Education Action Alert! Say NO to voucher expansion!

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It's never too late to stand up for what's right. Wisconsin children need you to stand up NOW for public education.

From the Institute for Wisconsin's Future:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that a Republican deal on vouchers and school funding has been reached -- and that it may advance to a vote TODAY in the Joint Finance Committee.
IT IS A BAD DEAL FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND WE NEED YOU TO REACH OUT TO JOINT FINANCE MEMBERS AND YOUR LEGISLATORS NOW!
This compromise is an outrage because it:

• Allows vouchers to go statewide and not to just nine new communities. DPI estimates that vouchers on a statewide scale could ultimately cost up to $1.9 billion annually, further diverting scarce resources away from public schools and increasing local property taxes.
• Puts some limits on the number of students initially allowed in the voucher program and their income eligibility, but past history clearly demonstrates that enrollment and income eligibility caps are easily changed.
• Gives public schools an increase of only $150 per student, well below the $235 needed to just keep up with inflation let alone to catch up from the last cuts.

Tell Joint Finance Committee members (e-mails listed below) and your legislators to stop this outrage, and vote NO to voucher expansion and YES to a meaningful increase for public schools.  There's no longer any other way to look at this -- it is a full-out assault on OUR public schools and the backbone of OUR democracy.

Do what you can and ask others to do the same. Go to the IWF website to get details on what you can do (including hash tags, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and talking points).

A detailed memo on school vouchers can be found on the DPI website.

Let Wisconsin's Joint Finance Committee know that expanding the voucher program state-wide hurts the whole state! Say NO DEAL to the bogus "compromise" that would expand vouchers state-wide (Walker only asked for certain districts). Restore full funding to public education and stop playing political games with deep-pocketed out-of-state lobbyists! Our future depends on upholding the traditions of the past: value and support free and equal public education!

Rep.Strachota@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Mason@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Kooyenga@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.LeMahieu@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Knudson@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Klenke@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Nygren@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep.Richards@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Darling@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Grothman@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Shilling@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Leibham@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Wirch@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Harsdorf@legis.wisconsin.gov

cc:
Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Ellis@legis.wisconsin.gov
govgeneral@wisconsin.gov

and your own representatives if not listed above!

Write or call members of the JFC NOW!  Make sure YOUR voice is heard as loudly as the out-of-state special interests who have been lobbying - and paying - to push this privatization agenda through in Wisconsin