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| WEAC President Stan Johnson urges members during the June 19 Lobby Day to be advocates for Wisconsin's great schools. |
Chanting
"Veto, veto," more than 1,500 WEAC members flooded the State
Capitol on Thursday (June 19, 2003) just hours after the Wisconsin Senate
passed a state budget cutting 4-year old kindergarten and the SAGE class-size
reduction program, eliminating educators' rights to bargain their own
health care, retaining the Qualified Economic Offer law, and reducing
state spending on public education by $400 million.
WEAC's Great Schools Lobby Day just happened to coincide with the Senate's vote. The budget passed the Senate early Thursday morning, shortly before WEAC's Great Schools Lobby Day began.
"We have one nice tool in this fight," Governor Jim Doyle said to loud cheering from the packed room at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. Doyle gave the keynote address at a meeting to kick off the day's lobbying efforts on behalf of Wisconsin's great schools. The "tool" to which Doyle referred is his veto pen.
Senate minority leader John Erpenbach was more blunt.
"We are going to stand with Jim Doyle and he is going to veto the hell out of that budget," Erpenbach said.
Members met in groups and as individuals with dozens of legislators
and aides. They also dropped off postcards and other materials spelling
out the harm that would be caused by the budget the Senate approved.
The issues members lobbied around were the very programs and principles
the Republican budget assaults: 4-year-old kindergarten, SAGE, health
care, the QEO and education funding.
The GOP budget rolls back the state's commitment to SAGE and cuts 4-year-old
kindergarten. The Republicans also removed Doyle's elimination of the
QEO from the budget, claiming it is not a "fiscal" item; and
granted school districts the right to bypass the collective bargaining
process by unilaterally choosing teachers' health care insurers.
WEAC president Stan Johnson reminded the member-lobbyists that their
activities are vital because great schools benefit everyone.
"We deal with a precious commodity: the future of this state," Johnson said. "It's a bright day outside today, but it's a dark day in the Capitol."
Referring to the state Senators who voted for the anti-public education budget, Johnson joked, "If you want to find weapons of mass destruction, look right in that Capitol."
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster reiterated that the state's fate rests in Doyle's veto pen and the ability of pro-public education citizens to convince legislators to sustain the governor's vetoes.
"We have a governor who believes in public education and who has his veto pen ready, which is what we need," Burmaster said.
Burmaster urged the assembled educators to remain vigilant in their lobbying efforts.
"We are in this together," Burmaster said. "Tell the great stories of public education in the Capitol today. You need to make it clear to the Legislature that an attack on our investment in education is an attack on our state's long-term fiscal security and quality of life."
Doyle listed dollar amounts for the education cuts that communities throughout Wisconsin would suffer under the budget passed by the Senate: $1.9 million in Stevens Point, $4 million in Janesville, $4.7 million in Waukesha, $5 million in Green Bay, $6.2 million in Racine, $7.5 million in Kenosha and $37 million in Milwaukee.
"Where will we be in this state five, 10, 15 years from now?" Doyle asked. "As long as I'm governor, where we will be is the state with the best public school system in the United States."
Posted June 19, 2003