Schoolhouse to Statehouse

Two ex-teachers now help make laws in Madison

It would be a stretch to describe the Wisconsin Legislature as teacher-friendly, but at least this session there are two new members who can help sensitize their colleagues to the plight of educators and public schools.

Joe Plouff (left) and John Lehman

Reps. John Lehman of Racine and Joe Plouff of Menomonie are former teachers who bring their classroom experiences to every meeting, discussion and vote in which they are involved.

You could say they inject a dose of reality into the debate.

Lehman, for example, remembers watching the State of the State address when the governor showed off a high-tech distance learning system as representative of education in Wisconsin. The governor was electronically hooked up to a school, with his image projected on two 48-inch monitors.

“I was watching this and thinking ... I’ve never seen a 48-inch monitor in a school before,” Lehman said. “And I’ve spent a lot of time in schools in my life.”

In fact, Lehman added, “I just came from a (school) building where I had trouble finding a phone line to call a parent.”

Lehman — a 26-year teaching veteran who taught history and economics at Racine’s Washington Park High School right up until taking on his new job in January — isn’t afraid to tell his new colleagues what it’s really like out there.

“I know the strain that education professionals go through every day,” he said. “I know what it means to see violence in the schools — I’ve broken up fights. Oh, I am pretty sensitized to the needs of teachers and kids.”

Plouff, likewise, believes his experience as a classroom teacher is an essential part of his makeup as a legislator.

“I’m a teacher and I always will be,” said Plouff, who taught for 13 years in New Lisbon, Menomonie and Boyceville and is married to a teacher.

“Teachers — myself included — entered the field because we have something in our hearts and we have something in our guts that guides us to become teachers.”

As a former teacher, Plouff gets frustrated with colleagues who don’t understand — or don’t even try to understand — the complexities and demands of the teaching profession.

“I think too often teachers get blamed for things they simply have no control over,” he said.

The legislators — both Democrats — place education as a top priority, but as members of the minority party in the Assembly, they are not confident they can do much right now to make significant improvements in the state’s collective bargaining law or remove state-imposed revenue controls on school districts.

Yet they don’t for a minute dismiss the negative impact of both those laws on schools.

The “Qualified Economic Offer” law, Lehman said, “destroys fair collective bargaining and puts teachers at a tremendous disadvantage.”

“It’s been very negative for Racine,” said Lehman, who has been active in the Racine Education Association and has been a Racine alderperson for nine years. “So many positive things that could help improve education are held up by difficult negotiations.”

Plouff, who also has been active in local associations where he has taught, is concerned that continuing revenue caps could rob schools in his district of needed resources — from computers to textbooks to TVs and VCRs to band uniforms.

As a former special education teacher, he worries that districts will be forced to cut services — such as school nurses — that are essential for some special education students. In addition, he said, districts in his area already feel shortchanged by lack of affordable access to technology and training. They need money to meet these needs.

Lehman is concerned about the impact of revenue controls on Racine’s efforts to deal with the complex issues of truancy and dropouts. “It takes tremendous resources to deal with these problems,” he said.

The legislators are also working on other issues to help teachers and improve public schools.

Plouff wants to help maintain and expand the SAGE (Student Achievement Guarantee in Education) program, which limits class sizes in participating schools to 15. The program targets schools with large concentrations of students from low-income families.

Lehman is on the Assembly Education Committee, which deals with a wide range of education issues, including technology and truancy. “I’m the only one on that committee who just came out of a classroom,” Lehman said.

Both agree that the Legislature needs to view education less as a tax burden and more as a vehicle to a brighter future for Wisconsin.

“We need to always focus on priorities that provide a long-term benefit to society — and quality education is a major player in meeting those priorities,” Plouff said.

Photo by Bill Hurley

Posted April 28, 1997