This is Busted Pencils, fully leaded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci, educated educators talking education.
Welcome, Monday Night Busted Pencils, fully leaded education talk.
Educated educators.
Yeah, we're talking education.
But we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Friday.
Lots going on.
What a week.
Johnny Lupinacci.
I know he's he's on my texting.
He's saying he's there.
So I'll just tell producer Aaron to keep it.
Keep an eye peeled for Johnny Lupinacci.
There he is.
Fully leaded, of course.
Thank you.
Lots going on in the world of well, lots going on in the world.
Today.
The there he is the Johnny Lupin Archie man.
There he is.
Hey without fail man.
Here we go
Hey, so before we get started tonight, it's Monday The beginning of the week.
Did you watch did you have you seen any takes on the trial today, Johnny?
I mean, I haven't caught up much, you know, it's a college of education here We're finishing off our teacher educators getting them ready to go out into the classroom And so it's been usually Tuesday is my teaching day, but Monday today is my teaching day
Okay,
because it's finals week.
Well, it's finals week.
So we're wrapping things up and I caught a few headlines.
I've seen there's some action Yeah coming out of New York, but otherwise I haven't I haven't kept up too closely
Well, according to the latest one, it's not election interference because, well, he said it wasn't.
I mean, you know, it's kind of like when we know it's not anything like anything we ever do.
But my goodness, the ability to just say that, you know, I'm confused.
Yeah, we're talking about the Donald Trump.
trial it started today trial one of what seven or not 75 or 90 counts three trials coming up but this is the beginning it's the hush money
Yes, $130,000.
But today's big day, though, was going over the Access Hollywood tapes with some of the media places.
And it was interesting to hear people kind of censoring themselves as they talked about that.
Not that we're going to get over any of that conversation here, because it's busted pencils.
It's Monday.
It's the third Monday.
In the month, Johnny Lupinacci, we got an official announcement tonight because our
guest— Oh,
yeah.
Our guest, Wisconsin Public Education Network, have made the commitment that every third Monday, they will be joining us on busted pencils
to bring— Oh, I love
it, man.
Yeah, man.
Bring it down.
Everything in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Heather, two boys, Bernay and Heather, how are you, our friend?
Let me hear you.
I'm great.
How are you doing, Tim?
How are you doing, Johnny?
I'm doing great, Heather Dubois, Bourdain.
Thank you for joining us tonight.
And hey, thank you, Wisconsin Network for committing to Mondays, you know, once a month with Busted Pencils.
We love you.
We love the work you do.
And it couldn't be more important, especially for our Wisconsin listeners.
So let's go.
So
let's go.
So the first episode, though, with Heather, I had a little bit of a medical issue.
So you guys got through that first episode.
We had a great time.
Yeah.
You and Julie Underwood were there, but Heather brought a new friend today from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Christian Phelps, he's the director of digital organizing and communications.
Christian, though, welcome to Busted Pencils.
Hold on a minute, though.
Tell us, how did you get yourself involved with this organization, Wisconsin Public Education Network Christian?
Oh that's a great question because my public education journey is pretty similar in its origins is that it basically starts as a child so I was a public school student in Wisconsin for 13 years as many of us were and I also was raised by two parents, four grandparents, five aunts and uncles and probably more relatives than that who were all public school educators in our state.
As sort of deeper understanding of how education works kind of like was already in me as I became an adult.
I worked as a paraprofessional in public schools for a couple of years and then after getting a degree in journalism, it turned out that this organization had grown under Heather's leadership enough to grow in its staff as well.
So that's when I became officially involved with it was in 2020 and it's been
A lot of work because there's a lot to do.
There's a lot of passion and there are a lot of issues, sadly, to address in public education in Wisconsin, but it's been really interesting and fun to sort of put the digital media and journalism background that I have into action for something I care about so much.
Man, what was Thanksgiving like growing up at your house with all those teachers?
Did you guys ever get to eat anything or was it just constantly like, oh my god, Christian, tell me, that's a lot of teachers.
You should see the power dynamics that come out when people are trying to organize the group picture.
There's never one director of the scene.
There are about 28 directors and 29 participants.
I'm like the only one who's not a teacher.
So you just sit back and observe and watch this, all the craziness.
I'm tall enough that I can just go to the back row and like stand there for an hour while those dynamics play out on their own.
Well, Christian, thank you for doing the digital organizing and taking that journalism degree and putting it to good use.
Heather, all right, Heather, we got you back here.
Lots going on in Wisconsin.
First things first though, tell me thoughts.
the election last week, and all of the referendums helped Johnny and I make sense of this, where they're winners.
We talked for sure when it happened, you know, we really celebrated Milwaukee.
But for the whole entire state of Wisconsin, what happened, Heather?
Yeah, so we're a couple of weeks out now from our April 2 election and...
We're still taking inventory of the results around the state, but what we know is.
We saw a record number of districts having to go to referenda to provide school funding at the local level.
And we saw only about a 60% passage rate statewide of those referenda questions, which is both a major increase in the number of referenda and a tick down in the passage rate from recent years where they had been passing quite handily compared to how they used to in the past.
And what we're asking now is, what's going on?
Are people just sick?
of being asked to raise taxes on themselves when the state is sitting on the biggest surplus we've ever seen.
Kind of an unconscionably large surplus given the needs of our kids.
Or were there other things on the ballot?
There were a lot of municipal questions since our state happens to be underfunding our municipalities as well at the moment.
And so there are lots of needs.
So just people can't afford it in this economy.
They just can't bear the weight.
Or were the naysayers effective in their messaging campaigns that suggested that maybe schools didn't need the money that they thought?
or our politicians to blame for their lofty rhetoric about historic increases and all of the ways that we're meeting the needs of our kids in an environment where those of us in the know know that that's actually not the case.
We are funding our schools at levels of historic low, not high.
And if we're going to be honest about our history, then we should admit that we are on kind of a 20-year dip in the level of support that we're giving
to public schools, not a record high.
So there are a lot of factors at play here and why that referendum passage rate ticked down.
But what we do know is that where people got organized and worked hard and really, you know, fought for...
for the referenda passage where they tried to educate voters, for the most part, they were successful.
That those organizing efforts really work, that when you start early and get a team together and have a good, strong message, and especially where there's not an organized no effort, you're much more likely to pass your referenda than when in places where they're not doing that.
Except that wasn't universally true and there were some really hard.
hard losses this spring that, you know, made us want to learn more?
Well, so 60%, we were kind of waiting for that to kind of get the total.
So 60%, and that's actually down then is what you're saying for the total on that whole bunch going on there.
The number though, too, I just forgot to give that out there.
It's 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
Heather and Christian Wisconsin public education network joining us, you know doing a little couple weeks now after the election What are we looking at?
Referendum you say about 60% passed so about 40% didn't that's down Christian I wonder when you're you know young man like you looking at this Would you say you know do you understand this idea of why?
school districts have to ask the taxpayers for funding
through referendum.
Explain to me how they've explained this concept of the referendum to you.
Well, I mean, the reason this happens is about exactly as old as I am.
So two generations of students have gone through our public school system under a revenue cap system, basically, that was introduced in 1993 and took hold in 1994, where whatever school districts are spending
at that time is what they were allowed to spend moving forward.
For a while, that was only a little bit of a problem because those numbers went up with inflation, but they still weren't based on anything meaningful.
They weren't based on student need.
They were just based on what the districts were spending at that time.
And then since 2009, I believe that they haven't even kept up with inflation necessarily.
And in fact, the state funding level for school districts, all public schools in the state has fallen behind inflation for the same amount of time, 15 years in a row.
So if you have all that history and you know all that, you understand that if you have to tighten your belt for year after year after year for 15 years or 30 years, depending on which starting point you wish to choose, eventually you just can't keep up with student need anymore and you need to ask your taxpayers for more funds.
However,
The...
If somebody has not been working at Wisconsin Public Education Network and taken multiple school funding 101 sessions with Dr. Julie Underwood, you can forgive them for not understanding that inherently and wondering why they have to pay more and more and more taxes while their schools don't get any more funds.
Yeah, that's why I asked you, Christian, because it's one of those things where people are like, OK, wait a minute.
So the state didn't give the public schools the funds they need.
They did.
Why are they asking the taxpayers?
It seems like this is happening every year.
don't understand it.
And so, yeah, the whole school funding system, laying it out there, you say, you know, if you didn't have Dr. Julie Underwood with the Wisconsin Public Education Network out there, giving all of that advanced education, though, Christian, but, you know, what we, you know, what Johnny and I put together with Busted Pencils, though, was to always say that we want this to be the show for our neighbors.
And our neighbors don't get to hear Dr. Julie Underwood all the time like that.
So, man, when we get back, though,
We're going to dig a little bit more deeper into those referendums and then what's happening all over Wisconsin educationally.
Mustard pencils back in a
break.
There we go.
Dusted.
Pencils fully leaded.
Education talk educated educators talking Education the numbers eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Every third Monday now from now until until the end of times Wisconsin Public Education Network every third Monday of the month Joining us to let everything let us know about everything that's happening
with public education in Wisconsin.
Johnny, you get the look of a
grin there.
Well, I mean, there's so much going on, especially in the state of Wisconsin.
But one of the reasons we love this is because for our national listeners, Wisconsin is, you know, a bit of a canary in the coal mine.
I mean, there's so much going on that is indicative of everything that's happened across our country.
And so so important to hear.
Yeah, I mean we look at that and it becomes something that really is something that we have to look forward to Heather so 60% you say that's down What do you think is the behind the no?
Why did it decrease?
Why did why did more districts say?
Yeah, we're not gonna fund our local schools this year when I say we the taxpayers are not going to fund our local schools this year
What do you think is behind the note?
You know, I think part of it was that spring turnout is historically low anyway and tends to bring out more conservative minded voters, maybe people who are more likely to vote against a tax increase, especially when there's more than one such ask on your ballot.
there has been so much negative noise from those who wish to see our public schools disparaged about the ways that the local controls maybe to blame.
And so there's maybe some distrust at the school board level or a desire for change in leadership there.
Lots of these social and cultural issues are kind of being conflated with the fiscal ones.
And voters are just wondering like,
How do I make sense of this?
Who's to blame?
Why is everybody so mad about this?
And I think there is a lot of local level confusion that has something to do with it.
But I think ultimately it was just a matter of folks not really knowing what was at stake and not understanding that if we don't go to bat for kids at the ballot box when these referendic questions come up, there's not somebody at the Capitol who's going to step in and fill in the gap anymore.
Those state funds that used to be taken for granted are no longer a sure thing.
And we need to do better at spreading that message statewide and across the nation that there are
that are not just trying to kind of chip away at, you know, nickeling and diming school districts here and there, but are really undermining the whole foundation of how the funding system works to the point where like they're putting districts in this untenable situation.
We're facing literally a fiscal cliff now that those federal COVID dollars have run out.
that that are you know there there is no more tightening of the belt you know we're past the the last notch right and our kids are just paying the price and paying the price and paying the price and there's no more left to give you know there there's just so much going on
so what about a taxpayer who says yeah that's exactly right Heather that's why we couldn't do it this year
It's just not enough, not enough for us to do it this year.
I mean, you know, my neighbor's a taxpayer and it's just sitting there saying like, I cannot do it again this year.
Heather, Christian, I mean, come on, give me a break.
You know, it may feel like we can't do it anymore, but when we look at the raw data, we are paying less.
for our public schools as a state, as a percentage of our GPR at the state level, then we were 20 years ago, then we were 30 years ago.
We are paying less in local taxes to support our schools than we were 20 years ago.
And while it seems like we might be spending more, because that's how inflation works, things get more and more expensive every year, and it costs more and more to educate our kids.
And we've never seen greater needs
in our communities because we've disinvested from so many social programs and the schools are asked to fill in the gaps for everything, right?
The fact is that we are actually underfunding our schools to the tune of more than $3,000 per student in this state compared to where we were just two years ago.
And so that is some scary stuff.
Right.
And so we need some historical perspective.
We need some honest looks at the finances of what's behind this.
And we need to.
Be the grownups when those who we've elected to do that aren't doing their role and fill in those gaps.
And then we need to be the grownups when we go to vote and make sure that we're electing public education champions who are going to do right by our kids regardless of what party they're in and regardless of what they think is the responsibility of the state in relationship to education.
Mmm dropping some heat and some truth John either there
Johnny I mean, I I love it.
I love it I I mean I couldn't echo Heather sentiment more I mean that's the deal is like doesn't matter what party you're in It comes down to a bottom line of are you supporting public education or are you not and to continue to outsource this funding?
It's got to come from somewhere I mean though like it costs money to provide a good education for children everywhere
And so that having historically, and when I say historically now, it's been decades and decades since it was, you know, a majority of funding coming from our state.
And that's been scaled back so much that it's outsourced to schools and districts having to run those referendums on ballots and having to, you know, sort of in a sense outsource the funding.
It has to come from somewhere.
So, I mean I couldn't agree more with Heather like do you or don't you support public education and get on the bus?
Let's go.
Let's support public ed.
Yeah, but buses cost money John Lupin on chief Christian
Christian go for
everything costs money.
I know What do you value and what is your investment if your investment and your value is a strong democracy then you pay?
For a strong public education and also we've gone through this tim time and time again.
It raises your property value Strengthens your local economy economy a lot of strong locals public school system is a strong local community
Christian Throw some heat throw some heat on us man
Yeah, that's exactly right.
I completely agree and also To that taxpayer you referenced earlier Tim
I share concerns that our tax dollars should not be wasted.
I offer that funding our local public school district is the least wasteful way to spend our tax dollars, but there is a lot of waste happening at the state level.
I would say sitting on a surplus instead of funding schools as an example of wasting tax dollars.
I'd say siphoning public dollars off to private schools that are not accountable to the taxpayers as an example of wasting tax dollars.
Maybe we'll have time to talk about
some of those wasteful programs later on a little bit more, but there's an education project to be taken on here with the public and concerns about wasting tax dollars and not wanting to overspend when people are having a hard time with inflation are totally valid.
People just need to know where the waste actually lies and spoiler alert, it's not at your local public school.
Christian thank you so much for that because yeah, that's what we do here at busted pencils It's education for my neighbor because my neighbor's not being a jerk.
He just wants to know she just wants to know you know because as you're pointing out it's like maybe there are People taking my tax dollars and not doing things the right way with my money and there You know, so we need to pull this together make sure that everybody has the greatest understanding
But yeah, underfunding our public schools.
Underfunding our public schools.
Yeah, that's what happens here.
And then in Wisconsin, sitting on billions.
Billions in
a surplus.
Billions.
Billions with a B. You can see my Dr.
Evil
right here, man.
It's in.
Busted pencils.
It's fully leaded education talk Wisconsin Public Education Network Executive Director Heather Director of Digital Organizing Christian there with us.
We're busting pencils when we get back more about what's going on Wisconsin
You just wanna let the music play, man.
Just let it go.
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And yes, the best bumper music on any radio.
Doesn't matter what you're listening to, man.
Nobody is doing the bumper music like Busted Pencils.
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Wisconsin Public Education Network 3rd Mondays of the month now.
Regular feature, making sure that we are always tapped into everything that's happening with what's going on with public schools in Wisconsin.
Really kind of going over the referendum and what happened.
60% passed, 40% didn't.
That's down.
Going into the break.
though you guys are doing the break, we're talking to this, that there are going to be referendum coming up in the fall and that there may be as many as there were this past spring.
And thinking about this as we're going forward, how do the places then that didn't pass the referendum, if they're going to make an effort in the fall, what's the strategy then of a school district?
to go forward and say, look, you didn't, taxpayer, Tim's neighbor, okay?
You voted no in the spring.
How do you get my neighbor to vote yes in the fall?
Question to Heather or Christian.
Well, that is a, that is kind of a million dollar question.
Here here in my home school district.
It's I think it's a either a 15 or 20 million dollar question actually that's what our referendum will be for but First of all the school district cannot do that by itself because it's busy running a school district and the most successful referendum campaigns are ones that had a really engaged community team that were
putting out their own communications from this perspective of a taxpayer and a parent and a retired educator and a business owner and a doctor and whatever they are in the community to reach their own neighbors and advocate for the public schools that are educating local kids.
A lot of it does come down to telling your story about why you're doing this, you know,
school referenda are really dry in terms of the question that appears on your ballot.
They go through exactly the dollar amount that's needed and how that will be levied from property taxes.
And frankly, unless you study property tax, you probably don't fully understand the question itself.
the most successful referendum campaigns are the ones where the community can come out and actually put students at the center of the message and help people understand like yeah you're being asked to pay whatever number of dollars more per year on your property and the result of that is lower class sizes for the third graders that you know and love on your own street or in your own house or you know whatever it is or
Failure to do that means like not having as many music options at your school, like the things that people actually love.
And there's also two sides to it.
I mean, part of it is getting people
to know that they have a referendum on their ballot and make their voting plan because people want to support local public schools by and large.
And the other part is helping to combat misinformation by just sort of getting the real facts out faster than the small minority of bad actors who want to spread disinformation and misinformation are able to.
If you reach voters with the real facts and stories first, the attempts to sort of underfund a local public school district are gonna be
Much less well received.
Look at Heather raising her hand.
Heather
jump in there Next yes, and We saw such a brilliant example of that in the passage of the Milwaukee public schools referendum this spring the biggest question on any of the ballots statewide it was it was a huge dollar ask and I mean the district was basically asking for Status quo level of funding to make up
for the failure of the past state budget to keep pace with inflation.
That was basically the exact amount they were asking taxpayers for.
Let's them continue some of the programs that they started during COVID, make sure that they're keeping these supports in place for kids.
They're really clear about how this money would serve students' needs.
And they fought back against the nastiest
most dishonest anti-public school campaign we'd seen in a long time.
A cabal of privateers formed a coalition that was urging voters to vote no and voters saw right through it.
They saw who was behind it.
They saw that this no group was being bankrolled by people who had long been opponents of public schooling and supporters of privatization.
And they saw that most of the players in that movement were people who weren't even from Milwaukee, who weren't sending their kids to MPS schools.
And so we know that where we live, if we can show what this means to local kids, why we need to support them, what that we're going to do with them.
and how it's going to make a difference in the lives of our kids and our educators and our communities.
People tend to overwhelmingly vote yes, but when they don't know what's at stake or the question is confusing like Christian said, or we don't know like, you know, why exactly do I have to vote on this?
Then they're more likely to get a no vote.
And so just voter education like pure and simple is like the big.
thing, but like, it's harder to voter, educate voters than people think.
You got to get out there and knock the doors.
You got to get your gang together.
You got to get your gang, you know, you got to get the game, got to get it ready, go and door knocking, and you know, the other thing, and we'll let you say this, you know, if people want to get busy and help the Wisconsin Public Education Network, you're going to let them know where they can go to make those connections.
But I was wondering about strategy, Christian, you talked about this, is it, does it depend?
or do we do we tell voters here's what your students or your children let's say the children of your community are going to get if you pass this or do we say here's what your
Children are going to lose if you don't pass this.
I'm just thinking about the strategy How do we frame it?
Do we frame it as a loss if we don't get it?
Or do we frame it as here's what they're going to get if we get it because when we you talked about Milwaukee and we did we did a lot of work with Milwaukee and the big push from Milwaukee advocates or vote yes for was to make very clear that the yes was to just
fund the essentials.
It wasn't for new gym lockers and extravagant anything that
this not that Milwaukee kids don't deserve new gym not lockers and extravagant things.
Well, no, I mean, but they really I know not to say to go, but they made the decision to say that, look,
this yes vote is for the essentials.
You're voting for the essentials.
And I wonder if that, you know, if there's a strategy in there that seems like, yeah, we should really be focusing on letting parents and families know what they're going to lose, or do we really focus on what they're going to gain?
Because I think, like Christian was saying, small class sizes.
Hmm, that sounds good.
That sounds great to me.
Losing music class.
Okay, so.
Maybe I'm answering my own question.
Is it a combination of the you're gonna get Johnny Lupinacci help me out man
Well, well, I mean Tim I comes back to this whole thing and and I and I really want to hear from Christian and Heather on this like like we're really put in a position where districts are having to ask For things that are absolutely should like essential and they should be provided by what constitutes a state-funded education and the fact that our state legislation has pulled back so much
And really put it on the individuals and local communities to have to go out and you know and ask for this It's it's just really instead of just including it in the responsibility of you know a strong state It's really outsourcing it and putting it on the people It's just robbing peter to pay paul and and you know and taxpayers we want them to know This is really your state saying we're asking you to pay for this Indirectly instead of directly through your taxes and so it's really it's really frustrating because it should be
a standard that these schools have these things.
But yet it's pulled back, it's underfunded, and then they're put in a position where they have to go on and ask.
And we have callers all the time who call in and say, you know, I support my public schools, I support fundraisers, and I support local teachers.
And it just seems like every year I'm asked to support more.
And that's on your state.
And states need to be funding, they need to be funding education instead of putting it on you, the individual.
because it's really manipulative on the voter.
Okay, Christian.
Yeah, I mean, exactly.
And to answer the question about strategy, I mean, unfortunately, there isn't a
a strategy that works in every community.
But the rule of thumb that does is the more local and the more community based your campaign is, the more successful it's going to be.
And so first of all, you have to understand what your referendum is asking for.
And in Milwaukee's case, it was asking for maintenance of the status quo so that kids aren't left with even less now than they had last year.
And that was a really compelling message because it was true.
Every community that is successful
is one that's able to basically reach a lot of members of the community and invite them to be part of that community by voting yes in the referendum.
And it's hard to pick one always because there are a lot of teams that do this very well.
This spring, I think the Depear Yes team was fantastic at having local messengers be the people who just sort of like put messages out there of like, why did I move to Depear?
And why did I choose to send my kids to DePierre's public schools?
I think that it's part of being a resident of DePierre to love the teachers that our kids have access to.
And this referendum will ensure that we continue to attract and retain those excellent teachers.
I can't tell 421 different school district communities what the best message or strategy is for them, but I can insist that they make it really local.
They interrogate themselves.
Why am I here?
Why do I care about this?
And what sort of
unique community-based programs, do I want to either create or improve or maintain and put that at the center of the message?
Heather, I was thinking about this too.
How do you talk about vouchers during referendum?
Do we talk about vouchers?
Does it have an impact on the referendum?
How do we incorporate privatization in those conversations too about this or is it a separate issue or no, it's totally related?
Yeah, it's totally related and we have to connect those thoughts because here's the thing.
Funding by referenda is incredibly disequalizing.
We already have a gap between the have and have nots in this state, right?
We already have that gap.
We have an unfair funding formula that's based on property values, not student needs.
And so it's already broken.
Every time one district passes its referendum, another one doesn't, we're widening the gap.
And so I don't want to go vote to maintain a broken status quo.
I want to fight for fixing a broken system that is forcing a situation where some kids are just set up to fail.
That's not okay.
And this state on top of this regular broken has another layer of super broken.
that gives public funds to totally unaccountable private and privately operated schools that play by their own set of rules and that siphon money off the top from all the kids in the state, but that disproportionately impacts Milwaukee public school kids and kids in our urban communities and kids who are students in poverty, students with disabilities and kids who are English language learners.
failing to fund in those three priority need areas.
And we can trace the paper trail to that right back to this giveaway to these unaccountable voucher schools.
And so programs that were ostensibly set up to support the kids who need the most help have actually widened the gaps for those kids.
And that's what gets us so worked up about why we have to go to.
fund our schools by referenda and why we are so frustrated with the state the way the state keeps pouring money into voucher schemes and scams because it's so unfair to kids and our kids should not have to keep paying the price of these politics and we shouldn't have to keep educating grown adults on why this is a moral problem we should all just agree as a community to fight to demand better and and put the focus where it should be.
Man it feels like
There's an intentionality behind the funding discrepancies in Wisconsin.
It feels like there might even be like a concerted attack on the public schools in the state of Wisconsin.
I don't know, Johnny Lupinacci, you know?
I mean,
the
potential, the intentionality.
Come on, right?
You
know?
Yeah, I mean, it makes sense.
Heather points out a really important part.
You know, this is an effort to keep in place a system that is inequitable.
And
it further ensures that it will be inequitable for kids who need it the most.
And that's just really not OK.
There it is.
Busted Pencils Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Back in a minute.
Heather asked for it and we got it.
That's Rage Against Machine this time.
Busted Pencils.
Oh yeah.
That's what we do here every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Busted Pencils, fully leaded education talk raging against the machine that is going after public schools in the state of Wisconsin.
It feels like it's an
attentional attack on the public schools.
I'm being a bit sarcastic there.
It doesn't feel like it.
We know it is an attack on the public schools because when you have a fully funded privatized voucher system without income and okay, we've thrown away the income restraints and no longer goes to quote the failing schools.
It's just choice because
Parents should just have the choice to send their kids to any school they want.
Heather, help us out.
Yeah, let's talk about choice because Wisconsin has made the choice to have the widest gaps in the nation between white and black students when it comes to scoring on standardized tests.
Wisconsin has made the choice to create and cement a funding system that
treats kids unequally, that treats communities unequally, that does not meet the needs of kids, that does not fulfill the will of people to have thriving, joyful public schools where everybody's happy to send their kids and where educators feel trusted and valued and respected.
Wisconsin has made a choice to make its gaps wider and wider and wider for each of the last 16 budgets, none of which has even kept paced within
inflation for that year.
And so these are the choices that our state is making.
They are choosing to disinvest from the public good and put money into a wholly unaccountable system and just let their political cronies laugh all the way to the bank while our kids pay the price.
And all over the state, if I'm looking for some hope, I see people saying,
That is not okay.
That is not okay with me.
That is not what we signed up for.
That is not what we voted for.
And regardless of their political party, they're not cool with the way that public education has become kind of the catch-all pull from when it's time to write a state budget.
And so what we've seen when we've chased these budget hearings around the state is that public education is the number one issue at every single hearing.
People are saying put more money in the schools.
Raise my taxes.
I would rather see my taxes go up than more cuts to public education.
Our statewide polling shows us this.
We know people want to invest in public schools.
There is a distance between what people want and what they're getting from state leadership.
And it's a distance that we're going to close now that we have fairer math.
Now that we have a Supreme Court that is slightly more bent toward justice than the than previously And now that we have so many more people who are calling on Republicans and Democrats alike to do better by the kids that they've been elected to serve
Honey man, you
know, I mean, I'm great.
I love hearing that because that's exactly exactly what has to happen, right?
I mean, we just have to do better.
It's that simple.
It's like keep it simple
We're not doing what we said we want to do and what we can do, and it's not representative of what the people want.
This is a government for the people, by the people.
Listen to the general public, right?
So, Heather, I appreciate that assurance, because I believe it too.
I mean, I think that's where we're at.
Let's expose what's going on.
Let's be transparent about it, and let's just do
better.
Well, we have some evidence, if I could share it really quick.
I mean, something that we did last year and also in 21 and the network also did in 19 and does every time the state solicits public input on the budget.
Every single time increased funds to public pre K through 12 schools are the single most popular priority that members of the public raise.
And it's not close.
And it is combined with increased
public funding for higher ed and childcare, it makes up last time 37% of every single word uttered by members of the public, while support for increased public funds to private schools made up 5% of the words that people said.
So we aren't guessing and living in an echo chamber when we say people want
their public schools to be adequately funded, we tracked every single thing that people said when they were making their priorities clear on the state budget, and it was not close.
Yeah.
Man, when you put that out there like that too, it's just like, okay, there are that many people in favor of, you said, the public schools.
And the reality, though, is that I think this goes back to what you're saying, Heather, hopefully the new maps are going to play a role in helping
fix this problem because you've got legislators then legislators that are not voting in the interests of their constituents because their constituents obviously want the public schools funded their constituents obviously don't want private voucher schools being funded with their public tax dollars but the reality is is that they keep passing those types of legislation in favor of private and voucher schools
And then in the harmful budgets like you have in Wisconsin, they're constantly a continued state neglect, intended neglect of doing the constitutional duty, as Johnny was saying.
The state needs to fund the schools adequately to begin with so that the taxpayers don't have to be asked to go to referendum.
We say we end up in this place.
Man, it's politics.
So it's a mess.
I know.
We talk about this funding gap, but in order to close that funding gap, we have to close that accountability gap.
We have to be able to hold our lawmakers accountable to us, all of our decision makers at every level, from school board to the federal level.
And once we close that accountability gap,
then we can close all the other gaps facing our kids, all the opportunity gaps that are preventing kids from thriving in all of the environments that we're creating for them.
And most importantly, we can close that joy gap and create the conditions again for thriving, joyful learning environments where all kids feel valued and welcome and like they belong and all of our educators feel the same.
I mean, this is what we really want.
And this is what our kids deserve.
This is what our community needs.
So we're grateful for the opportunity to share these concerns
We're excited to keep coming back on these third Mondays and share these concerns with you and bring some of our friends to really drive this home and connect the dots from what's happening in Wisconsin to what's happening all over the country because you could tell these stories anywhere.
We're not unique, but we aren't alone.
And we're fighting back and so are people all over the state.
And we're going to win.
Love it.
Love it.
Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Thank
you, Christian and Heather.
Yeah.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.