15 June 2012
Anniversary update
Dear friends (and "Governor Dad"),
A year after writing
the letter below, Governor Scott Walker still occupies our mansion.
Sigh.
Let's hope he and his family have a nice Fathers' Day and that he
finally gets that Abe Lincoln tie he's been coveting. Everything I said
last year is just as true today, except amplified by the increased
fervor with which the governor appealed by name to his sons during the
campaign - especially during the debates and that horrifying ad he aired
around the holidays where the boys were seething through their role as
props at a soup kitchen. The frequency of these appeals, which attempted to evoke the sense that Walker "cared" (and deeply) about public schools and The Future, was as distasteful as their transparent superficiality.
The worst part of being a politician is
undoubtedly being forced to manipulate your private life to fit your
public persona, and invariably the kids (and spouse) suffer most from those
manipulations. As a parent, I don't know how I'd deal with that
scenario without hurting my kids, and I don't envy Walker's position. But as a constituent of
Fitzwalkerstan, I can only imagine that it must be really hard to be
Scott Walker's kid. I just wish the governor would leave them out of
it. It's not fair to them - or to us - to be dragged out constantly as
"proof" of his connection to our schools and our presumably shared
values. Walker talks the talk of Faith, Family and Freedom, but his walk heads down another path: straight toward the bank to cash the checks his out-of-state benefactors. Among them: education privateers like the DeVos family, who famously never contribute any political funds without expecting a return on their investment. What return do they expect today? And how will my kids be paying it tomorrow?
With an indictment looming in the future, I can only reiterate what I said a year ago:
As the head official of this state, the messages you send your children
echo down to every child in this state. I am a parent, too. And I have no intention whatsoever in
instilling these duplicitous "values" in my own family. But while our
values differ, I don't doubt that we care equally about our children,
and our hopes for their future. The difference, though, is that you
value your (profoundly flawed) ideology above all. And I, above all,
would value your resignation.
Happy Fathers' Day!
Here's to resignation. And ties that honor Honest Abe.
Heather
-------------------------------------
19 June 2011
Dear
Scott Walker,
Today
is Fathers' Day, and I hope you spent yours with your family, doing fun
family things and being a good dad. Because you sure are doing a bad
job at being governor, so it would be nice if there was an area in which
you found you could excel.
I don't pay much attention to your private life, but it does strike me that you make such frequent mention of
your kids,
so I kind of feel like you're inviting us to see something of your
parenting philosophy, which I'd like to visit briefly given the special
occasion we're celebrating today. You are on record as saying that you
hope your boys take college more seriously than you did, and also
repeatedly saying over and over again variations of
this:
"I
have two sons that go to public high school. The last thing I'm going
to do is hurt public education in the State of Wisconsin. I don't want
to hurt my son Matt, I don't want to hurt my son Alex. My school
district just announced that because of the reforms we gave them,
they're going to be able to restore positions that were laid off, and
they're going to be able to reduce the tax level. To me, that's exactly
what I said would happen."
So I'd like to
congratulate you for making a gesture toward recognizing the importance
of of supporting education and encouraging your children. And also for
your hilarious joke about cuts to education and eliminating the rights
of public workers being "reform."
But I really wish
you'd be a little more honest about what you're really telling your boys
(and by extension, all the kids in Wisconsin), which seems, from my
perspective (i.e. listening to all the things you say in public), to be
the following:
1) Get an education, because people like that piece of paper. But be sure to get a real job when you're done.
It's
well-known, since your conversation with the faux-Koch that you don't
consider public sector employment "real money," and that your dropping
out of college has been defended time and again as you insult those with
degrees by talking about how useless they are.
Google it if you want
sources; I'm not in the mood to revisit the hundreds of quotes,
articles, analyses, etc, on this topic. It's not my job to do all of your homework.
2) Public workers are disposable, manipulable, and the least among us. Avoid them. They do not deserve your respect.
You
tell your us that your district was able to "restore positions without
layoffs" but that's not entirely honest, is it? The district saw deep
cuts to personnel and was only able to balance the budget with
draconian cuts to pay and benefits:
"The
feat was done as Ertl said it would have to be done — not on the backs
of children in the classroom but on the backs of school employees
through major pay and benefit concessions."
"All
this would not be possible without those concessions from our
employees," Ertl said. Board member Mary Jo Randall echoed that, with
added thanks to Ertl and his administrative staff, saying, "I don't
think you can say enough about our employees and our leadership."
3) Don't worry about being honest. A half-truth is as good as the truth.
While
you like to use your district as an example of how great your budget
bill is for Wisconsin, in fact it's an excellent example of how
local communities pay the price
for your cuts to everyday programs and education in exchange for the
handouts you delivered to your corporate funders. True, your school
district
was able to balance its budget and even come in under the levy of the previous year, but more careful analysis shows that property taxes
will see
a spike, and the real cost of these cuts will be felt throughout the
the district in the coming years, as taxpayers cover the costs and staff
continues to suffer under pay freezes, which the superintendent has
repeatedly
stated he sought to minimize:
The proposed hike was generally ill-received by the School Board.
Board
member Phil Kroner said he is concerned about raising taxes given
persistent economic pressures on district taxpayers. He also questioned
whether more could be done to limit spending. "A lot of our citizens
are having to make cuts in their own budgets," he said. "I'm concerned
that not enough effort was made in looking for cuts to try to hold
things as low as possible or even to spend less than the levy (limit)
is allowing."
Handcuffed by revenue losses
Superintendent
Phil Ertl assured the board that he, Mack and other administrators
pored over the budget line by line in a "painstaking process" to ensure
efficiency. Mack said the tax increase is caused entirely by state
reductions in school funding and is therefore out of the district's
control. The district is facing a $2.97 million - or 11.4 percent - cut
in state aid. "I think that tells the story right there," Mack said of
the numbers.
When the
state sets the revenue cap - the total amount of tax and aid revenue a
district is permitted to gather - but then reduces aid, that funding
hole must be filled by property taxes, Mack said. "I think the
misconception that exists out there is that school districts control
their levy, and they really do not," he said.
4)
A promise means nothing, but that doesn't make it meaningless. There's
nothing more powerful than a broken (or insincere) promise.
This
one is particularly poignant to me, since, again, it involves direct
reference to your boys and direct consequences to me and other parents
and public workers. Remember a year ago this month, when you were
campaigning, and you kept saying things like
this as you made a promise to end late-night votes:
"I
have two teenagers and I tell them that nothing good happens after
midnight. That's even more true in politics. The people of Wisconsin
deserve to know what their elected leaders are voting on."
Well, not only did you (obviously) not keep that promise, but you continue to applaud
the late-night antics of Republican legislators as they work in the
dead of night to introduce new measures and push through legislation
without public comment, consent, or full understanding. Very sneaky.
Very dishonest. And a very strong message to send to our kids, don't you
think?
5) Put yourself first. It's not your job to care for others.
As
far as I'm concerned, this is the most important message you're sending
your sons, and I applaud your consistency in sending it. So many
children today are subjected to ambivalence, soul-searching, and careful
consideration of the pros and cons as their parents make big decisions.
But you show your boys - and the rest of the children of this state -
that such wishywashiness is for losers. Winners act fast, take chances,
and make decisions that will benefit the people they know and love. The
people they don't know or love can take care of themselves. And that,
you've shown us, is the American way.
So congratulations. You seem to be raising your boys exactly the way you feel best. It's a question of values.
As
the head official of this state, the messages you send your children
echo down to every child in this state. I (as you know, from your
reading and taking into consideration of the specific comments of my
letters), am a parent, too. And I have no intention whatsoever in
instilling these duplicitous "values" in my own family. But while our
values differ, I don't doubt that we care equally about our children,
and our hopes for their future. The difference, though, is that you
value your (profoundly flawed) ideology above all. And I, above all,
would value your resignation.
Imagine the headline: Walker Resigns, Sites letter, children, for his decision.
The children of Wisconsin would thank you for it.
And so would I.
Until then,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Taxpayer, parent, and comparer of the things you say to the things you do.
P.S.
I hope you got an Abe Lincoln tie for Fathers' Day, so you and Grothman
can be twins on Crazy Ironic Tie Day at the office.
 |
| Senator
Grothman in his (and hopefully YOUR, if your kids know what would suit
you!) Lincoln tie, which seemingly inspires him to say things
like "The Earned Income Credit is the equivalent of a welfare check"
and "The only way [cutting the Earned Income Credit] is a sign of
Wisconsin values is if you wanted to promote single motherhood." It's
the kind of tie that makes you classier - and oh so eloquent! -just by wearing it! I wonder what it will inspire you to say...something new and true perhaps? It could happen! Image: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=137386319670995&set=a.129811040428523.30747.112526458823648&type=1&theater |
