200 Rally for Fair and Adequate Public Education Funding

About 200 dedicated parents, students, educators, public officials and concerned citizens braved bone-chilling temperatures and a driving rain Thursday (June 24, 2004) to march the final leg of the 252-mile Walk on the Child's Side and demonstrate commitment to fair and adequate funding of public education.

With umbrellas in hand and draped in rain gear, most participants gathered at Madison East High School and then walked two miles up East Washington Avenue for a rally on the steps of the State Capitol.

There, speaker after speaker called for a complete revision of the state's school funding system so that the needs of children are put first.

Madison schools Superintendent Art Rainwater said that because of inadequate and unfair funding of public education, "We are in danger of losing our children and losing their future."

The Walk began June 7 in Butternut. Over the 18 days of the Walk, participants walked up to 19 miles per day to draw attention to the damage that school district revenue caps are causing to public schools. In community after community along the route, parents and educators - including superintendents and school board members - expressed serious concern over the impact of inadequate school funding on their schools and the children in their communities.

No one person walked the entire route, but hundreds of people demonstrated their commitment by walking various segments through central Wisconsin. "The link was never broken," said organizer Teri Hanson, a Phillips teacher.

At Thursday's finale, Tina Johnson of Save Our Schools (SOS) urged participants to go into the Capitol and tell their legislators to start providing fair and adequate funding for schools.

"I am powerful because I am a parent," she said. "You and I are powerful. The legislators can do nothing without us. We are the voters."

Posted June 24, 2004