| SEARCH OnWEAC |
|---|
Following is the text of WEAC President Terry Craney's April 25 speech to the WEAC Representative Assembly.
Sesquicentennial - 150 years as a state, and 150 years as a leader in public education.
But Wisconsin is at a crossroads. Will we continue to value public education as we have over the past 150 years?
Today, government leaders ignore value and speak only in terms of dollars and cents. O.K., so let’s talk about the value of education in terms of dollars and cents.
Obviously education increases our standard of living. It clearly raises people out of poverty.
Priorities
But what of the reverse? Failure in school is linked statistically to crime more than smoking is linked to cancer. That fact alone should lead politicians to understand the value of education. But where are our politicians spending our tax dollars? They spend it on prisons, not on education. In just slightly over 10 years, the dollars spent on prisons in Wisconsin have risen from $187 million to $668 million - that’s a 357% increase. Incredibly, by the year 2000, Wisconsin will spend more money to manage its criminal population than it does on its university system. Is this good public policy or it is just politics? Such political foolishness must stop.
Milwaukee Public Schools
State politicians are threatening to take over the Milwaukee Public Schools. Do you remember the Learnfare program? School attendance actually dropped for children who were sanctioned by the state under Learnfare.
State politicians don’t have a clue how to run the Milwaukee Public School system
State takeovers of school systems have NOT been successful in raising student achievement - the bottom line for any reform effort. Politicians could help more children succeed if they would be more concerned with reducing poverty. Poverty is one of the strongest predictors of school failure, and Milwaukee has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation for African American children.
Welfare reform
Further, if the true goal of welfare reform, W-2 in Wisconsin, is to break the poverty cycle -- not just to reduce welfare rolls so politicians have something to puff about in future campaigns -- education and training must be a component of the W-2 package. No W-2 participant should be forced to drop out of a technical college course or other training program.
Revenue caps and the QEO
Today, we face the additional challenge of the revenue caps and the QEO. A one-two punch which could cause Wisconsin’s public schools to decline as did those in California. As you know, in the 1970’s, California was a leader in education. Then residents passed Proposition 13, a law limiting funds for schools - the results were devastating. Not in a day, not in a month, not even in a year, but over time, the California schools have fallen into great disrepair and the citizens face the daunting task of rebuilding an entire educational system.
You know the impact of revenue caps. The increasing class sizes, the lack of materials, the delay in implementing new programs, the out-of-date technology, the ever-crowded buildings, and the buildings which are, quite literally, falling apart. This will be the legacy of revenue caps and the QEO. WEAC has been in the forefront of documenting and educating the public about these effects. We have been successful in punching holes in the revenue caps by passing legislation which allows funding outside the caps for technology, for summer school, and for the SAGE program. This legislation also provides relief for districts with declining enrollments.
Legislature
Next week, when the Legislature meets in special session, there are several pieces of legislation that have a positive impact on students, teachers, and public education that may be considered. Included in these are the creation of a professional standards council and financial incentives for Wisconsin teachers to achieve national teacher certification. There is also legislation which gives teachers more authority to maintain discipline and control in their classrooms. There may also be changes to the QEO. It’s time to pass this legislation.
Collective action
While we have started to ease the strangulation of revenue controls - and we have a long way to go - we still live and work without justice. We still live under the oppression of the QEO and I say to you, the QEO must go.
Now I know that many of us yearn for a statewide collective action - but before we engage such action, we must not forget that the core value of our union is rooted in local control. Yet, it does fall to us to lead. Let me address the question of collective action. Candidly, we have had a statewide strategy and action. It’s called the Bargaining Goals.
A little over a year ago, WEAC initiated an aggressive stance for local bargaining units covered by the QEO. The Bargaining Goals Committee strategy was launched with a referendum of WEAC members statewide in February of 1997. The referendum passed overwhelmingly, demonstrating our members’ desire to press hard against the QEO.
As a result of the bargaining standards, the latest round of bargaining for 1997-99 shows benchmarks increasing an average of over 2.5 percent per year -- up over 1% from previous settlements under the QEO. It is safe to say that from local to local across the state, settlements this year have been better than those achieved since the QEO was enacted.
Why? - because of strong, aggressive local negotiations. This is a testimony to the strength that coordinated efforts on the part of all our locals can have in impacting our members’ welfare. Our strength is in our membership. Marshaling that strength through statewide coordination is critical to maximizing our efforts. To that end, later this afternoon you will consider NBI #4 from the WEAC Board; a motion to continue strategic planning and action.
I would like to pause a moment to personally thank all members of local negotiations teams, crisis committee members, and all of the leadership that has spent long, hard, and many times frustrating, hours bargaining on behalf of our membership. I would also remind you that 122 locals still do not have signed contracts for 1997-99. Tomorrow, April 26th will be the 300th day that they (many of you) will be working without a contract, with no process in place to resolve these disputes peacefully. The QEO removed arbitration and ended almost 20 years of labor peace.
The QEO is an oppressive, unfair law which must be repealed. Even Sue Ann Thompson, the governor’s wife, recognizes that it is unfair to single out one profession with salary caps.
My wife is also a teacher and I listen to her. Governor you should listen to your wife.
Wisconsin teachers, including Sue Ann Thompson and Diane Craney, know that the QEO is a bad law. WEAC is speaking for teachers across Wisconsin when we say: the QEO must go.
Unfair tax system
We cannot have a discussion about revenue caps and the QEO without discussing taxes. We recognize that the real problem with funding education is an unfair tax system which overcharges average wage earners and homeowners and under-taxes corporations and the wealthiest of our citizens. Wisconsin historically has relied on property taxes to fund schools. It is very convenient for state politicians and big business to blame teacher salaries for rising property taxes. It is very convenient, but it’s wrong.
Between 1970 and 1995, the percent of all property taxes paid by the manufacturing sector in Wisconsin dropped from 17% to 5%. In 1995, when the state picked up two-thirds of school costs, the average homeowner got $245 in property tax relief. Ten factories in the state alone shared $4.25 million in property tax relief. Now, the legislature is proposing to exempt business computer equipment from property tax. Another $64 million to $145 million tax break for businesses.
It was not a lie when the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce proclaimed, in its 1997 Business Resource Guide, that… “Business taxes in Wisconsin are among the lowest in the nation and 25 percent lower than the average tax liability of major industrial states."
But the real question is, who is paying more taxes? You all now the answer to that question - we are. Yet the tax breaks for corporations continue at the expense of the average citizen.
State politicians will tell you that they have increased state spending on education. That’s true. They may also tell you the increased spending has benefited schools and kids. That’s simply not true. The increased state spending went to property tax relief - a couple hundred dollars for the average home owner; millions of dollars for large businesses.
Here in Green Bay, in 1995, Fort Howard received almost $300,000 in property tax relief. It has since merged with James River and created Fort James. In 1997, Fort James paid its Chairman $2.6 million, a 48 percent increase from the previous year. Corporations continue to use tax breaks to fund wealthy top executives at the expense of average wage earners and our schools.
A recent report by the AFL-CIO shows that executive pay increases averaged 38 percent, compared to 3 to 4 percent for average workers, and, quite frankly, compared with 1.5% for teachers in Wisconsin.
Corporate welfare
Tommy Thompson says Wisconsin has ended welfare as we knew it. I say that’s true only if you’re talking about families in poverty. Corporate welfare is alive and well. I say, “Let’s end corporate welfare as we know it.” Wisconsin must overhaul its tax code to provide tax fairness and insist that those who can most afford it (the wealthy and corporations) pay their fair share of taxes.
Raising awareness
Albert Einstein once said, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” Revenue caps and the QEO were created with a very simplistic and inaccurate view of school funding, teachers salaries, and taxation. To repeal these onerous laws, we are fighting to raise awareness on four fronts:
Campaign '98
As we finish this round of bargaining for the 1997-99 contracts, we must not forget the struggle and become complacent. We must stand together for fairness. This summer and fall we must work harder than ever to elect friends of public education to the Legislature and as governor. As campaign ‘98 takes shape, we must make corporate greed, unfair taxation, and spending priorities the issues. We must make certain that we elect leaders who value public education, much as did the leaders of Wisconsin 150 years ago.
Never give in
I leave you with this thought as we begin the business of our Representative Assembly. Wisconsin is indeed at a crossroads. If we choose the right road, Wisconsin will maintain its world class public education system, but only if we stand together, will we prevail. Never give in. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the opposition. What you do is just and right. You do it on behalf of our members, the kids in our classrooms, and our schools. Never, never, never give in.
Posted April 30, 1998