EAW CALENDAR
The EAW Calendar (link to the left) has been updated for the 2009-2010 school year! Included on the calendar are Meet and Confer meetings, Executive Committee meetings, RA meetings, and many other meetings and events. Check it out!
FUTURE TEACHERS RECEIVE SUPPORT
Click on the EAW SCHOLARSHIP link in the left column to view about the three scholarship recipients from last spring!
A Message from Member Beverly Bradford
To my dedicated colleagues:
The following is an email to WAES (Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools) members from the Executive Director, Tom Beebe. I participated in the first Walk on the Child Side with many other EAW members, and community people (including Frank Finman, school board member, before he ran for school board). We literally walked miles towards Madison. Walkers from around the state converged on Madison.
If you don’t know the history of Walk on the Child Side, or the history of the state budget legislating the cuts to education funding, I urge you to find out. We cannot become complacent because ‘this is the way it’s always been’. There was time before regular program slashing and annual budget cuts were legislated! Change can occur. The Walk reinforced the knowledge that Waukesha is not alone.
I was encouraged by the legislators who stood with us and/or spoke to us during their lunch hour. The organizers and several speakers hoped we would never have to repeat this action – that Education Funding Reform would happen. The plan is to initiate discussion and develop the reform thoughtfully now, so all reforms can be enacted in the next budget (in 2 years).
I urge you to become informed, stay informed, and act!
Bev Bradford Former EAW President Participant in Walk on the Child Side, 1999 and 2009
From WAES: *Hundreds deliver funding reform message*
Thanks to your efforts, the June 16 /Walk on the Child's Side/ was a roaring success. The legislators who stood on the steps of the Capitol with us offered their support for reform and those who didn't bother to come out must have heard -- literally and figuratively -- the chants for change and action.
To start your full coverage of the /Walk on the Child's Side/, go to the WAES website at http://www.excellentschools.org.
As we always say, however, the job isn't done ... we've just completed another phase in the movement toward reform. Things are different than they were after the first /Walk/ in 1999. Now, legislators and the public know the school-funding system is in crisis and is pulling our children and communities down with it. Something else that is different is that there are plans out there to fix the problem, including one offered by WAES.
Going forward, our job is to make sure legislators pay attention to doing what is right. What can you do:
* Bring a WAES presentation to your community. We need to continue to build support for reform and this presentation is a great place to start. You can find the link at http://www.excellentschools.org. * Join WAES. Whether you are an individual, a school board member, a teacher, a parent, or a student ... you and your group need to be part of an organization that is working for reform by helping to organize events like the /Walk on the Child's Side/. If we are going to continue that effort, however, we need your help. Again, go to http://www.excellentschools.org.
For now, however, just take a moment to relax and think about the great event you helped be successful. Thank you so, so much.
Tom -- Thomas S. Beebe, Executive Director Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools 315 Maple Street Fort Atkinson, WI 53538
Cell: 920-650-0525 E-mail: tbeebe@excellentschools.org http://www.excellentschools.org
"The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped," -- Hubert Humphrey, 1976