Letter: Support education, Barrett

Dear Editor,

If someone wanted to destroy Wisconsin’s public education system and replace it with private schools, how would he do this?

First, he would drastically cut funding for public schools and cap the amounts that local school districts can raise through taxes. School boards will have to increase class sizes and cut programs such as music, field trips, and athletics. Parents will be unhappy with the school districts, but the school boards’ hands will be tied so the parents will be interested in alternatives.

Next he would expand voucher programs to more communities, increase funding for them, and remove income limits. All the parents upset with the funding cuts in the public schools will look into vouchers so the voucher programs will be used more. He would try to exempt those voucher programs from testing so no one would be able to check their effectiveness.

He would silence advocates for public education. Since the public school teachers and their unions are advocates, he would bust the unions to silence their voices. He would cut teachers’ morale, too, by cutting their take-home pay and painting them as greedy, corrupt, and uncaring about children so that the public will be less respectful of them.

He would cut the quality of education by getting the experienced teachers to either retire or find other jobs due to salary reductions and lack of respect. These experienced teachers would be replaced by new, inexperienced teachers.

Wait a minute, isn’t this what Scott Walker has been doing?

If you love your child’s school and teachers and believe that public education is important to our state, vote for Tom Barrett and Mahlon Mitchell on June 5. They will stand up for the children of our state and work to maintain the quality of our public schools.

Tags: opinion, letters, politics