October-November Are Critical Months for Education

The next 39 days are critical to the future of public education here and across the United States, according to WEAC President Terry Craney.

Craney, in remarks prepared for the September 29-30 All Officers meeting in Wisconsin Dells, said the November elections "are the most important elections for educators, public schools and children that I can remember."

Craney said winners of the fall elections will make decisions and determine policies that affect public education for years to come.

"Great Schools need the support of public officials," Craney said. "Working with elected officials, we have made great strides in several areas over the last year, but we still face many challenges."

Craney noted that in the last legislative session, pro-education lawmakers helped pass legislation that increased funding for the SAGE class-size reduction program, improved retirement benefits for members, increased special education funding, provided some relief from school district revenue controls, and eased the impact of the Qualified Economic Offer law.

"We will continue our work to eliminate revenue caps and the QEO -- barriers to great schools," Craney said. "But let me be blunt: If we want these laws eliminated, we must elect pro-public education candidates."

Craney noted that 1 of every 58 Wisconsin citizens is a WEAC member. If every member had voted in the 1996 presidential election, WEAC members would have accounted for 1 of every 24 voters. With about 1,000 members in every Assembly district, he said, WEAC members can make a huge difference, since many races are decided by 200 or 300 votes.

"Let's be honest. Not all of our members vote," he said. "And that's too bad, because the most powerful voice that we have is our vote. We need to ensure that every one of our members knows what's at stake on November 7 and make sure that every one of our members votes."

Craney said this year's elections have special importance because the next Legislature will redraw political boundaries.

"These new Assembly and Senate boundaries will affect elections for at least the next 10 years," he said.

WEAC Executive Director Michael A. Butera told local leaders at the meeting that Great Schools is an organizing challenge for the future.

"Make the Great Schools journey a mission, a cause, not a project that somebody does for you," he said.

"This journey, this re-creation of union activism, is based in the profoundly deep principles of the labor movement. ... This journey is not what your union does for you. It is what, together, we do to have union and solidarity."

The time to act is now, he said, to participate in one-on-one conversations about Great Schools, to help organize community support through School-Community Visions meetings, and to help raise money for pro-education candidates.

"We know every kid deserves a Great School," Butera said. "Can we persuade our friends, our neighbors, our families, that the best way to ensure that every kid receives a Great School is to participate in and support the vision of each school-community through investments in quality teachers, faculty and school staff?

"Well I, for one, believe all this is possible," he said. "It is possible when people like us not only recognize the need, but afford our communities -- parents, grandparents, public officials and business leaders -- an opportunity to participate with us in dialogues about Great Schools, student achievement, quality staffing and public investment in our children's future.

"Wisconsin's children, our students, this state's economic and political vitality, depend on all of us. They depend on this union to organize and actualize the Great Schools journey."

Posted September 29, 2000