January 18, 2017 at 12:33 p.m.
Reps write about school closings and the consequences of elections
A recent article by J. Patrick Reilly on the front page of the December 15 issue of The Dodgeville Chronicle addressed concerns expressed by Arena and Lone Rock residents as their community schools are scheduled for closing.
Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Mt. Horeb), who attended Arena Elementary School, is the ranking Democratic member of the committee, and her colleague, Rep. David Considine (DBaraboo), is a former teacher from Jack Young Middle School and represents Arena. As representatives to the Wisconsin State Assembly, we both sit on the Assembly Education Committee. We have been fighting to support public education and want to shed a bit of light on the difficult decision recently made by the River Valley School District Board of Education in a 6-3 vote.
While extremely unfortunate, it comes as no surprise to either of us that a decision to close the only schools remaining in Lone Rock and Arena has become a reality. Under Rebublican Governor Scott Walker and his legislative allies, Wisconsin suffered the deepest funding cuts to public education in the state's history and in the entire nation.
This looks like an attempt to starve public schools - often declaring them failures, when a lack of resources makes educating next to impossible or when an operating referendum fails to pass - in order to close them. This opens the door for the growth of private, unaccountable, voucher and charter schools.
Lone Rock's State Senator, Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) has no voucher schools in his district but was heavily financed by the American Federation for Children and School Choice Wisconsin, both strong proponents of voucher schools, which spend millions supporting campaigns of pro-voucher candidates. He voted in favor of reducing teacher pay and benefits (2011's Act 10), expanding the voucher school program statewide and lifting the enrollment caps on them, and increasing the amount of voucher payments.
State Representative Todd Novak (D-Dodgeville) had not yet been elected during Act 10, but since his election in 2014, has consistently supported pro-voucher legislation and has received thousands of dollars in donations from pro-voucher groups. This is plainly unacceptable.
Democrats have been fighting to save your public schools. We believe that the key to a great education is providing every student - not just the few who can afford to attend a private school - equal opportunities for success. Over 70% of new students who were awarded vouchers were already attending private schools. We continue to struggle to make the school funding system fair and adequate; today, it is neither.
We've introduced legislation in the past few sessions and, most recently, 2015's AB482, in order to make sure that our funding formula is fair for rural, suburban and urban areas alike. This becomes more and more difficult when resources continue to be funneled to these schools, which are completely unaccountable to the taxpayers that fund them.
Voucher schools directly reduce the amount of money available to your public school. It doesn't matter that you have no voucher school in your community, you will pay to have other people's children, in other communities, attend private, often religious, unaccountable voucher schools. And if that school closes (as 41% of all voucher schools opened in Milwaukee between 1991-2015 have done), your public school district will be obligated to provide an education for each of those students at the drop of the hat and will not be given extra resources, if any, until the following year. Think twice before you sell that empty building!
Elections have consequences and those of you in Arena and Lone Rock will now suffer those consequences as your towns will no longer have a school at the heart of the community. Families with children will not be inclined to move to your community, nor will they want to put their young ones on buses for long, and sometimes dangerous, winter commutes to another community. Businesses will not be inclined to open or remain in your town if new families are not attracted to it. Your taxes will increase as fewer and fewer people try to provide the revenue to pay for essential services, all while the value of your home declines.
We need your continued support to ensure that we adequately and fairly fund our schools and our children's futures. It is time for the voters in these areas - who voted to approve the referendum (Lone Rock - 284-92, Arena - 249-156) to choose leaders who represent their needs and are willing to invest in our children's futures and the future of our state.
In this past election, many of the voters in this area chose to support Jeff Wright, who would have helped change the policies that result in the closure of schools like Lone Rock Elementary. We need your help now to stay involved and vocal in supporting our schools. If we work together, we can ensure that the next election cycle will have better outcomes than the last.
