Save our Rural Public Schools “Restoring Adequate Funding” Wausau, WI – Discussion will center on rural education Thursday While current Republican policies hurt all Wisconsin public schools, Stencil is gravely concerned about the plight of rural schools, whose students deserve the best quality education but where the tax base is especially hard-hit by the state’s lagging job growth. State Superintendent Tony Evers has said that rural schools have struggled with increased transportation costs and declining enrollment while Act 10 magnified the wage disparity between rural and urban school districts, driving many teachers out of the communities where they are most needed. “But this isn’t just about Act 10,” warns Stencil. “Know this: disempowering teachers was only the first step in a much larger long-term Republican strategy to privatize Wisconsin’s public schools. ‘Divide and Conquer,’ Governor Walker called it. Pushed by Free Market ideologues and out-of-state corporate funding, Republicans want to dismantle Wisconsin’s traditionally excellent school systems and turn the education system (and our children) over to for-profit companies. They are literally selling out our schools to big campaign donors. I won’t let that happen.” Republicans have openly stated that they will remove all caps on private school vouchers in the next state budget. Currently vouchers take approximately $400 million out of the budget that would otherwise go to public schools; when the caps are removed, even more taxpayer money will enrich private investors while even more Wisconsin public schools will struggle to make ends meet. Voucher schools, online schools and independent charter schools are schemes to funnel Wisconsin taxpayer money into corporate bank accounts. Stencil opposes vouchers for their lack of accountability. “It’s interesting,” says Stencil, “that at the same time the state legislature is micromanaging public school classrooms through stricter educator effectiveness requirements and increasingly rigorous student achievement guidelines, voucher and online schools are exempted from teacher quality standards and state-mandated student testing.” This too, she says, is part of the strategy: starve public schools for funding, demoralize teachers, set unrealistic student achievement goals and then penalize schools with further funding cuts when they can’t possibly reach those goals. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: sabotage public schools, and when they struggle with diminished resources Republicans can say public schools are failing. Then the private sector steps in. “To reward out-of-state campaign donors, Republicans created this death spiral,” says Stencil. “Now it’s up to us to stop it.” Stencil criticizes corporate lobbyists for the nationwide movement to privatize public education. “Right wing groups such as the American Federation for Children and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are groups of wealthy political donors who are funding the Republican majority in the Wisconsin legislature’s War on Public Schools,” asserts Stencil. More importantly, Stencil is critical of Republican legislators’ shameless subservience to corporate lobbyists. “When I occupy the 86th Assembly seat, I will honor my oath of office to serve the people in my district – the people, that is, of our local communities. I pledge to maintain laser-like focus on the communities I serve.” And that, says Stencil, is why she is so concerned about legislative impacts on rural schools, because our smallest communities will be hit the hardest. Beyond the fiscal challenges and the effects on student learning, our rural schools are the heart and soul of our communities. “If we let our rural schools wither, we must consider the damage to those remaining students. Or consider the high costs and lengthy bus rides to transport them to larger suburban schools. But in our small townships, think about what will happen,” says Stencil, “to the sporting and drama events that draw these communities together. What will happen to community events that use the school building? Often rural schools are the hub of civic activity. What would our communities look like without public schools? Together, we won’t let that happen.” To hear more about Nancy Stencil’s vision for protecting Wisconsin’s rural public schools, please join her at the Kountry Korner in Edgar on June 26. For more information email The86thForStencil@gmail
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 05:40:05 +0000
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