisconsin Retirement System in terms of qualifying for coverage and for early retirement calculations
* Establish WTCS pay equity by requiring that the salary and fringe benefits of part-time technical college instructors be prorated based on the salary and fringe benefits of full-time staff
* Create a loan forgiveness program for teaching math, science, special education and ELL in high-poverty districts
* Repeal residency requirements
* Provide a tax deduction for non-reimbursed classroom purchases
* Adopt the 'Wisconsin Indoor Environmental Quality in Schools Act' for public school buildings
* Require school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies
* Allow parents to take leave time from work to attend school conferences and activities

And realize that every item is either an additional cost or revenue-neutral. We can barely afford the programs we currently have in place, and they want more.

Their agenda comes at the same time that the future of the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) law in Wisconsin is in doubt. The Governor, and the Democrats now in control in Madison, have all said they will work to end the QEO in 2009. Considering that, since the law took effect in 1993, the average increase in teachers’ salary-and-benefit packages has hovered around 4 percent a year, compared to more than 7 percent in the years immediately preceeding the change, according to WEAC, I think the QEO has worked.

I can support the elimination of the QEO IF the state legislature also gets rid of binding arbitration. Binding arbitration creates a spiraling, crippling ripple effect, where, if one district agrees to one policy change or one benefit increase, it sucks in other districts into the same vortex.

I am fearful that the cost of education in Wisconsin will become unbearable in the next decade, and I predict we will see more "virtual" schools, consolidated districts and fewer co-curricular programs UNLESS all parties involved drop their partisan issues and really do what is best for the children, and not pay lip service to the concept. End of soapbox...now back to the regular programming.