Knock, knock. WHO'S THERE? The people. THE PEOPLE WHO?

 15 June 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

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.

1. 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. 
2. 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?
3. 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.

Resign.
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin taxpayer

Knock, knock.  

Who's there?

The people.

The people who?

 image: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJGALSDPnSrqUYBlloIU558lF8xmUmYS-MMEeKnmbVrV5rZ7fx

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