I want to thank you personally for hearing the call of so many thousands of us in Wisconsin who were outraged by the hubris and audacity of the future former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, in daring to speak in "support" of education on your "The State of Education: The Governors' Perspective" panel yesterday.
Thank you, especially, for opening up the forum by reading from the letter I wrote to you and calling out Walker on his divisive policies. The look on Walker's face was priceless as you shared what so many Wisconsinites know to be true: Walker's education "reforms" (TM) are nothing more than devastating and avoidable cuts that will have long-term affects on our students and our schools. The fact that he looked so surprised as you read the letter is further confirmation that he truly does not take seriously, or even acknowledge, the dissent of his constituents, no matter how carefully thought-out or reasonably supported by evidence. As you'll recall, he was cc'd on the original message. Too bad he doesn't check his email.
By opening your program with this challenge to Walker, you sent the message loud and clear, and I think set exactly the right tone for your event: Walker's constituents do not support his education agenda, and whatever slick and slimy talking points he might have up his sleeve to sugar-coat the impact of his massive cuts, we are not falling for it.
In my original letter, I said I was shocked that Walker would be included on a panel on education because he's so shamefully unqualified to speak on the topic, which is true, but in retrospect I am glad he was on this panel. I think having him on made a perfect example of what will go wrong if you try to balance the budget on the backs of our children. Walker, as always, was a shameful disappointment, and I was not surprised to see he said exactly what I predicted he would about how his "tools" and "reforms are working" - his delusional lies about teachers coming up to thank him for gutting the education budget and taking away their rights were a bit beyond the pale, but we're used to that in Wisconsin by now. His inclusion on this panel was a painful reminder of the many valid reasons we have for seeing him recalled from office, and the enthusiasm around the campaign to make our voices heard on this issue only helps build momentum as we move into recall season here in Wisconsin.
The letter I sent you resonated with so many people because I was just saying what needed to be said, and what so many people are thinking. I wouldn't have had the nerve to say it if I didn't know I was speaking on behalf of so many other regular people in Wisconsin and elsewhere who are just sick and tired of the arrogance, lies and deceit that have become the norm in political affairs. I was really humbled by all the attention it received and did my best trying to represent all of us who are so fully engaged in this struggle to take back our democracy, our economy and our social programs from the same bullies who have bought our children out from under us. While those willing to vote against their own self-interests like to frame this as a struggle that's just about unions, or workers' rights, or pensions and benefits, this is in fact a struggle that should really unite all Americans. It's about the citizens of this country ensuring that we have a seat at the negotiating table of our own future, and the future of our children. It's about holding our elected officials accountable to the people rather than those who fund their campaigns. The people of Wisconsin made clear this year that we will not take these abuses of power sitting down, but when you follow the money, you'll see all of these issues are connected. We are all Wisconsin. We are all Wall Street. We are all in this together and the time to stand up say "enough!" is now. So we are standing. And we are saying it.
So I thank you, Mr. Williams, for listening and making our voices heard yesterday. I very much look forward to the day very soon when you'll slow-jam the news that Scott Walker has been recalled.
Yours sincerely,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, educator, PTO member, state employee and public education advocate
continued coverage of Walker's abuses of power in Wisconsin.
And thanks most of all to everyone who stood up with me to send the message
that we do not support Scott Walker or his toxic education policies. Solidarity!
My son started the new school year yesterday, and it turns out I didn't need the few dozen photos I took that morning to remember the day, because I'll never forget the look of pure joy on his face when he RAN into the house when he got off the bus with a huge smile on his face: "Second grade is AWESOME! We had so much fun, and [my teacher] is hilarious! We even had an assembly - and they played 'I can tell that we are gonna be friends! I can't wait for tomorrow!"
Seeing him so excited, so engaged and ready to learn, so committed to his own education, makes me feel so proud. Proud of him, yes, for being such an amazing child. And proud of myself a little, I admit, for raising someone who loves learning. But mostly, proud of the educators who managed to transform - in just over three hours - all the fears and anxieties associated with giving up the freedoms of summer and being put in a new and unfamiliar environment into passion and excitement for what's to come. My son is 6 years old. He was equally excited and apprehensive about starting school because he doesn't know his new teacher well and most the kids in his class are new to him. He went to bed early, but stayed awake for hours - worrying and fretting and fantasizing about what the day had in store. By morning, he was a conflicted mess of high hopes and preparations for the worst possible scenario. But something happened in those 3 hours that convinced him he was going to have a great year. I didn't do that. His teachers did.
The teachers at my son's school, like teachers all over the state, returned from summer break with the weight of so many worries on their shoulders. Many experienced teachers in our district were forced into early retirement so that we could balance our budget using your "tools" (ie: cuts), so other teachers are forced to pick up the slack and work without the guidance and support those teachers provide. And the school year starts the very same week that teachers, like all other state employees, are seeing massive cuts to their take home pay and increases to their insurance contributions - something especially painful to teachers on shoe-string budgets already who spend an average of over $350 on out-of-pocket expenses for their classrooms - a figure which undoubtedly went up this year with the application of your helpful "tools." Teachers are still reeling from the tumult of last spring, when they were put - unfairly and unjustifiably - on the defensive by you as you attempted to scapegoat them, and other public workers, as the root of all fiscal evils, even as you granted tax cuts to your friends who don't need them. Thus began your marvelous assault on the intelligence of the people of Wisconsin (which continues, I might add, to this day), in which you continue to imply that state workers don't pay taxes and do not deserve to earn a wage commensurate with their education and experience or receive the benefits that they have historically and lawfully negotiated into their compensation packages.
"Walker supporters" celebrate their right to publicly denounce educators.
Worse, they're starting the school year with the echoes of hateful jeers in their ears, as just this week their colleagues in the New Berlin school district were mocked, insulted and shouted down at a public hearing on Monday. These teachers were providing public testimony, trying to share the facts about how the vindictive restrictions of the new Employee Handbook (no microwaves, no coffeepot, no jeans or sweatshirts - not to mention the outrageously uninformed restrictions to their daily schedules and demands that they work more hours for less pay) - will hurt students in the district, as well as teachers. "Walker supporters" from New Berlin and other parts of the state, who were strongly encouraged by right-wing talk show hosts to attend the hearing, took every opportunity to interrupt and disrespect the educators, and reportedly handed these teachers pacifiers as they entered the school. Implementation of the handbook was unanimously approved by the board. But the credit for this one is yours, partly for granting the school board authority to write such a ridiculously counterproductive and untenable set of rules, but moreso for granting them - and those who came to cheer them on - the confidence to publicly demean educators with a visible contempt for both their profession and their work.
Teacher morale seems to be at an all-time low. With the cost of living and unemployment up, paychecks down, and Wisconsin's majority legislators proud as peacocks over their unprecedented cuts to the education budget, it's no wonder. And as someone who is not only well aware of this, but has been trying since February, sometimes seemingly in vain, to counter it with support for educators and public schools, I worried about how that would translate into depression, apathy, anger and dejection, all of which are hard to hide in the classroom. And, quite frankly, as a public employee feeling all those emotions myself, I wouldn't have blamed them. But at least in our district the school board stepped up to speak in defense of teachers' rights by issuing a resolution opposing your budget bill, instead of capitalizing on all the ways to disrespect them once they were kicked down like other boards have done in other parts of the state.
But I forgot the most important thing about teachers: as much as "Walker supporters" might want them to shut up and pretend they're just easily replaced cogs in the education factory, being a teacher isn't a McJob that anyone can do (you know, like the ones you're trying to bring to our state to choke out local businesses and the possibility of earning a living wage - there's a good example of those "jobs" in our town). Educators, who earn significantly less and work more hours than people in professions requiring similar training and education, are equally professional and equally (if not moreso) dedicated to their craft, and my children. They are doing the best they can to fight this fight outside of the classroom while still providing our kids with the best education they can given the disgustingly punitive circumstances into which you've forced them. But they're human. And you can't sustain an environment of hate forever, as much as "Walker supporters" might like to. Your "tools" are tearing our education system apart. And, as a parent, I'm standing up with teachers to hold the roof up in spite of you.
This week, in your typical weasel style, you met with educators and others to discussion education - at an event coordinated by American Institutes for Research, an organization that apparently profits from testing and privatization (and I have it from good sources that we can expect more on this soon). For most of this meeting, you stared blankly, open-mouthed and unlistening as others spoke and your head bobbed up and down at words you recognized, undoubtedly flashing back to the reasons you dropped out of college in the first place (it's so boring! who cares? when do I get to talk?!). But at one point you said, "What we should begin with is what is right about education in Wisconsin and how do we replicate that." Seriously. You said that. And it's funny, because we already knew exactly what's right with Wisconsin education, and we already know exactly how your "tools" will hurt the schools that need help most as you work to repay your privatization funders and destroy public education as we know it in Wisconsin.
You can defund the schools, it's true. You can stand by idly as teachers are insulted and harassed. You can sit around pretending to listen to people who actually finishedcollege all day long. You can ignore me, and parents like me, until you're not governor anymore. But you can't stop teachers from loving to teach. And you can't stop kids from loving to learn. You cannot stop every district from supporting its teachers, like they did in Oshkosh and Fall Creek this week. And, perhaps above all, you cannot manipulate the smart people of Wisconsin into thinking you support public education. You cannot take any credit for the good in our schools, try as you might. Our schools and our teachers will succeed in spite of you and your shameful efforts to disrespect them, and your glaring silence of approval when your "supporters" do the same. You can try all you want to "reform" the public education system out of existence.
But you cannot stop my son from coming home from school with a smile on his face.
You can try, Scott Walker, but you cannot ruin my kids' school. We will not let you ruin our kids' teachers. We will not let you sell our future.
Here's what we will let you do: resign. And go back to school. Get your degree. Learn something about how the world works by listening, laughing, and - most of all - making friends. Because you clearly never learned that lesson, and your impulse to rule by pushing people out and ignoring voices of dissent isn't really working out for any of us, is it? My son's wonderful teachers taught him that lesson in a couple of hours. How sad it truly is that you never learned how to listen, in or outside of the classroom, yourself.
Here's to an excellent school year, in spite of you and your "tools," and to an even better one next fall, under our new governor. Or sooner, if you resign. Although then I'd have to start writing to Kleefisch (remember her? She's Rick Perry-crazy!), and I don't think any of us want that to happen. Maybe we'll just hold out for the recall. I trust the dedicated teachers of Wisconsin to make do with the shameful scraps you've left them for that long. But I promise them I'll keep fighting to make it better. And I call on all other parents to do the same. What happened in New Berlin is a sobering lesson on the absurd authority school boards have to dictate policy without regard for the well-being of our children. I think we all have some work to do in terms of looking at our own school boards and thinking about who in our communities might better serve public education in the future. We might not get any help from you, Walker, but we can still help save our schools. We'll just have to work a little harder, until you're gone.
Your shamefully ignored constituent,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, taxpayer and proud supporter of educators and public education
This video captures the heart of the tragedy in Wisconsin: math teacher Dale Destache shares his carefully prepared testimony before the New Berlin School Board, outlining all the ways teachers and students will be impacted by the new policies. While he's explaining how the new guidelines of their abusive Handbook will prevent him from tutoring students before school, someone shouts out "Get a new job!" while others boo and shout him down.The members of the school board made no effort to silence the interruptions.
The Tea Party candidate for the Wisconsin recall election in District 12, where incumbent Jim Holperin risks losing his State Senate seat on August 16, Simac raises horses and writes books. To date, she has written four books for children (with a fifth due out in early 2012), as part of her "I Can Be a Star" series that began, interestingly, with two books about hockey: When I Grow Up, I'm Going to Be a Hockey Star! ("For all who dream of playing hockey!") and its sequel, Girls Play Hockey Too! ("For girls who dream of playing hockey!"). The next three books in the series, though, take "being a star" to the next level, readying children for the (apparently likely) event that they will have to defend their country against threats to God's plan for America.
But, alas, a child did not write this book, and as tempting as it is to expand this critique, Kim Simac's book doesn't really warrant a literary analysis, because it's not literature. It's propaganda.
The book, on the surface, seems an innocent enough celebration of patriotism. It's dedicated "To all who love America..." It opens and closes with reverent respect to the boy's grandpa, who "served for you and me. So that all of us here could have freedom guaranteed" (see what I mean about the rhyme?). The boy goes to school, admires the flag, recites the Pledge:
We say the "Pledge of Allegiance."
I hold my hand
over my heart.
The words
"liberty and justice for all"
are one of the best parts.
He plays army with his friends ("I have to stand guard and be ready, should my enemies pay me a call") and says his prayers at night, asking God "to keep the world a happy place where all children can be safe to play."
But, completely devoid of plot, the book amounts to nothing more than catalog of reasons to fear for the safety of national security, and thinly veiled innuendo that all of the things of value in being American are threatened by some unnamed and mysterious forces. Call it jingoism lite.
In his favorite class, history, for example, our narrator learns
How soldiers gave their lives
to set others free.
How brave men changed
the world so God's
plan could be.
At the 4th of July parade, he stands on the curb, holding a balloon that says "God Bless America." His father informs him that "there may come a time when we may have to say... "This land belongs to you and me, and it might take a war to keep it that way!" The illustration for this page shows a family of at the breakfast table, watching television, the twin towers engulfed in smoke.
God's plan? Mysterious people trying to take our land? The need for war? All of the Tea Party rhetoric of American exceptionalism, isolationism, and anti-intellectualism is neatly woven into the fabric of this book and its illustrations, dangerously normalizing a perspective that ensures a new generation of blindly jingoistic thinking, fear and suspicion.
There's a famous expression that's usually attributed to the 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America it wil be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." While this quote isn't actually in that text, it sums up the argument Lewis makes in his novel. For all their talk of limited government, Tea Party politics confirms precisely the sort of threat Lewis predicted: a religious agenda of irrational, reactionary politics with a decidedly anti-intellectual bent that severely limits individual freedoms in its attempt to forcibly impose and enforce the illusory "freedoms" it resolutely self-defines. A less-quoted line from Lewis' book exposes this threat even further:
I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.
The scary comparisons of the indoctrination tactics of our youth today and those of the Hitler Regime of past.
I am done raising my kids but if I was a young parent today I would take my kids out of the public school system today. At what point will we stop talking about the comparisons to what is occurring today and what actually happened by the regime of the Nazi's in the past?... Take the commercial that Glenn Beck showed from British Progressives that explains to little children that if they do not listen to their teachers recommendations on subjects such as carbon emissions, they could have their heads blown off. Add to that Kindergarten Sex Ed classes and I really wonder how it is American parents smile and kiss their children good bye every morning and in good conscience hand their most precious resource over to the hands of such questionable people.
"Such questionable people?" Nazi regime? These can't be the same people teaching the boy in the book that "God's plan" demands the military defense of America at any cost?
To be fair, let's listen to Simac's defense of this quote (and, ironically, its removal from her website):
"That posting was talking about how we need to be careful about how the world is changing. About how we need to be careful about what it is we are putting into our schools. And we are being careful. We do need to have parent involvement and to make sure that we all work together to make sure that our American values are protected, and defended. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
Our American values. There you have it. For Simac, and the Tea Party that supports her, it all boils down to "our American values." But what is implied here is that "our" values are not shared by all Americans, and - worse - that "others" (foreigners, teachers, minorities, Democrats, Hollywood types, Unitarian Universalists, etc) possess "values" which are a direct threat to their very way of life.
On the website advertising her book, American Soldiers is described as a book which "relays the importance of protecting America's freedoms and our fragile way of life." Our fragile way of life. Simac, and her Tea Party supporters, believe they are more patriotic than the rest of us. They believe they are more religious than the rest of us. They believe that God is on their side, and against the rest of us. They say things like "love it or leave it" to people who disagree with them on policy points. This is not a patriotic view. It is an insular, reactionary, divisive, and, ultimately, fallacious view that is dangerous to all of us, but particularly catastrophic to our children.
Books must be Christian in nature, promote the Christian faith, and intended for the Christian marketplace. The Christian marketplace is defined as the marketplace that is served by CBA member retail stores (mainly individuals who maintain Catholic or Protestant beliefs and doctrines).
While it's somewhat of a relief to know that this book is not on the shelves of local libraries (and worth noting that the autographed Madison Public Libraries copy I received of American Soldier was donated by the Eagle River Rotary Club "In appreciation to those who have served to protect our great country"), I am still waiting for it to arrive via interlibrary loan and haven't had opportunity to review it yet. I look forward to receiving it, so that I can get some answers as to the mysterious connection Simac must make within its pages to connect gun ownership and use to "promoting the Christian faith," and learn how exactly she positions the second amendment within the parameters of "Catholic or Protestant beliefs and doctrines." My guess is that she does so by continuing the Manifest Destiny myth she promotes in American Soldier: God wants me to live in America. God wants me to have a gun. America is a Christian nation which must be protected from outsiders at all costs. But that's just speculation. I'll reserve judgment until I read the book. Maybe it's good. My hopes are not particularly high, though. Simac publishes her books through her own company because, in her words, "I couldn't find a publisher." There's good reason for that.
The fifth book in her series, When Life Began for Me, will be published in 2012. Simac describes the books as follows on The Great Northern Adventure Company website:
"When Life Began for Me" is a book about life and when it actually begins. This book will support the pro-life movement and work to teach young children that though we have a special day we were born on, each life actually begins at a much earlier time. Simac hopes to provide youngsters true knowledge about conception so that it may be drawn upon later in life.
Still think Simac's not pushing an agenda in her "literature"? If Simac thinks propaganda like this is the best way to reach children, it's no wonder she sees public schools as "Nazi" indoctrination camps. Indoctrination is the only "education" she understands.
Kim Simac sells Tea Party propaganda to children, pure and simple. She wraps it up in an American flag and calls it patriotism. Despite their friendly and childish veneer, her books breed fear, isolationism, xenophobia and encourage a profound misreading of the Founding Fathers' vision of a secular state where all have equal rights, freedoms and opportunities. Kim Simac does not believe in the separation of church and state. She does not believe in equal opportunity. She does not believe that all Americans are entitled to equal rights. She does not support the Wisconsin Idea of education as the pinnacle of our intellectual freedoms. She, like her Tea Party cohort, has hijacked the very idea of patriotism and corrupted it into a jingoistic mess of anti-American talking points, which she force-feeds on children through her propagandist books. Ironically, in an attempt to counter what she sees as a threat in public education and the loss of "values," Simac's books represent the very thing she fears.
American Soldier Proud and Free closes with the words "I believe America is something worth fighting for." It is my recommendation that parents who agree with this statement do not let their kids anywhere near Kim Simac's books unless they want to use them to teach kids a lesson about intolerance, distrust and fear-mongering. Kim Simac may be a Tea Party star at the moment, but her "You Can Be a Star" series is little more than a crusade to impose a very narrow, very restrictive, very un-American agenda on our children. And yet she ironically dedicates her book to "all who love America." If you're one of these people, and you live in Wisconsin's District 12, I highly recommend you vote for Jim Holperin on August 16.
Don't believe what you've read here? Or just can't get enough of Kimberly Jo Simac? Watch this video to hear Simac discuss her lack of understanding of the U.S. Constitution, her disbelief in the separation of church and state, her thoughts on the 2nd Amendment, and her theory that homeschooling is the best way to avoid the dangers of free-thinking that come with attendance in public schools. (This video is Part C of a 3-part series. Check out the rest on YouTube)
Editor's note: Readers may be interested to know that Kim Simac's children's book about gun ownership may have impressed the CSPA, but the National Rifle Assocation has endorsed Jim Holperin for Senate, giving him an A rating and citing his "strong and vocal support of our right to keep and bear arms” Jim Holperin has also received the endorsement of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association: "The Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) announced its endorsement of Jim Holperin in his reelection campaign to represent the 12th State Senate District. The WPPA’s board of directors, which is comprised of active law enforcement officers from all across the state, overwhelmingly chose to support Holperin after closely evaluating his record against that of his challenger, Kim Simac."
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 educationlegislation.
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.
Sorry to fall out of touch this last week, but it has been CRAZY around here! Super busy with work. Summer now so I have to work more jobs, and there was car trouble and the buying of a new car ("show me the cheapest car on your lot, sir!"), plus the kids had their last week of school and I had a lot of volunteer work to do for that, and I was trying to keep up with all the madness at the Capitol (so busy!) and then the kids and I were visiting my family in Michigan. You know, Michigan, the state one of your bosses owns? You are going to be so jealous when I tell you that I was close enough to one of the DeVos mansions in Holland that I could actually smell the money of the thousands of plebes at the bottom of the pyramid who trickled their money up, up, up the ladder so that Betsy could one day reign supreme over them and demand a "return on her investment." Seriously. I was that close. You would have loved it. There was poverty everywhere, and then their "house" in all its opulent excess. The only thing missing was a life-sized statue of a camel entering the eye of needle, which is a metaphor for how hard it is to get into a good charter school, and why Jesus wants us to have vouchers because it's not fair that all the godless liberals and poor people get a "free" education while the good children of the Lord have to pay top dollar. Jesus just loves trickle-down education. I think that's what he meant by "suffer the children unto me." It takes visionaries and prophets like you and your friends to know that he meant that suffering part literally.
Anyway, I digress. I have a few items of business that we'd better get to, since it's been a while, and I know how you love business. First, you can stop looking forward to it right now because I am NOT taking the bait on your mean-spirited "statement" yesterday about how the Supreme Court's partisan overturning of the illegal vote ruling is a step toward jobs etc. Whatever. We all knew your bill would pass, and we all knew you got what you paid for in David Prosser, so we'll see you in the higher courts or the recall elections, whatever comes first. I'm ready for that fight.
I'd like to share, instead, my thoughts on your disgusting display of hubris at the Housing Conference last week, and take the time to identify three specific ways in which you've proved, yet again, that you are a selfish egomaniac with no regard whatsoever for the welfare of this state.
In your infinite arrogance, you actually suggest that you can make "a case" for eliminating collective bargaining. Here's what the Wisconsin State Journal says: "Walker took two questions from the conference audience. Asked if there was anything he wished he had done differently, Walker said he should have "spent more time building a case" for his view that collective bargaining should be seen as "not a right, but an expensive entitlement" for public employees." Spend more time? What? You've had months. And your constant pingponging between two equally moronic lies ("Denying people their right to collective bargaining will save the economy" and "Denying people their right to collective bargaining has no fiscal component") has proven, without a doubt, that you have no reasonable case to make. But, even if you did, I'm sorry to inform you that you don't get to "make a case" for what our rights are. These rights, it turns out, are inalienable. And they are protected by state, federal and international law. And among them is the right to organize our labor and engage in collective bargaining with our employers. So you can leave your delusions of grandeur at the Governor's mansion next to your picture of yourself in a monocle and come back to earth.
You continue to spread the absurd lie that your policies will not lead to increased taxes. Who do you think is going to have to foot the bill to keep our schools running now that you've gutted education? Our kids will pay that price, and local communities are already scrambling to figure out how to clean up this mess. By shifting the burden of fiscal responsibility to the local level and the working poor, you give the duplicitous illusion that you're doing something responsible when in fact you're just screwing the working class two ways: not only will I have to pay more, I'll be taking home less pay, too. And I live in a district that can afford it! What of the rural areas where schools literally don't have a dime to spare and people are stretched too thin already to foot any more of the bill? What of these people? What magic voucher does Jesus want them to receive to lift their kids out of that nightmare?
I save the worst for last, and I think you know what it is. Just when I think you've outdone yourself in insulting us, just when I thought it was not possible for you to be any more disrespectful or demeaning, you manage to remind us once again how little regard you really have for the needs and concerns of your constituents. There you are, standing before a throng of adoring money-lenders and exploiters of the poor, waxing sanctimonious about all the good you're doing for this state, when you - quite out of character, actually, since you usually prefer to pretend we don't exist - acknowledge the banging of the crowd of protesters outside your event, who have gathered to defend the rights of the needy to secure housing. BANG! BANG! go the protesters. And you have the nerve to say, "That's opportunity knocking for all of us now." Your acolytes hoot and howl with glee at your hilarious joke, and it doesn't go unnoticed by the press. It doesn't go unnoticed by me, either. Which "opportunity," exactly, are you referring to here? The opportunity to strip us of our rights? The opportunity to mock us? The opportunity to force through your agenda despite the dissent of the people because you have no regard whatsoever for democracy or decorum? The opportunity to prove, once again, and publicly, how much you hate the people of Wisconsin? Well, congratulations. You have proven all of these things. And then some.
I have a lot more to say to you, but that's enough for tonight. I'd like to offer you, in closing, the opportunity to resign. Will you take it? Or hold out for the recalls? Shame to waste such an extraordinary opportunity.
I want to thank you personally for hearing the call of so many thousands of us in Wisconsin who were outraged by the hubris and audacity of the future former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, in daring to speak in "support" of education on your "The State of Education: The Governors' Perspective" panel yesterday.
