Something is Wrong: Wisconsinites vote to spend more for schools, Walker spends less?

It’s beginning to sink in; Ideological management of public education does not work in the real world.

Think about it; While 80% of state school districts voted to raise taxes, we're still applauding Walker's Republicans for cutting taxes. What's wrong with this picture?

Since I was a kid in the mid 60’s, Republicans attacked public education for its top heavy administrations. That continued until the 90’s, when Republicans decided “cutting to the bone” was the only way to solve the supposed spending problem in our schools.

In 2011, under Scott Walker, Republicans abandoned the idea of public education altogether, cutting spending and giving what was left to private businesses.

Discrediting teachers for their summers off, union backing and professional salaries played well to envious conservatives who wanted public employees to get kicked around like they did in their private workplace. 

     

So pure ideology usurped the real world needs and expectations of Wisconsinites who loved their public schools. What made us uniquely Wisconsin, paid for with higher taxes, didn’t make sense to Republicans anymore.

 

But in an odd twist, most voters didn’t hate their local public schools. In many ways, schools in those smaller districts made communities come together.

    

That was never more evident than when I learned this from State Public Schools Superintendent Tony Evers:

"Today, almost 80 percent of school districts approve referenda. Citizens are voting to tax themselves because the state ain't pulling its weight."

80% is huge, and a clear signal Republican are ideologically disconnected from their constituents on public education. Evers also said…

WPR: The negative rhetoric about the teaching profession needs to end if the state is going to solve what he called "critical staffing shortages." The public already supports increased spending for education ... But one strategy is free and we can do it today. We need to end the negative rhetoric surrounding the teaching profession. Teachers teach because they care about kids. We ought to treat them with respect and pay them as professionals.”

Check out the nice piece at Jake's Economic TA Funhouse, where he has a Lewis Black video:

Lewis Black: "If you didn't give the teachers summer off you fuckin' moron ... we'd have to be building insane asylums to the sky."