The following is my opinion as a taxpayer in the School District and a School Board Member. I am expressing my opinion only, not the opinion of the entire board or any other individual board member.
Why as a School Board Member I voted against the resolution. – It’s all about respect and representing our community well.
In her letter to the editor, Ms. Foust asked the following; Why would elected officials, whose duty is to provide a strong public school system while prudently shepherding its financial health, not go on record to defend the School District of the Menomonie Area?
Part of the answer to the question is – They already have. Back in 2019, the board voted to approve the resolution as discussed below. Since I was not on the board at that time, I did not have the opportunity to vote on it, but I would have voted to approve the resolution had I been able to do so.
There are three main reasons why I did not vote in favor of the recent resolution brought before the Board.
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Resolution as presented did not represent our district well
One of the duties of a school board member is to represent our district in a professional manner. As I am sure most of you know in the recent past there have been some instances where individual members of the board failed to represent our district and our community well. From my point of view, because it happened during a meeting and was directly related to the district, the most recent incident was the most egregious.
In my opinion the way that this resolution was written would have been another instance of our board casting a negative light on our community. As I mentioned in the board meeting where this resolution was discussed, I would be inclined to vote for a resolution if it were not so antagonistic. Given the makeup of the Legislature I do not believe that sending such a combative resolution to them would have represented our community well. Later in the post I will include links to the resolution as presented to our board and the resolution that the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) voted on and passed at their delegate assembly in 2019. The same resolution that our board voted on and passed earlier that same year. You can decide for yourself if the more recent version represents us well and if you believe that it would have gotten anyone in Madison to change their mind.
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Inaccuracies in the proposed resolution itself
There are many areas in the proposed resolution that are simply not accurate or at a minimum twist what is really happening. Again, I do not believe that we would be representing our community well by presenting such a document.
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WASB has a resolution process
As mentioned above, the district voted on and signed a resolution that was also passed by the delegate assembly. WASB has a process for resolutions to be approved and formally presented by WASB to the legislature.
The bullets below are from the WASB website discussion on board advocacy, for these reasons alone I do not believe the resolution as written would have been a good representation of our district.
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While board resolutions are important and official acts of your locally elected school board, on their own they are not strong legislative advocacy efforts.
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Board resolutions can be a vehicle to help promote greater awareness on the part of board members, the public and legislators of an issue or concern, but they are not an end in and of themselves. Consider them the beginning of the conversation.
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Format your resolution as a letter.
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Things to avoid
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Being rude and disrespectful. This will undermine your message and negatively impact your credibility. This, in turn, makes it less likely they will listen seriously to you (and your board) in the future.
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Successful advocacy is about building relationships not weakening them.
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Providing false information. Nothing will destroy your credibility faster.
Some in the community are now trying to portray the vote against this resolution as a vote against protecting taxpayers. They are trying to portray this resolution as some sort of binding document that would have kept property taxes down. This is just not the case, the resolution had we voted in favor would have simply been sent to the legislators for them to read and decide for themselves the future of school vouchers. Ask yourself, if you had received this resolution would it have made you want to change current law? Or would you have simply discarded it? I believe that the resolution as written would have created or strengthened an animosity that would have to be overcome to create real change which is what we are all looking for.
To conclude, as I said at the board meeting during discussion on this issue, I do not like vouchers as they are currently being implemented in our state. I am in favor of a major overhaul of the program, but the resolution as presented is not the way to get the people we want to work with to listen.
I welcome this discussion and thank Ms Foust for bringing it out into a public venue to ask the question. If you have any questions about why I voted the way I did on any topic, please contact me in whatever method is best for you. You will find my contact information on the school district website. I look forward to a civil discussion on the issues at any time. Here are the links to the resolutions you decide for yourself.
As voted on by the School Board on Feb. 22, 2021
https://go.boarddocs.com/wi/sdma/Board.nsf/files/BYCLJL56CC57/$file/Voucher%20Resolution.pdf
From the Delegate Assembly at the WASB Convention (Page 3 Resolution 2.70)
Report-to-the-Membership-on-Resolutions-Adopted-by-the-2019-Delegate-Assembly-FINAL.pdf (wasb.org)
Charlie Schneider - School Board Member - School District of the Menomonie Area
Memberships
Is Wisconsin Ready for the Corporate Reformers of Education?
“I just don’t understand vouchers, choice, and charter schools,” the man told me. “Could you explain?”
Public education is undergoing a radical change. What was predominately a local school governed by a locally elected school board is poised to become a plethora of choices: private religious schools, independent privately operated charter schools, voucher schools, for-profit schools, virtual schools, and public schools.
All paid for with tax dollars.
State officials recently announced enrollment information related to statewide private school vouchers. Lawmakers who supported the state budget voted to expand the payment for private schools with public money, known as voucher schools. The information released shows four out of five students who received public money for private tuition were already enrolled in a private school.
Data on the performance of these alternatives to public schools is inconclusive, poor or not available.
According to the recently released 2012-13 report cards for virtual charter schools, half of virtual school students were receiving their education from a school that did not meet expectations. Virtual charter schools are on-line schools paid for with public money.
Twenty years of experience with private vouchers in Milwaukee shows no major differences in the performance of private voucher students with public school students. The Legislative Audit Bureau in 2011 reviewed the final of five years of study to conclude students in Milwaukee who attend private schools with vouchers show few differences on standardized tests than their cohorts in public schools.
The 25 private schools in the new statewide voucher expansion received state money – over $7,000 per student – but are not required to conduct standardized state required testing for several years. Several of my Senate colleagues and I urged accountability for private schools similar to that of public schools but so far this hasn’t happened. Instead lawmakers are heading in the opposite direction
Efforts in the Senate Education Committee would expand another type of choice: a charter school that could be operated by a private out-of-state company; again paid for with public money.
This legislation -Senate Bill 76 - would allow charter schools to expand even if the school board that authorized them did not want the expansion.
All this change in public education has many people confused. Most of Wisconsin hasn’t seen the use of taxpayer money for private education. Many public schools have cut back to the bones. Parents, school board members and superintendents are asking me, “Why fund these unaccountable, private schools at the cost to our public schools?”
Data released by state education officials report almost half of public school districts will see further cuts in state money. The deepest cuts – limited to 15% by law- will go to 64 mostly rural schools. After the 15% cuts are taken out, schools then must pay their share of the independent charter schools in the Milwaukee area. Local school boards tell me this is simply not fair.
The push away from funding local public schools is part of a national effort to privatize public education. This effort is detailed in a new book by Diane Ravitch. She was appointed to public education positions by both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton and is critical of both President George W. Bush and President Obama.
Ravitch describes efforts to transform education into “an entrepreneurial sector of the economy”. These efforts are “funded to a large degree by major foundations, Wall Street hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and the U.S. Department of Education.”
She describes this movement to “eliminate the geographical based system of public education as we have known it for the past 150 years and replace it with a competitive market- based system of school choice – one that includes traditional public schools, privately managed charter schools, religious schools, voucher schools, for-profit schools, virtual schools and for-profit vendors of instruction.”
Few of the details Ravitch mentions are part of public discussions among policy-makers. Yet observing the action of the Legislature, the influence of those who seek education transformation is undeniable.
Wisconsin must wake up to the forces behind changes in schools. Once folks know details, I suspect few would support education funds to unaccountable schools created as investment opportunities.
Steve is a member of LION Publishers , the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Online News Association, and the Local Media Consortium, and is active in Health Dunn Right.
He has been a computer guy most of his life but has published a political blog, a discussion website, and now Eye On Dunn County.
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