September 16, 2006

WEAC members recommend Governor Jim Doyle

WEAC President Stan Johnson announced today that WEAC members have voted to recommend Governor Jim Doyle for re-election. Johnson made the announcement at WEAC’s Board of Directors and Committee meeting in Madison to loud and sustained applause.

Governor Doyle attended the meeting to accept the recommendation and speak to WEAC’s member leaders.

“I just want to tell you how honored I am,” Doyle said to the standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 education employees. “You do the most important work being done in this state.”

Johnson issued the following statement:

“Four years ago WEAC members voted to recommend Jim Doyle for Governor because of his long-standing commitment to public education and his extensive record of fighting for Wisconsin families. And Governor Doyle has delivered.

“For the past four years, Governor Doyle has led the fight to make sure every child in Wisconsin attends a great school. He has taken on the hard fights against incredible odds, and won.

“Despite inheriting a $3.2 billion deficit when he took office in 2003, Governor Doyle presented a balanced budget to the Legislature while making a significant investment in education without raising taxes. In response, the Legislature declared war on public education, passing a budget that would have cost public schools nearly $400 million in lost revenue. The governor used his veto authority to thwart this attack on our state’s future because he knows that great schools benefit everyone. Thanks to Jim Doyle, our schools were not forced to make the kinds of devastating budget cuts threatened under the Legislature’s plan. He also restored $46 million for 4-year-old kindergarten and kept the successful Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) class-size reduction program intact.

“Two years later, in his budget, Governor Doyle proposed increasing state aid for public schools by an historic $850 million and providing an additional $88 million in categorical aids because education is his top priority. The Legislature scaled this amount back by more than $400 million and froze in perpetuity the amount school districts could generate in revenue. Thankfully we could rely on Governor Doyle to safeguard our schools and children once again. Through a bold veto, he restored that $400 million in school funding and thawed out the freeze on school district investments.

“Governor Doyle values creating opportunity by investing in our children’s education. That is why he wants to maintain the state’s commitment to two-thirds funding of education. He won’t get sidetracked by such gimmicks as Mark Green’s so-called 70% solution. We know that this proposal, more appropriately named the “70% delusion” doesn’t infuse one single dollar of new money into our schools. It simply reshuffles the money deck and erodes local control by forcing arbitrary budget decisions disconnected from the educational needs of our students. Governor Doyle also won’t buy into the so-called Taxpayer Protection Amendment which would leave our children behind and cause irreparable harm to our great public schools and our state’s future.

“It is truly frightening to think about where public education would be in Wisconsin today without Jim Doyle in the governor’s office these past four years. He has been a true friend of public schools, and to all of Wisconsin’s families and communities.”