"Politicians Laud WEPAC's Policy of Bi-Partisanship" News and Views, November 1972 The WEA’s entrance into politics through WEPAC, its new political action arm, has stirred comment among incumbent legislators and their challengers. One senior Republican senator, Gerald D. Lorge, who received a WEPAC endorsement, feels that bipartisan endorsements are very beneficial in assuring legislative success. Lorge said, “I think teachers are wise in following a nonpartisan endorsement policy. Such a practice provides some assurance that they will have friends in the legislative caucuses of both parties. Many groups in the past have failed to believe in the necessity for bi-partisan support and have consequently lost legislation as a result.” Another incumbent legislator, Marlin Schneider (D) Wisconsin Rapids, feels that the establishment of WEPAC was overdue. Schneider is a former teacher and WEA member. Schneider says, “As a former teacher I am delighted that the WEA has moved into the political arena. I have always felt that teachers must involve themselves in politics as one of the major forces for positive educational change.”

Wisconsin teachers began organizing during a time in American history when many people were agitating for social justice.

Those early activists and organizers turned WEA into the Wisconsin Education Association Council, an unincorporated labor organization that represented teachers in contract negotiations and could legally collect and contribute money to political candidates. Without a national teachers’ union model to follow, WEAC’s attorneys consulted the AFSCME constitution in drafting their own.

WEAC formed WEPAC, Wisconsin Educators Politically Active and Concerned, asking every local to collect $3 from every member in order to build a political action committee. WEPAC was based on National Education Association recommendations for statewide political action committees and legislative programs. The new constitution and the creation of WEPAC both happened
at the 1972 Representative Assembly.

WEPAC’s first foray into elective politics came in the 1973 superintendent of public instruction race between incumbent Barbara Thompson and former legislator Ernie Korpela. WEPAC endorsed Korpela, and bankrolled his campaign with $50,000 in borrowed money. Korpela lost, in part, many believed, because his opponent was able to brand him a “tool of the teachers union.”

Undeterred, WEPAC continued its involvement in the 1974 elections, making endorsement recommendations in every legislative district in Wisconsin. It did so with a painstaking endorsement process involving candidate interviews, voting record analysis and member balloting in each candidate’s district. This democratic, grassroots style of making endorsement recommendations takes more time and effort than the top-down endorsement strategy favored by many other organizations, but WEAC’s members and leaders preferred a more open process.

Eighty-eight percent of WEPAC’s endorsed candidates won their elections in 1974, and the gains made in the 1973–74 legislative session left little doubt as to the value and effectiveness of teacher political action. Law changes saw the state government’s share of the costs of K-12 education increase from 17 percent to 27 percent, required that all schools provide an adequate education for children with physical disabilities and developmental disabilities, made substantial improvements to teacher retirement benefits, and established 13 minimum education standards for all school districts. Among the very first WEAC-backed bills to pass was the one that required equity for female high school athletes.

WEAC lobbied and fought hard for the school standards. Passage of the standards law was difficult and occurred only at the end of a long process. This often surprises those who rightly see the standards as basic common sense, but in the early 1970s, these were school quality issues that could not be taken for granted. Under the law, schools were required to meet all of the standards in order to qualify for state school aids. They included requirements that all teachers be certified by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to teach in Wisconsin classrooms, and that every school include kindergarten, special education, guidance counselors, emergency nursing services and instructional materials that reflect the United States’ cultural diversity.

There were some 50 teacher strikes throughout the state between 1969 and 1974. As WEAC increased its membership and influence, teachers became more insistent of their rights, and school boards became more resentful and fearful of the teacher movement. Many school boards refused to bargain in good faith despite the state laws granting teachers the right to bargain collectively. Oftentimes, striking was the only way for teachers to convince their school boards to recognize them and address their bargaining issues seriously. Teacher strikes and bad-faith bargaining were illegal, but there was very little in the law to compel either side to comply.

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