There it is. You guys know what that means. It's time for busted pencils. It's fully
related education. Educated educators talking education Saturday in the civic
mis civic media listening area all over Wisconsin parts of Minnesota, Michigan,
and hey you people in the UP. I know you can't hear us right now, but something saying the UP
might start hearing a little bit of civic media. Just a little back thing that I'm kind of hearing
but man love Johnny being with you Jacob with you on our Saturday show full one hour.
I mean absolutely love the weekly shows the podcast that we drop but always can't wait to do a
full hour because most you know it's really cool knowing that all of the civic media listeners
all the civic media app people and yeah Johnny as we like to point out those people in Finland
do have the civic media app that love to listen to busted pencils. We appreciate you so make
sure yeah download the civic media app and Saturday one full hour fully back to school and I got
to say here in the mid-Atlantic Pennsylvania. 48 degrees in the evening last Friday night.
Yeah wow you're getting a little cold snap there. You know Tim I hope that this is you know I like
that this is a Saturday back to school but hopefully I always feel like school should start
after Labor Day. Like let's squeeze out one more weekend before we're back to school. Of course
where I am at you know all the kids are back in school. I've been teaching for a few weeks now but
I miss those hey let's push it all the way through Labor Day so hopefully pencil busters out there
you're listening and you're squeezing those last days of summer out of August and you're getting
you're going you're gearing and ready to go next week. Yeah for sure and um yeah it's back to
school. I agree right after Labor Day but hey it's Labor Day weekend and so this is what we're doing
here we always do and love the Saturday shows because you know I mean sometimes Johnny and I and Jacob
like to really spend a lot of time talking but we really appreciate when we have guests and I
got to tell you man what does it say when you've been waiting nine years for a guest and you finally
get them and to realize that where did this guest how did this happen? Well roughly nine years
ago in a punk bar in Milwaukee in the cactus club with one of our favorite pencil busters Dr.
Joanna Rosado of Educators Amplified put together her first program and introduced me to this
awesome teacher now more than that but Angelina Cruz well let's be honest let's be real
representative Cruz welcome to busted pencils. How you doing Angelina? I'm doing great I'm
exhausted but so excited to be with you too. How do I know that you wanted me on prior to this?
I more than would have accommodated you so we'll have to make this a regular thing oh I like that
a little check in with representative Cruz but now I am teasing a little bit and Angelina because
it's just you know the organiveness of how this this work happens where people go and in in fact
you know where we were when we met it was this whole idea again of what's best for public schools
and bringing together a group of people and a group of fighters and the fact that nine years later
here you are representative Cruz and I know we're going to talk a lot about Wisconsin but it was
that activism and advocacy for public schools that really I think would propelled where busted
pencils is now in 2025 and hopefully where representative Cruz is now so give us a little
taste though the listener of the journey from you know where you were what you're doing now and
what's this representative Cruz all about right right so great question I have entered the
season of my life in which I can identify myself as a veteran public school educator so I started
teaching in in 2003 in the Racine Unified School District I was a fifth grade elementary school
teacher so I I taught it a K-5 and I thought that that it was my favorite thing to do on the face
of the planet I thought that I would just expire in room nine at Dr. Jones Elementary School I
loved it so much and so 2003 I started teaching I went back for my MS in educational policy and
and graduated with that from UW Milwaukee in 2010 and then in 2011 when our illustrious
then governor Scott Walker passed his budget repair bill and as part of that legislation called
act act act 10 which stripped public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights
I it occurred to me I needed to activate my political activism and apply it towards my union and so
we in Wisconsin experienced sort of this unprecedented assault on on public sector workers and I
would argue most specifically on public school teachers what we say as public school teachers and
public school unionist specifically is that public public teacher unions are the last line of
defense in the war against public education and so I got really plugged into the work of my union
so at that time I became a building representative and the building that I taught in I eventually became
the political action committee chairperson and then I became an elected officer and I worked myself
all the way up to the president of our local and was elected in 2016 I'm the first Latina to
to represent at then it was Racine Education Association since then we I I oversaw sort of the
unification of the the REA and the Racine Educational Assistance Association so both of our
bargaining units sit under the umbrella of Racine Educators United we recognized as bargaining
units that our struggles were one struggle and unified and so I've been the longest sitting
president of Racine Educators United and and still I occupied that seat to this day on August 26
of 2025 I'm in the the second year of the the last term I was elected to and so I've been part
of a lot of the activism by virtue of my union in the political landscape as well and so part of
getting a Democratic governor elected you know against Scott Walker part of getting Supreme Court
Justices elected despite you know the Elon Musk's of the world dumping billions of dollars
into our state part of winning fair maps and so it was the winning fair maps that sort of presented
the opportunity and Racine opened up a new seat and assembly person who wants that and assembly
district 62 moved he hopped to the district next door which is the redder more conservative
district and assembly district 62 is up which covers primarily the city of Racine so it's very
blue very diverse it's it's very economically depressed but it's I it's it's where I live and I
love it and I thought that it was incumbent upon me in this moment to step into that leadership
position and become the first elected Latina to represent Racine and so it's been quite the
journey but here I sit before you I know Johnny that that I'm sorry for jumping in there like
they were kind of so excited because you are the illustration of what Johnny and I have been
saying talking about wanting to highlight is the school teacher the love of public education
and how you're just a natural fit to then also take the move and the story and the journey
that you did Johnny please I know you got a lot on this one man. Well Tim even more than the
illustration for I'll say the inspiration for that vision for that kind of ideas we we champion
here at busted pencils you know every day folks who are in the trenches like you said on the front
lines of democracy in community you know participating with the growth of that community and teachers
are such a glue for that for that work in that movement especially teacher unions right so
working together in community for the quality of life not only that kids in our classrooms have
but that we all share in our communities and so we're always saying it's inspiring when teachers
do what they do in their classrooms yes but then also build on that and spread that experience
through becoming engaged formally in the politics of our democracy right and that's so inspiring
representative crews so thank you for sharing a little bit of that backstory I'm so glad
that after nine years Tim that that representative crews is here you know joining to share that
story and to spread that contagious energy that we want educators to hear hey if you're like
representative crews you can not only be the change in your school in your classroom
but in your community and in your state so thank you for that work oh thank you
and so um representative crews which I now have to get used to saying because you know no longer
just texting Angelina from the cactus club um representative crews so and I really do I mean
I hopefully Jacob let's get her just introduction talk the way she's put that together
and break that up because you gave that primer of bus of public schools joining we say the
foundation of democracy and the living action that you really and I'll say illustrate but then
inspiring of going that's what we mean what it when it says how are public schools the bedrock
the foundation of a democracy while our teachers in realizing and again the moment that
that and I've heard this in Wisconsin so many times at 10 at 10 really made clear the assault
that people were willing to undertake to take away democracy and how you all and I think this
boy how stupid was it to go after teachers in the unions because boy Scott Walker you activated
democracy and I know we're coming up on on on one minute their representative crews so I'm not
going to throw as Johnny and Jacob would say a Tim curve at yeah and kind of leave you set up
there but you know so all of this work we kind of highlighted but now you are representative crews
and and right away now there are things that you're dealing with in the legislature and particularly
hey the Wisconsin budget again man so when we get back let's jump into right away you know what do
we know about what's happening with the Wisconsin budget well we're going to ask representative
crews on busted pencils when we get back
welcome back busted pencils fully let it education talk educated educators talking education
me dr. Timselecker dr. Johnny Lupinaji Jacob chairman of the board Saturday and we are
very very happy because we have such a great guest representative crews man from my first meeting with
her around nine years ago cactus club teacher organizer activist educators amplified
now to the state legislature first have our first part of the show representative crews you really
gave an inspiring story of you know from fifth grade teacher to representative crews and union
president still right not we're not wiping that out but you know so now you're in the legislature
you've been you know working on things are looking at you know you're you're representative your
webpage the legislation we're going on but what's going on with the budget because I think you
know Johnny and I since we've been doing the show I mean the Wisconsin legislature and the Wisconsin
budget seems to always be still there in I know you've got new maps but they haven't fully taken
effect and so we're still wrestling with Republicans in the legislature still messing with a budget
that makes sense I mean help us understand what's going on right so we have new maps we have more
seats on the democratic side of the aisle but Republicans still hold the majority in both the Senate
and and the state assembly so they have the power and the budget that we saw was I know that it's
been referred to as a bipartisan budget but it is to be clear very much a Republican budget and it
did it did pass with support from people on our side of the aisle as well for for various reasons
that I can't I can't speak other people's truth for them so that is I guess another segment you
can ask them yourself but I would say it was very disconcerting to me you did ask how I ended up
running for state assembly and I will I said new maps but also a piece of that was that I was so
angry about the last state budget I was so angry about the last state budget we've had more than
a decade of disinvestment in the state's public schools those of us that you know our public education
advocates or have public education backgrounds and policy understand perfectly well what the
state legislature is doing which is intentionally defunding public schools in an effort to privatize
them and so this budget what it actually did this time around only serves to deepen that disinvestment
quite dramatically I on a number of occasions pointed out to my colleagues that from my perspective
this budget was worse than the 2011 budget repair bill put forward by Scout Walker there is absolutely
no money zero dollars in general aid put forward for public schools and at the same time the budget
increased investment in vouchers and voucher schools and so it's the first budget that we've
ever seen an entire budget cycle with no increase in general school aids no per pupil increase
none in spite of of rising costs so we know that school funding was decoupled from inflation
quite quite a long time ago over a decade ago and so state aid has not kept pace with inflation
and so that has been that problem has been exacerbated by the fact that the state legislature
hasn't fulfilled its constitutional obligations to fully fund public education so I don't
seemingly under the radar the headlines seem to be very glowing in regards to the investments made
in special education investments in public education in general but I mean I would argue that it's
essentially a shell game and what this budget actually did accomplish was the extension of
privatization with increases for vouchers in Milwaukee and Racine statewide voucher schools are
going to get per pupil increases public schools are not going to get per pupil increases we know
that statewide people showed up to testify for the need to increase special education funding
some of us were arguing that the special education reimbursement should parallel what is going to
voucher schools which is a 90 percent reimbursement rate others said hey we'll be happy with 60
percent 60 percent would bring us up to the amount that would would satisfy us and would help
which which should never have precluded general aid right like you have to have both to start
moving towards making public schools whole but we didn't even reach 60 percent 60 percent is what
the governor put into his budget 90 percent I believe is what state superintendent
she'll underly put into her budget proposal and so we came nowhere close we got 42 percent the
first year 45 percent the next year and it's I mean I'm skeptical that we would even ever reach
those reimbursement rates over approximately I mean it's an improvement over the approximately 30
percent that we've been receiving but it's nowhere near what our kids need what are our public school
educators need wow man and just bringing that through there as we're you know holy crap we're coming
up on another break but boy you pointed that out so many questions I can see Dr. Lupinaji's
eyes going like I got to ask this I got to ask this hey pencil busters out there you're listening
we got more questions because that was just where it is and where we're at how do we get there I'm
I am I'm confused too because it passed with bipartisan support oh what does bipartisan support
really mean well we're gonna ask that question when we get back busted pencils see in a bit
yeah
hey welcome back this is busted pencils fully let it education talk educated educators talk
at education it's right I'm here with Dr. Tim Slecker and I'm Dr. Johnny Lupinaji and if you've
been listening well thanks for keeping on with us but if you just tuned in and you're out there
catching the Saturday broadcast we have the honor of representative Angelina Cruz with us today
and in the first half of the show we were gonna get going into a little bit of the back story of
you know teacher classroom teacher to representative and along the way you know
keeping union president as part of that like Tim blue collar scholars we are we're in good company
here with representative Cruz and we talk often about school funding and especially around
budgets and we had you know the state superintendent Donna we talked about really great budget
proposals and then we reviewed the governor's version and then the voted on and we heard lots
of testimony from callers and from people listeners you out there who went to your capital and spoke
on behalf of the need to adequately fund public education and and Dr. Cruz joined us in the first
part of the show and talked a little bit about how you know this this most recent budget is you know
build as a bipartisan success and that meant that yes some of the democratic folks on you know as
part of the decision making signed on to it but that you know we're to summarize it's crumbs
towards taking care of children in our schools it's some it's more in some cases than we were
getting but it still crumbs and up against what's necessary so Dr. you know representative Cruz I'm
going to ask you just like for our listeners he speak a little bit to that in terms of you know
off the air we were talking a little bit about how we explain it like like these things are
incredibly complicated by design in terms of when I say these things I'm referring to school
funding budgets and all that stuff that we were jokingly saying you need a PhD is something
you know like it's not education and it's not you know finance it's not economics it's something
in this particular moment but that's by design and I really love the anecdote you shared so I'm
going to re-ask that question so take us back to a little bit about how when we look at this yes
in some cases we get a little more per se and percentage for special education but it's not
nearly enough and then how you explain school funding to like your constituents and when we're
talking about this like like breaking down the I don't even know what to call it Tim I can't
even call it rocket science it's just you know the tumfoolery of school budgets when we're you
know holding back money from what kids need great question and it's a really big one right
sorry sorry don't apologize it's like this is the challenge we are confronted with right now so
it's incredibly complicated as you said on purpose something that I kept going back to and trying
to help my colleagues navigate what we were looking at in terms of public school funding when we
were you know sort of discussing what was in the budget is that yes we got a we got a significant
bump in special education the problem was like the big donut hole next to general aid and so what
I said is you don't need to understand the complicated nature of school funding to understand
that zero dollars is a problem so even though we're getting a significant bump in special education
from 30% ish to 42 to 45% ish the other general aid category being zero is extraordinarily problematic
in light of that also I do like to elevate the fact that you know we talked earlier about
there being this really concerted effort to systematically divest in public education for
over a decade so the bar in Wisconsin is so low in terms of making historic investments that
somebody took a shovel buried or dug up the ground through the bar into the the hole and like
covered it over with dirt right like the bar is below ground so like our historic investment still
isn't bringing anywhere near up to the levels that we need to be in terms of repairing the
damage that has been intentionally inflicted on our public school system I think the way too when
you point this out for some people it's like well we don't have the money and so we had to do
this and we had to do that and so zero but but Angelina voucher schools somehow this budget
found all kind of money for not public schools talk about that right um so here's a couple
of of telling numbers that I wrote down just to to help people to understand um Milwaukee
voucher program will cost taxpayers more than seven hundred and eleven million dollars
direct from the general purpose revenue so that's not attached to people's property taxes
becomes from GPR which it was moved there um a very long time ago you know Milwaukee has the oldest
the original um and the oldest voucher system in the country um but that's a staggering increase
of about eighty five million dollars over the last budget and this budget plans for more
students to use vouchers in Racine the budget allocates more to Racine school choice program
than the previous budget so Racine school voucher program will receive one hundred and one
million dollars over the next two years of which my district will be forced to return ninety six
point five million dollars um and again there is no per people increase to offset that increased cost
so and then also like people you know people say well what what of that right like we should have
come competition and um public schools should be able to compete with these other schools um and
that's all fine and well it you know the fruit if you want to argue for the free market but like
my our argument is that we're taking money from the public state taxes property taxes um and we're
giving in a way to private institutions uh with no strings attached whatsoever so there's no
transparency they're not subject to open records requests and open meetings laws there's no
accountability they don't have elected school boards and there's no requirement to serve every
student so they can be selective about what students they can accept students they can decide
I don't want to keep those students but they get to keep the money attached to the students that they
that they enroll and then can kick them back to the public school systems with no money attached
to them um so they they actively recruit public school kids public school families um and it's
it's the game of of getting the public money into their institutions and then cherry picking who
who they want to to actually um educate and who they want to send back to the public school system
I think about that too when people go well yeah this is market this is choice this is competition
but I even think about is is it really or is it tilting the game in favor of when you say
zero dollars remember that zero people listening listen or pencil bussers 101 million though for vouchers
um that feels like not competition that feels like overwhelming odds of throwing it in favor
of vouchers against public schools uh am I off track?
Not from my perspective um at all I mean I would 100% agree with you um what is happening
as a state legislature is being neglect full of their constitutional obligation to fully
fund public schools and they're putting that money very intentionally into private institutions
with with no accountability and no transparency to the taxpayers um and so we see um increased
efforts at the grassroots level I think Wisconsinites are starting to wake up which is why so many
people showed up to to advocate for investment fully funded public schools because people are
tired of having to go to referendum to fund their local schools um and we know that local schools
are the cornerstone of many of our communities whether we're talking about urban urban centers
urban districts or whether we're talking about rural districts public schools are so important to
to everybody regardless of political affiliation so we had democrats people who identify its
democrats show up and testify for public schools republicans show up to testify for public schools
people identify as independent show up and and testify for public schools so this really is a
no-brainer in terms of uh what Wisconsinites want it was one of the top issues that people showed up
to speak out for. Johnny here you're I'm surprised to hear you doing so much kind of like listening
well if you sit if you're if you're able to tune into the youtube see me nodding I mean this
yeah representative crews is speaking my language I think we're all you know preaching to the
choir in some context here as folks who can just boil it down and say education is really important
it's bipartisan whether you're a republican or a democrat caring about the future of the young
people and our democracies development and the support they have to be you know strong contributors
to our community I mean this is like like representative crews said it's a no-brainer uh you know
and then you know to me though it also reminds me of like that we're we have to be aware of that
and I love representative crews that you talked about this responsibility constitutional obligation
to fund public schools because that's a big I think it's a shirking of responsibility of governments
in general not just the Wisconsin government all that's what we're talking about here today but
that's that's an end and endemic country why as I say well not not our responsibility to do the
whole thing I mean come on individuals have to you talked about referendum so if you have that
locally happening and passing because yes when you put the responsibility on the community they're
going to show up but I feel like our state governments are taking advantage of that good nature of
that strong will and support that people have to support their schools they're saying well if they
did this much they'll do more next time they'll do more next time and and that's given governments
the you know the opportunity to shirk to sidestep that responsibility that we're saying ultimately
we should be funding all these schools adequately and we're just not and we're putting that
responsibility on you taxpayer on you listener on you parent or community member out there who's
listening who gets told you know well we got more with there because they're asking you to give
more individually as a community and that just should not be the way it is well and so representative
crews you know before you you go okay you're going to keep fighting for public schools but you know
just you know quickly what's exciting in the future for people who love democracy with oh you
know I'm going to give you 30 seconds to answer that question I think okay so I politics are
a contact sport I firmly believe that's how I ended up in the state capital and so I think the
simple view of state government is you tell your legislator the problem they can introduce legislation
which we can but what we really need to move forward legislation is community backing us and
really pushing and rising up and demanding what what we what we need as communities you know what
we need a representative crews regular appearance on busted pencils we just started this
but representative crews thanks for busting pencils and hey thank you so much yep and Johnny and I
will be back to break it down for one more segment
oh
oh there it is yeah it's almost almost over man busted pencils fully let it education talk
educated educators talking education me Dr. Tim Slecker Dr. Johnny Lupinachi Jacob chairman
of the board Saturday oh man these shows though they go so quick my goodness but we loved having
representative crews on the show Johnny so much there right I mean oh absolutely you know it's
for anyone who got to listen you know today what a what a blessing recene has in representative crews
and also what a gift to have her just you know just break down the process and kind of the moment
we're in not only regarding budgets but in you know the the whole purpose of why we support our
public schools and what's so important about it and I'll just tell you I'm a huge fan I mean I
loved listening and not in the long and just being like yes you are singing our song you are you
know playing my favorite jams representative crews but I I mean this is gonna stay with me for
while I love this I mean here I am doing the broadcast today from a hockey arena it's hockey season
and I love it but representative crews said you know politics is a contact sport and I I mean I
I mean I just every cell in my body danced that's that's that's that that couldn't be said more
eloquently more blue collar scholar ask yes politics is a contact sport you know so we love
contact sports we love you know representative crews big fans here obviously you heard by our
support of pretty much all of what you know representative crews was talking about but you know
I come back around to it is like breaking it down to him my dad used to have a saying he'd share it
with me and it's not FCC compliant but I think I came up with one that is you know you need to know
the difference between shoe polish and apple butter right and that's a little bit different if
you know the original saying out there listener has something to do with shineola and some
but you need to know the difference between shoe polish right which is something of value of use
an apple butter which is just like you know it's not even good jam maybe sorry if you like apple
butter out there that's the substitution for the word I can't say right so but but you know when it
comes down to these budgets it's it's made out to be rocket science but it's not right it's not
as complicated if you know the difference between shoe polish and apple butter then you know
the difference between underfunding education taken money from the kids who need it the most the
classrooms where we invest in our future right when we invest in the strength of our economy the
strength of our democracy and when you take money away from that and you under fund that and then
you have the audacity to put it on the community individuals families and small businesses and
people in our local communities to pick up the slack you know one yeah either don't know the
difference between apple butter shoe polish or you do and you're just sticking it to the man
you're just putting it to the hard work of people who are out there listening and so you know it's
one or the other so I love having representative crews here to kind of you know reiterate that for
us the importance of not only funding but supporting our public schools but and holding our government
accountable to their obligation you know to democracy and to the constitution to funding our
public schools adequately not insufficiently nowhere does it say hey it's a government's
responsibility to kick some crumbs to the most in need which are our children in our communities
right no it's to adequately fund public education for a strong economy for a strong democracy
so I love having her on I thought I hope it's first of first of many yes you know conversations
with representative crews well because I you know and I want to get to another thing that's that
kind of troubling in her conversation the quote by partisan and not troubling with anything
representative crews said but by partisan and you know what Johnny here's the thing right that meant
that some quote Democrats some pro public schools Democrats made this happen and I want to understand
that because it's like wait a minute you finally got fair maps you finally had some leverage
well ten context go ahead it maybe some Democrats don't know the difference between shoe
and apple butter just saying just saying you don't have to be like you're not immune to that
just because you identify as a Democrat it's so yeah I get where you're going but let's
simplify it yeah there are probably some Democrats who don't understand the difference between shoe
polish yeah shine ola or what I know yeah I messed it up but to polish an apple butter that's
the c version well and you know what to all you apple butter lovers out there now it's time
for your moment of sin civil disobedience that's not our problem our problem is that people are
obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty
it takes listeners for tuning in today and listening to today's broadcast with representative
crews wow you're lucky out there in Racine and if you want more busted pencils podcast we just
head on over to apple spotify or wherever it is you get your podcasts at and you can always find
us at civicmedia.com or on our website busted pencils.com and remember you can always find great
busted pencils content every Monday for home room Wednesdays for class and session and on Fridays
for producer Jacobs choice and of course pencil busters you can always just like you did this
Saturday tune in and listen to the busted pencils weekend broadcast at 3 p.m. central time
across all the civic media networks for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars
Tim and Johnny and keep busted pencils