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Delegates to the 1999 WEAC Representative Assembly – frustrated by the growing impact of school district revenue controls and an unfair bargaining law – approved a major initiative to re-engage the public in a commitment to great public schools throughout Wisconsin.
The Great Schools Initiative will combine community action and statewide public relations.
“We will engage members, parents, and the community in conversations about great schools and seek to restore program accountability and autonomy to school districts,” WEAC President Terry Craney said. “Our goal is to encourage local communities to define and support great schools.”
Many Wisconsin citizens are not aware of what an outstanding system of public education this state has, Craney said. We know from surveys, he said, that many people have been influenced into believing incorrectly that our public schools are faltering. That is simply not the case, Craney said, and the Great Schools Initiative aims to overcome that information gap.
While there are problems and schools always can improve, he said, Wisconsin public schools are among the best in the nation.
Great Schools
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“Wisconsin high school seniors are first in the nation on the ACT college entrance exam; the state has one of the highest graduation rates in the country; and more than two-thirds of our high school graduates go on to post-secondary education,” Craney said. “It’s no wonder teachers are frustrated and seek to change public perceptions.”
Some of the nearly 1,000 delegates at the Assembly became passionate at times as some advocated more militant confrontations if laws like revenue controls are not repealed.
“We need a more aggressive union, even if it means civil disobedience,” said one delegate.
Other delegates expressed concerns about the workload the Great Schools Initiative would create for UniServ and WEAC staff, but advocates noted the plan includes funding for temporary staff to address that problem.
“We are in a time of crisis,” said one delegate. “We have to get behind this now, and each one of us needs to get to work.”
“We are fighting for our lives” said another. “We need to not be afraid to sell ourselves.”
Green Bay Education Association President Helen Schaal noted that the GBEA’s increased spending on public relations in the last six years has paid dividends for the association in the community and at the bargaining table.
“We’ve had good, good press, and I think this would be a wonderful thing for the whole state,” she said.
“We need to connect with the public,” added Bob Lehmann of Milwaukee.
Referring to the $12 dues increase that helps fund the initiative, Peggy Smits of Clintonville said, “I think this $12 is going to be the best $12 I spend in a long time.”
The initiative also taps $3 million in reserve funds, primarily to fund a statewide marketing campaign.
WEAC leaders echoed the sentiment of delegates and members by comparing the teacher bargaining climate of today with that of the early 1970s, when teacher strikes were commonplace.
“On June 30th, all contracts in the state will expire and we once again begin the difficult process of negotiating new contracts under unjust and unfair laws that tip the balance of power in favor of the school boards,” WEAC President Terry Craney said in his speech to the RA.
“These conditions are very similar to the ones that led to the labor strife and to nearly 50 strikes, including Hortonville, in the early 1970s.”
Referring to the recent onslaught of attacks on public education, Craney said WEAC membership faces a defining moment.
“And when you are faced with a defining moment,” he said, “you can do one of two things: You can either take action and define the moment; or you can sit back, do nothing, and let someone else define it for you.”
The Great Schools Initiative gives WEAC members a powerful vehicle for taking action, he said.
“This is not business as usual. It is an initiative to inform the public about the success of Wisconsin’s public schools. It will encourage the public to become involved in their schools, to define educational outcomes, and to support program initiatives to make their schools great schools.
“In doing so, it is inevitable that the revenue caps and QEO will be seen as obstacles to educational excellence, and there will be a public outcry to repeal this unjust legislation.”
WEAC Executive Director Terry Herndon urged members to “turn the tide” in favor of active and determined support for strong public education.
“Our students deserve a brighter future,” he said. “We ought to build it.”
Herndon said he is on a mission, “and it burns in my heart, it burns in my gut, it burns in my brain.”
He said, “I would have us committed to a course that creates a broad-based public awareness of the extraordinary achievements of Wisconsin’s public schools, where there is a broad-based public satisfaction with the performance of its public schools, where there is a deep public determination to resolve all circumstances that impair the performance of the public schools, and where there is a successful political expression of those public values so that the people who work in those schools can have great confidence for long, satisfying and rewarding careers.
“And I believe this is possible.”
In other action, RA delegates:
Posted April 26, 1999; Updated May 5, 1998