A Blue Wave Approaches

Scott Walker is Right

A Blue Wave is Coming                     

Tuesday’s election results, both local and statewide, show that a majority of voters are not happy with the current GOP leadership and policy choices and are looking for more moderate, if not progressive, leadership. The shocking local result was the “yes” vote on the City of West Bend street referendum where voters actually agreed to a modest increase in property taxes to fix too long neglected city streets. 

In a post-election tweet Tuesday night, Governor Walker tried to rally his base with a prediction of a Democratic wave swamping his ship in the Fall and a desperate plea for money after Milwaukee County Judge Rebecca Dallet beat Judge Michael Screnock by double digit numbers.  Walker campaign team staff ran Screncock’s campaign and traditional GOP backers, like the NRA and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, contributed vast sums for TV ads, all to no avail. Screnock even lost to Dallet in his own home county. Walker’s pick for a circuit court seat in very red Waukesha County also lost. Dallet ran a liberal backed campaign against special interest money in politics and the current GOP results driven majority on the Court. She won handily in the cities and saw the red turn purple and even blue in many former GOP strongholds across the state. Those defeats sent a clear signal that voters, even in traditionally red areas, are no longer lining up for the Walker/NRA agenda.

In the other statewide race, a last minute liberal led charge saved the State Treasurer from extinction at the hands of the GOP legislative majority. Clearly, the legislative leadership wanted to be rid of their only constitutionally mandated financial watchdog so they could continue to loot the treasury and send tax windfalls to their crony supporters with no one else having a handle on the purse strings. Voters saw through the ploy and rejected the constitutional amendment that would have killed the office. Another blue defeat for the Walker led crew.

Walker’s miscalculation about calling special elections in two districts with vacant legislative seats undoubtedly helped swing voters, especially those feeling disenfranchised by GOP voter suppression tactics. When he lost legal challenges to his decision brought by former Democratic Attorney General Eric Holder, the legislature started to bring forward quickie legislation to change the special election rules only to abandon the effort when Walker caved and called the required special elections. The blatant power grab and disenfranchisement of local voters in those districts showed just how low the GOP leaders are willing to stoop in order to maintain power. 

One of the mantras of the far right ever since the famous “no new taxes” pledge took hold is that voters are sick of increasing taxes. West Bend’s alt-right Mayor and Council were so afraid to raise property taxes to fix the city’s crumbling streets, that they sought cover in the advisory referenda questions the voters answered clearly. The referenda question answers told the Mayor and Council that it would be acceptable to raise property taxes modestly, but not too much, in order to fix the streets and to try and persuade the county to help by sharing part of the county sales tax revenue with the county’s municipalities. District 7 Alderman Adam Williquette’s defeat at the hands of a candidate who ran on a “let’s fix the streets” platform should seal the deal. Time will tell.

The West Bend School Board race brought another bell weather election result. In the recent past, tea party extremists with anti-public school, anti-science agendas, have dominated the board. Last year’s school board election changed the board to a pro-public school, more teacher friendly majority and Tuesday’s election delivered a final and resounding rejection of the evangelical Christian attempt to subvert and privatize our public schools. Chris Zwagart and Kurt Rebholz ran on a pro-teacher, leave curriculum development to the experts and sound governance platform. They brought in convincing majorities against an incumbent who developed an alliance with an anti-evolution, anti-teacher zealot. It should not have been as close a result as we saw, but voters again rejected the extremist positions. One of the issues in the race is what to do about the aging elementary school in Jackson. The new majority has a mandate to fix the problem and the ability to convince majorities in the district to replace the old building with a new one. 

Our new school board majority can reject “no tax increases for schools” arguments by pointing to the 50 plus public school referenda approved by Wisconsin voters on Tuesday while only 6 failed. There is a clear mandate in those results showing property taxpayers are willing to pay more to support quality public education. They supported both operational and capital referenda, some with fairly large price tags, even after the GOP leadership passed new laws making it significantly more difficult for local school boards to raise property taxes for public schools.

Tuesday’s election results continue the momentum from the recent special elections where progressive Democrats made further inroads into previously red districts. It must not go unnoticed that our own Dennis Degenhardt, the former CEO of Glacier Hills Credit Union and Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County carried the City of West Bend in the special election for our Assembly seat in the race against former County Board Chair, Rick Gundrum. 

I believe Scott Walker for once. A blue wave is going to swamp his ship in November.

#Enough

Student Survivors Leading the Charge

#Enough #Never Again

President Trump’s responses to the pleas from the student survivors of Florida’s most recent mass school shooting for quick action on gun control were inconsistent and nonsensical.

Arming teachers who, for the most part, have no interest in shooting people who enter schools is a non-starter. We are told there is no money for smaller class sizes, supplies for students, teacher salary increases or social workers. Where will the money for the guns and training come from? No one knows.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had the guts to attend a town hall in Florida after the latest shooting and told student survivors he will gladly continue to take money from the NRA because they support his agenda of more guns everywhere. He did allow that maybe there was some sense in raising the age at which one can purchase a mass-shooting weapon from 18 to 21, but added that it required more study.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) wants more information before considering gun violence reform. This rings hollow after he helped pass legislation that actually prevents the nation’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control from studying the causes of gun violence. The Washington Post just published clear studies showing that mass-shootings declined when the assault weapons ban was passed and went back up after it was allowed to expire.

Wayne La Pierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, spoke Thursday to a conservative political convention, claiming there was an evil in the land leading the fight to take away individual liberties along with our guns. He wants “hardened schools” with armed security guards to prevent intruders. He made no mention of the right to attend school without having to worry about weapons whose sole purpose is to kill as many as possible.

If the Florida high school mass shooting has any bright side, it is found in the cries and pleas of the student survivors. “Enough” and “Never Again.” They are marching to the halls of power demanding an end to the carnage from AR-15s in their schools. Similar marches and protests are being planned across the country. They just want to be safe at school so they can learn.

The student survivors recognize that we adults have lost the fire and the ability to bring about the changes needed keep them safe in their schools. They recognize what the problem is and whose responsibility it is to find the solution. In the words of Emma Gonzales, a Parkland student leader, “we call BS” to all the excuses and artful dodging. Their messages are clear.

It is time to end the sale of military style people killing weapons with their large magazines.

It is time for intensive universal background checks on all weapon sales.

It is time to put the safety of our future generations ahead of any right to own firearms.

It is time for our political leaders to stop taking money from the NRA.

Every political movement for social justice and peace in my life time has been lead by young people who see the problem, know the answer and “call BS” on those who stand in the way.

President Trump, the GOP leaders in Congress and those here in Wisconsin act at their political peril if they continue to ignore the student voices demanding common sense gun control reform. While they may not be able to vote this year or next, their time is coming.

Don’t try half-measures or platitudes. The Internet trolls won’t work either. The student survivors and those who don’t want to see the carnage first hand will continue to speak truth to power until change happens.

Those of us who rose up in earlier political movements have their backs and will lend a hand. I could not be more proud of the lawyers around the state offering free legal help to students disciplined by their schools for engaging in gun violence reform protests.

Change is coming on gun violence. Join in to help make it happen or get out of the way.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled with a Sheboygan county non-profit agency.

The Crossroads

Is America Great Again?

Not even close.

We are one year into Making America Great Again and seven years into the Wisconsin Taxpayer Revolt. We know what this looks like and have reached the crossroads. Is this what we want to become?

Do we want to be a society where everybody is out for himself or herself, looking to amass as much wealth as they can at the expense of those less able or fortunate?

Do we want to live on planet with less clean air and water with a dwindling food supply and a climate that grows ever harsher to human existence?

Do we want to live in a society where the elderly, disabled and different are deemed disposable and expendable?

Do we want to live in communities where women are second or third class citizens whose job it is to pleasure men and have their babies?

Do we want to live in a society where those at the top of the chain are automatically deemed more valuable than those in subordinate positions?

Do we want to end our commitment to universal quality public education?

Do we want to return to a system that only allows white male property owners to decide who gets to govern the country?

Do we want a country that is not respected or supported by the international community?

Do we really want one-party rule in the halls of government?

2018 must be the year we turn away from these goals of Republican governance and return our society back to one based upon mutual respect and taking care of each other.

We need a tax code which requires everyone to pay their fair share to support basic human needs for food security, adequate universal healthcare, a secure infrastructure that supports business ventures and safe commerce, a stable defense for a peaceful world.

We need to protect Social Security and Medicare to make sure that seniors and the disabled do not go back to impoverished lives and dying in back bedrooms. We need to protect retirements for those who can no longer work.

We need to protect the world we live on by doing what science demands to clean our air and water and minimize the disruption of climate change. We need to maximize the use of renewable energy sources to stop the use of fossil fuels.

We need to value those who work by providing safe working environments, family supporting wages and benefits, collective bargaining rights and reasonable working conditions. Family and medical leave policies must recognize the importance strong families play in productive work.

We need strong public schools that support and educate every child to the best of their individual abilities so they can become productive and intelligent members of our communities. We need to recognize that professional and well-supported teachers are critical to the success of their students and compensate our educators accordingly.

We need to finally recognize and promote the equality of women in the workplace and the rest of society by guaranteeing equal pay for equal work and equal access to opportunity. We need an end to sexual harassment and assault everywhere.

We need to end income inequality and value each member of the community for the contribution they can make. The value of one’s opinions should not depend upon the amount they have in the bank. Everyone should be eligible to and encouraged to vote in fair elections. Election districts must be drawn to encourage competitive elections, not to favor incumbent politicians.

We need to expand protections for America’s natural wild areas and make them accessible for all to see and enjoy. Our National and State Parks are the envy of the world and need to be expanded.

We need a return to respectable diplomacy that respects other countries and their cultures and does not seek to impose American values by might.

2018 is the year we can restore the democracy to end the one party rule that favors the few over the many, but only if you vote. Those who stay home elect tyrants and dictators.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney who serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Support Tony Evers

DPI Superintendent Evers Deserves Re-election

Holtz is Wrong for Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction provides institutional and financial support to the state’s public schools. It is led by a non-partisan superintendent who gets elected every four years. Tony Evers is the current superintendent and is running for re-election on April 4^th.

Superintendent Evers has done a great job negotiating the troubled waters post-Act 10, trying to keep public education afloat while school budgets were slashed, teachers vilified and local control obliterated by Governor Walker and the GOP controlled legislature. Evers’ steady leadership has been the only bright light in the wholesale assault on public education, especially in urban areas.

Evers has a solid plan to rescue public education and to stand up against the forces that would continue the slide into privatization and profiteering now led by Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s wholly unqualified pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education.

Make no mistake, the privatizers here in Wisconsin and nationally have their sights on the money we spend to educate our children. They sell it grandly through claims about the wonders of school choice, competition and “free markets.”

School choice has been and continues to be a disaster, siphoning money out of public schools and giving it to religious private schools in the form of vouchers to parents. The voucher, when presented to the private school, takes the student’s state funding from her former public school and gives it to the private one. Vouchers rob the public schools of the economies of scale that make them manageable financially. Take a student’s $7,000 state aid out of a public school and they still have to hire the same number of teachers because that one or two students less in a classroom does not mean the remaining students should not be taught. 

The privatizers for choice also siphon money out of public schools through charter schools. They too are funded with tax dollars that would otherwise go to neighborhood public schools. Neither charter nor voucher schools are held to the same standards as public schools. Neither has to offer the help or services special needs students require. These private schools do not have to take every student who applies and can kick students they do not like out mid-year. Those students return to public schools without the public money given to the private schools returning with them, further stretching the already thin public school budgets. Study after study shows that private charter schools do not produce better performing students than public schools.

Vouchers and charters are the new form of school segregation. They appeal to many who don’t want their kids mingling with students of color, those with special needs or those with multi-colored hair.

Superintendent Evers has called for an end to this drain on public school funding as part of his package to completely redo public funding of public education. He correctly observes that the current school funding formula cannot support our public school system, much less one that includes vouchers and charters.

Evers calls for a drastic overhaul of the current school funding formula to correct for the disparities between urban and rural schools. He wants more resources for underperforming schools, not less, and opposes turning them over to private school operators who will take out profits at the expense of students learning. Evers wants to provide support to rural districts facing enrollment declines so they can continue to provide quality education to all who come through the doors.

Superintendent Evers supports educators, recognizing they are the lifeblood of our public schools. Public schools need adequate funding in order to retain and support experienced teachers who not only teach our kids but mentor young teachers just starting out. He is very concerned about the significant drop off in students entering schools of education and wants to make teaching attractive as a profession once more. 

You can learn more at www.tonyforwisconsin.com and https://dpi.wi.gov/statesupt/about

Evers’ opponent is Dr. Lowell Holtz. Holtz’ website is full of buzzwords, but short on substance which is surprising given his years in public education. He appears to favor the privatization views of his conservative supporters and refuses to answer questions from those he does not like. He also seems short on integrity having been involved with the meeting with anonymous business leaders and his former rival, John Humphries, where there was discussion of six figure employment should Humphries drop out of the race. Then there was his use of a school district email to Republican donors seeking financial support which was followed by complaints from one of the school boards where he worked about his unauthorized donation of the school’s bleachers to the private school Holtz’ children attended.

Holtz website can be found at www.kidservative.org.

The choice on April 4^th is clear. Please support the reelection of Tony Evers as DPI Superintendent and help him keep public schools public and make them strong again. They are, after all, the bedrock of democracy.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County.

Talk to all of your Educators WBSD

The West Bend School Board still has not fixed this one.

Opportunity Missed

Meet with the WBEA for honest educator concerns.

West Bend’s School Board recently missed a golden opportunity to open a meaningful and honest dialog with its teaching staff, claiming support from a legal opinion it refuses to disclose, all in pursuit of ideological partisan purity. The decision not to meet and confer with the teachers’ elected representatives forces staff concerns to be aired in public instead of across the table and sends the new Superintendent into his new duties with one hand tied behind his back. 

With the change in school board leadership and the hiring of a new Superintendent, the West Bend Education Association reached out to both asking not to “negotiate” the terms of their working conditions, but merely to sit down and discuss them in order to let the Board and Superintendent know how teachers honestly feel about how education is delivered. Both requests were denied, relying on a very strained reading of Act 10, which only limits “negotiations,” not “discussions.”

When speaking in a representative capacity, labor laws protect teacher Association leaders’ speech. They cannot be disciplined for saying things District leaders may not want to hear. When individual teachers speak up about concerns that might shine a negative light on the District, they can and have been disciplined for speaking “out of school.”

Some history is in order to understand why teachers might prefer to have their concerns aired in a representative capacity. 

Even before the passage of Act 10 in 2011, some in our community publicly castigated, demonized and threatened public school employees. Teachers had their salaries published in a paid advertisement in this newspaper while talk radio and bloggers spread false information including claims that teachers are just glorified, overpaid babysitters who feed at the public trough, only working nine months a year while getting paid all year. While this vilification of our teacher corps continued, both school administrators and board members were silent. 

When Act 10 passed, our School Board and former Superintendent, Ted Neitzke, adopted the “tools” it provided with a vengeance. Not only did they cut teacher take home pay, reduce retirement benefits, increase healthcare contributions, increase class sizes and sections taught, they introduced governance by favoritism, fear and intimidation. 

WBEA leaders were the only District voices that stood up for teachers and the students they educate. Those leaders then faced administrator imposed disciplinary actions for speaking out about teacher concerns. It took over a year and a half of filing and mediating prohibited labor practice complaints to have those punishments overturned. The District finally withdrew all the punishments shortly after Neitzke’s last day on the job and just before the new Superintendent came on board. 

It is no wonder that teachers are afraid to speak up individually without the legal protections provided to their elected representatives. 

School Board President Rick Parks’ choice to stand by a legal opinion that evidently supports a strained explanation of the “intent” of Act 10 continues this historical trend of treating teachers like second class citizens unworthy of a seat at the table. 

Even more disturbing is the District’s refusal to disclose the legal opinion Parks hides behind. After he mentioned it twice in a Facebook discussion on Benders for Better Public Education, I asked him to disclose it. He was silent. I then filed an open records request with the District seeking release of the opinion. It was initially denied based upon a claim of attorney-client privilege. I then filed a request for reconsideration showing that Parks’ public comments on Facebook broke the confidentially that normally accompanies attorney client discussions and protects them from disclosure. Parks responded on Facebook announcing he would no longer participate in the Benders forum because people questioned his decisions. The District denied my second request claiming Parks did not waive the privilege by his disclosures. Parks clearly does not want to have a meaningful discussion with his staff about what needs repair and is hiding behind an outlier opinion that he admits can be ignored if the Board so chooses. 

It is interesting to note that the law firm that represents our District also represents the Shorewood School District.  Shorewood administrators meet regularly with their teachers’ association about issues of mutual concern, apparently with the blessing of their lawyers.

Superintendent Olson publicly stated he wants all District voices to be heard. He needs open and honest input from his staff that he can only get if teachers can communicate with him with legally protected speech. That cannot happen under current policy.

The current School Board can fix this problem easily. They can adopt a new policy that follows what school boards in other districts like Shorewood, Elmbrook and Arrowhead do to meet and confer with their teachers’ Associations. They can legally adopt a policy that prohibits retaliation or discipline for teachers’ elected representatives who bring concerns about what is happening in our schools to administrators and the public. The Board can put WBEA nominated representatives on School Board committees and require regular discussion between Association leaders and the new Superintendent and School Board President. 

If the Board truly wants a collaborative staff effort to improve our schools it has the power to make the changes necessary to bring that about. They just have to choose to change. 

In the meantime, the WBEA will continue to represent its members, speak out privately and publicly about staff concerns and work to mobilize support for rational choices for our children and their education. It is the only safe voice teachers currently have in the discussion.