Dear Scott Walker: CHECK YOUR EMAIL!

10 August 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

Sorry I haven't written for a while - I was so focused on the recall elections (hooray! historic victory! can you believe it?!)  and trying to expose your collusion with special interests against the interests of the people you claim to represent that I didn't really have time to write. But when I saw what you said this morning to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I knew I had to write today to remind you of something very important: CHECK YOUR EMAIL!  

It seems you haven't been getting my messages or something.  At first I got all excited - thinking you were talking about ME when I read that you said "I've heard repeatedly from people who are just disgusted" but then I read on. You weren't talking about me. You were talking about some other "people" you've allegedly heard from:

I’ve heard repeatedly from people who are just disgusted at all the (campaign) ads, disgusted at all the money. They’re tired of seemingly year round campaigning and whether it’s a gubernatorial recall, any other recall, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of enthusiasm for having a whole another [sic? or did you really just say "a whole another?"  How embarrassing! You're so inarticulate!  Don't you wish you'd stuck in college long enough to take that speech course?!] wave of ads and money come into the state of Wisconsin.

Which is an odd thing to say, considering how many times I've written you to say otherwise, and how many times you've written right back, promising to "keep my specific comments in mind."  But just in case you overlooked my many, many previous messages, or forgot some of my specific comments, let me just make this crystal clear for you:

• I am disgusted at your abuse of power and your refusal to listen to, acknowledge, or engage in conversation with,your constituents.
• I am tired of special-interests funding campaign ads and outside influences buying elections in Wisconsin. And I am absolutely disgusted by the shameful display of hubris you have the nerve to put forth today in suggesting that you actually care about how much money is spent in these elections - after keeping silent when your own party wasted $400,000 of taxpayer money trying to run fake Democrats in the primaries. Equally disgusting is the pinnacle of hypocrisy which was the American Foundation for Children's press release today.  This Michigan-based special interest group poured an obscene amount of funds (at least half a million dollars just on tv ads) into these campaigns in an effort to secure their place at the legislative table - a space they've clearly already bought through Alberta Darling - and then had the nerve to claim that these results were "a rebuke of divisive, special interest-sponsored recall efforts." Given that workers' rights and public schools are the "special interests" that your party opposes, it is absolutely baffling to me that you garner a single vote.  These divisive statements only cement my resolve to both expose the dangers of these collusions with special interest groups like the AFC, hell-bent on privatizing our public education system and destroying the middle and working class for good.
• I do have a "whole lot of enthusiasm" for another recall. In fact, I have so much enthusiasm about seeing you recalled that I am almost giddy with excitement about it. 

Picking up two seats in the Senate yesterday was great. But getting a partisan majority was never my own personal aim. Sure, it would've been nice. But these recalls weren't about getting the majority. They were about getting justice. They were about calling out the corrupt politicians who sided with you and your big-money policy pushers over the interests of this state and were willing to sacrifice the rights of public workers and the future of public education in a power-hungry frenzy of partisan greed. They were about standing up and saying NO! to your selling of our state to the highest bidder, and showing the rest of the country that there is hope for democracy yet. And we did all that. So good for us. 

"Ask not for whom the red balloon tolls. It tolls for thee."  Photo source

But that was not my goal. My goal is to recall you. That has been my goal from day one and if anything, yesterday's result only strengthens my resolve to see you out of office as quickly as possible. I'm just one person, I know. Alone I can't do much. But I'm doing my part to make it happen, and at the very least, I have made my views known - to you and to anyone else who cares to listen.  I just wish you would care to listen. Because you keep saying you can't hear us.  But here I am. Here we are. Check your email. You'll find all the details in there. And read carefully. Listen very closely, because here is what we're saying: We want to recall you. We have "a whole lot of enthusiasm" about recalling you. It's going to happen.

Unless of course, you resign. Which I highly recommend.

In dissent,

Heather DuBois Bourenane

Taxpayer, voter and person whose voice you have heard, but ignored, for many, many months

P.S. I almost forgot to mention how absolutely unconscionable I found your signing into law the most divisive, partisan redistricting maps imaginable yesterday - on the day of the elections, an hour before the deadline, and behind closed doors. What a sneaky, slimy, cowardly move. How do you sleep at night? Seriously. How do you sleep? Representative Brett Hulsey got it exactly right today. He said "Governor Walker and the GOP leaders complaining about recall elections today is like arsonists complaining about the fire, smoke and damage they created with their highly partisan attacks on Wisconsin’s families and freedom."

This one is for you: How do you sleep at night, anyway?

This one is for us: We didn't start this. But we'll end it. 

When you're recalled and we can put things right.

Wisconsin Recalls: It's (Also) About Saving Our Schools

An open letter to anyone who cares about public education, and to anyone who thinks the Wisconsin recall elections are just about public employees and collective bargaining.

3 August 2011

Dear friends,

You may have noticed, in the past few weeks, a couple of events coming out of Wisconsin news: The first is that our recall elections are coming up, and on August 9 and 16 the people will vote to see which of our recalled Senators will remain in office.  Up for recall are both Republican and Democratic legislators, and the stakes are high around the state as the balance of power could potentially shift in our Republican-run regime. The second thing you might have heard about is our participation at the Save Our Schools event in Washington, DC, which had a large Wisconsin contingent. These two events are not unrelated.  Public schools are under attack, and the recall elections might be our last chance for a while to fight for them. I ask that you take a few minutes to consider the evidence and the potential impact of these elections on policies that directly effect our children, and their schools.

Exhibit A: Alberta Darling, the Republican Senator from District 8 who famously admitted that she does not listen to public testimony during the budget hearings because (1) people had "already spoken" on this issue "at the ballot box" (a lie in the extreme, when you consider that Scott Walker did NOT campaign on his education-killing budget), (2) the people who testified didn't matter because they weren't "taxpayers" (since taxpayers would be working at that time - the time she purposely selected to limit potential testimony) and (3) the hoards of people testifying against the bill were irrelevant to her, because they didn't represent the "silent majority" of Wisconsin citizens who were too busy or too lazy to speak up in support of the budget.  That Alberta Darling, you should know, is being sued for her violation of the Open Records Law in refusing to produce her correspondence and appointments with out-of-state groups like the American Federation for Children, who have poured over $500,000 into Wisconsin recall ads and contributed to the campaigns of Republican legislators across the state. Other legislators have complied with similar requests. Why won't Darling produce these records? What is she trying to hide? Exhibit B might provide some answers to that question.

Exhibit B: The influence of ALEC and the AFC on Wisconsin's trickle-down education legislation.

If you've been following the news about Wisconsin, you know that one of the things Wisconsin citizens are most angry about is the draconian, unnecessary cuts to public education - over $1.7 billion (!) in cuts to our schools, which are forced now to balance budgets by forcing teachers into early retirement and cutting programs that are essential to our most at-risk students. These cuts, however, don't come in vacuum. While Walker repeatedly claims these cuts are just mandatory hits that show how we all have to "tighten our belts," not all belts in Wisconsin are getting tighter. These cuts come hand-in-hand with corporate tax breaks, a 15% increase to road construction and to other areas that benefit funders of Walker's campaign, as well as increased funding to charter schools - including the use of public funds to provide vouchers for rich children to attend private schools, legislation that comes to us directly from the coffers of one of Wisconsin's major campaign contributors: Amway/Prince mogul Betsy DeVos and her astroturfing front-group, American Federation for Children, a group which has a national aim to privatize public education.  Michigan-based Betsy DeVos is perhaps most famous for her openness in acknowledging that she expects a "return" on her political investments - "buying influence," she calls it - a return that her Wisconsin investments, Scott Walker, Scott and Jeff Fitzgerald (the brothers who serve as heads of the Wisconsin Senate and House), Senator Alberta Darling, Representative Robin Vos (the current WI head of ALEC), and others (including some Democrats) are apparently more than willing to provide. It's also worth noting that Scott Jensen, the former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker who was convicted of felony charges of abuse of office, sits on the AFC board as "Senior Advisor" to its "Governmental Affairs Team." The conservative group The Presidential Coalition, an offshoot of Citizens United, has spent $300,000 in ads supporting Republican Luther Olsen in his race against Fred Clark in District 14. Ethics violations have been filed against tax-dodger Kim Simac, who's challenging incumbent Jim Holperin (D) in District 12, for failing to included the "paid by" on her tv ads. While both sides have raised significant funds at the grassroots and local level, the number of out-of-state special interest groups pouring money into keeping the Wisconsin Senate Republican is directly linked to the national movement to privatize public schools, a fact that voters should not overlook when entering the ballot boxes in the upcoming weeks. What return do they expect on their "investments"? Is the quality of your child's education a price you are willing to pay for it?

Exhibit C: Scott Walker, national pawn poster boy for "school choice." 

Code for privatizing public education, "school choice" legislation slowly defunds public schools as it builds up programs to fund private education.  With millions of dollars pouring into these efforts, our own Scott Walker has become the national model for the shameless exploitation of public funds in the name of "education." When he signed into law the voucher bill that conservative news outlet Newsmax glowingly called "the largest expansion to the state’s school choice programs in history," Betsy DeVos sang his praises: “Governor Walker and state legislators pledged to put Wisconsin’s children first, and today that important pledge has become law. We encourage governors and state legislators across the nation to be equally bold in fighting for the creation and expansion of school choice programs.” Claiming to represent minorities and low-income interests, the AFC garners misleading "support" from conservative front groups like School Choice Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Council of Religious & Independent Schools, Hispanics for School Choice, and Democrats for Education Reform, all of which have similar goals of using public funds to support private education with the elimination of income caps, district regulations, teacher accreditation, testing and curriculum requirements, and the legal requisite of citizen input and transparency.  In short, the privatization and deregulation of public education, which can be more simply and accurately referred to as the destruction of public education as we know it. And Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is marching at the forefront of this movement, proudly presenting the keynote address at the AFC's annual national conference in Washington, D.C. this spring. Dean Pagani sums up Walker's speech perfectly:

The keynote speech at the AFC summit was given by Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who has become the symbol of the taxpayer battle against public employee unions. His remarks however did not dwell on the labor/management aspect of the choice movement. Instead, Walker made a direct connection between school choice and economic expansion. More than half a dozen times during his remarks he came back to the idea that statistics in his state show the more choice has expanded the more the economic strength of the state has “expanded on a parallel track.”

Walker and those who supported his education-killing budget know exactly what's at stake here. They are willing to sacrifice the good of our schools and the quality of public education for the benefit of the few, and the already-affluent. They do not have my children's interests in mind, and unless you're rich, they don't care about your kids, either.   This is why we need to recall Scott Walker, Alberta Darling, and every other Wisconsin legislator who supported this bill. They all ran on a pro-education platforms, and have since done everything in their power to defund public education in favor of a privatized, tax-payer funded private school system.  Ironically, they continue to depict outraged Wisconsin citizens as 'out-of-state' dissidents or union thugs, while they meet behind closed doors with members of ALEC and the AFC, selling our kids to the highest bidder and asking us to pay the price.

I ask that you join me in sharing with your friends and neighbors in Wisconsin the importance of these recall elections - to us, and to the rest of the country as they watch these elections unfold. People need to know what is really at stake here. It's not just about unions. It's not about money, or partisan politics, or collective bargaining. It's about all that, and more. It's about transparency. It's about voter rights, worker rights, human rights. It's about protecting our state from national policy-pushers whose policies will only benefit the few. It's about protecting our schools.  It's about our kids.  And my kids are not for sale, and their education isn't either. How about yours?

Sincerely,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin taxpayer, parent, and supporter of public education

Scott Walker's keynote address at the AFC national policy summit. "National policy," eh? What about states' rights and local governance?  Who do you want deciding on the curriculum at your kids' school? If you want to remain a part of this process, these recall elections matter more than you realize. When public schools are privatized, citizen input and publicly elected school boards are a thing of the past.  The Wisconsin legislators who voted in blind partisan support of Walker's policies have abandoned our schools and the communities they serve. That is why I'm working to see them recalled. They have broken their promises and sold out our kids. It's about the children.  It's about the schools.

UPDATE: On Aug. 3, 2011, a day after a lawsuit was filed against her for withholding public information in violation of the Open Records Law, Alberta Darling produced the requested information regarding her relationship with the American Foundation for Children, currently pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign.  See more here and see the emails, which clearly show the AFC's hand in authoring the Wisconsin legislation, here.

The ultimate pyramid scheme: trickle-down education

9 May 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

Tonight, you are speaking at the American Foundation to Destroy Public Education's annual "National Policy Summit." Their new poster boy for legislation-for-hire policies that defund public schools while they use taxpayer money to promote school "choice" and "vouchers" (code for public funding of private schools), I'm sure you're greedily lapping up the moment of attention and letting those big-money ego-strokers convince you you're doing the right thing, and that you actually bring something to their gilded table.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett had the nerve to blame unions for "failing public schools" earlier today and I don't have to see the video to know what you're going to say, because you're going to spread the same lies and shoddy data you always spout about the "success" of Milwaukee charter schools and brag about your plan to expand the voucher program in Wisconsin and your "success" in paralyzing unions.  (I put the "success" in quotes here to show how I don't agree that those measures were "successful." Rather, I think those are "lies" that you intentionally use to manipulate people into thinking that public schools are not worth investing in and that unions - not corrupt and immoral public policies - are responsible for all of societies ills.  And you couldn't be more wrong.)

Mary Bell, a teacher with 30 years of experience and president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (and one of the people I'm nominating for your condescending State Employee Recognition Award), knows exactly what's wrong with your plan. Calling your plan "a slew of absurdities," she outlined some of the many reasons the vast majority of educators, students, principals and administrators oppose your agenda, which would effectively destroy Wisconsin schools.   As Mary Bell wrote,

"Gov. Scott Walker's education plan included in his state budget proposal will move our students and state backward. Whether you have children in a public school or not, whether you are Democrat, Republican or somewhere in between, children are counting on the state to do what's right. Public education must remain a top priority. [...]

Gimmicks and privatization disguised as education reform should not substitute for solid plans to support the investment generations of Wisconsin citizens have made.

The governor's education plan does not support student learning and schools, and they are not based on sound research. Take, for instance, his plan to pour millions of dollars into a separate private school system, while, at the same time, local school districts would experience a $1.68 billion loss in revenue.

On top of that, the budget proposal would lift income limits for vouchers so that wealthy families in Milwaukee could send their kids to private schools at taxpayer expense. All of this is happening despite the fact that since the voucher program's inception, these private schools have never been shown to do a better job of educating children.

To be clear, the implications of expanding taxpayer funding of private and religious schools goes far beyond Milwaukee. Our local public schools are facing unprecedented cuts.

When public schools are struggling financially and laying off teachers, the last thing we need is to spend more taxpayer money on private schools, but that's exactly what the governor wants to do. His followers are even suggesting a special needs voucher system, which was developed without input from Wisconsin disability groups who advocate for those students and their families."

Meanwhile, SB-22, the so-called Charter School Bill, is on the verge of passing through the Wisconsin legislature. I, for one, am trying to do everything I can to educate, infuriate and awaken the people of Wisconsin - and beyond - on the dangers of this bill, and the agenda of groups like the one paying for you to lie to the nation tonight, want to enact.

Without a solid public education system, we are nothing. Your efforts, funded nationally by billionaires like Dick and Betsy DeVos, are a one-way ticket to destroying the middle class and the death of the public school. DeVos money does not come without strings: that Amway money climbed a long, long ladder to get into those pockets and now the rest of us are paying the price again as their pyramid scheme reaches a new pinnacle: they're actually trying to get us to buy into the concept of trickle-down education.  Like their famous ScamWay scheme, privatizing public education means the rich reap all the rewards while the rest of us get squashed flat, spread out, stretched thin, every child left behind.  And what education can possibly trickle down? What's left for the rest of us? What "choices" do we get to make when there are no income limits on voucher programs and charter schools can be operated for profit? What's left for the vast majority of Wisconsin children, whose districts already cannot afford to lose another single dollar? What's left behind? Nothing.

Do not be seduced by their moneyed voices. Look at the data that all of the experts have been trying so hard to get you to see. Listen to Mary Bell, to Tony Evers, to Diane Ravitch. Listen to educators, experts, concerned and informed citizens and parents like me. And start putting Wisconsin children first.  Please listen. And, maybe, in the morning, I'll get up the nerve to listen to what you had to say tonight as well. But I'm pretty sure you're not likely to start surprising me any time soon.  Maybe you could start by announcing your resignation.  What a start that would be!

Until you're recalled,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent and advocate for public education

http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-success-walker-corbett-rhee-rally.html