I came home yesterday to find the following message on my phone:
This is an important legislative alert from the League of American Voters. Now that the shouting has ended, protesters and cameras are gone, the run-away senators have come home, and we’ve had time to put politics aside, folks across Wisconsin are praising Governor Scott Walker. He stood strong for better schools with real accountability, and he took on a 3.6 billion dollar defect that could have bankrupted us. Walker put the future of our children first by standing up to government unions with their big benefits and automatic pay raises. Benefits we have to pay for. Don’t let the government unions fool you. This was a fight to save our schools and to protect tax payers. Scott Walker led the fight and won for us. That’s real leadership: Doing the tough job, and the right things, regardless of party politics. Tell Scott Walker and your legislators today “Keep up the fight!”
“Keep up the fight?” I wondered. It this an admission, by Scott Walker, that he declared war against the teachers in his state? What have they done to deserve it? What made them his enemy? And why has he marginalized their significant contributions to the high quality of education in Wisconsin? Moreover, what gives him the rights to dismiss their countless hours of work – well into the night, or before the crack of dawn, or an weekends and holidays – performing the endless task of correcting tests and assignments, lesson planning, collaborating with fellow teachers, conferencing with parents, providing additional help to students, coaching, … ? What moral and civil principles he models allow him to make teachers the pejoratives?
I am a public school teacher with 43 years of teaching experience (24 years teaching in the United States Army). I taught and fought in Viet Nam, and Desert Storm. I taught and trained soldiers who fought in Iraq. I have won more than 400 awards and decorations for excellence in teaching, so I am hoping that you will believe me when I tell you “There is no teaching job that is more difficult in the United States than teaching in a public school. (Beginning with tomorrow’s article, I will attempt to explain the reasons for this.) “I will also tell you “Upon my retirement from the United States Army, I decided to teach, work, and live in Wisconsin because the teachers in this state are considered to be some of the finest teachers in the world!” Finally, I must confide in you that I am deeply concerned with Governor Scott Walker’s education policy, because for the first time, since I started teaching in Wisconsin, I am seeing a huge number of the finest teachers leaving the public schools.
So the bottom line is this: Regardless of whom you choose to believe, the day will come, in a couple years from now – if not sooner, when the data will show the results of Scott Walker’s education policy. Let’s pray to God that it wouldn’t be too late for Wisconsin’s children. Because there is no doubt in my mind that only a few school districts, most in the wealthy neighborhoods, that will still have excellent schools. The other districts will be fragmented into charter schools, magnet schools, internet school, and other unaccountable schools, with students whose achievements are unknown – even to themselves!
When that day comes, Scott Walker and the League of American Voters will not be taking the credit for it! Instead, some sector of the middle class will be taking the blame!
