Democratic Solution To A Republican Problem

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In what could portend an open and forward Janesville School Board, proceedings came to a halt during a meeting when one of its newly elected members, the politically seasoned Tim Cullen objected to a secret ballot in the election of a new school board president. Whether or not a “secret” ballot is permitted, it's good to know that an experienced politico like Cullen had the fortitude to speak up when common sense told him something may be wrong. This is exactly the kind of critical thinking Janesville desperately needs in nearly all of its leadership positions.

In another matter regarding the school budget, Cullen also came up with an idea he coined as the 50-25-25 plan in which he would like to spread the burden of school budget shortfalls across various state taxing jurisdictions. Unfortunately, 50+25+25 still adds up to 100 percent of a tax increase on local and state taxpayers. But I have to give Cullen and Rashkin high marks for the brainstorm.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Wisconsin’s school system is broken. That has been clear for years, but every attempt to fix the problem has fallen short. The result is the school districts are cutting teachers and services, and education suffers.

When you read our local newspapers it's easy to fall under the impression that Wisconsin alone has a broken school funding system and that is simply not the case. When in fact nearly every state in the union has multiple districts that just can’t afford to keep pace with cost of living wage increases, benefits, infrastructure maintenance and inflation. Who is to blame? The common denominator here is the Federal government and Republicans are directly to blame, but the Democrats are too because they have failed to shut down the tax shift agenda of the Republicans. Every time a Democrat seeks a local tax increase to keep the system operational, a Republican in Washington comes up with another scheme to hack away at school funding under the pretense of balancing the Federal budget.

And what do local state Republicans do? Well they're the ones who would rather make cuts, in personnel or programs than raise taxes, and when combined with the local democratic efforts, they all end up going in circles down the road with higher local taxes, teacher and program cuts, more vouchers and smaller enrollment all the while our population and local taxes are exploding.

Raising local taxes or cutting teachers and programs is a democratic solution to a Republican problem. I can hear it now – oh, there he goes again blaming Republicans or Bush for our schools. But yes, its absolutely true. The Public School system is controlled by the Federal government led none other than by the president. And in case you haven’t noticed for the past twenty-five years there is a huge drive by Republicans to privatize the most precious assets of our Federal government. Schools happen to be one them. Every time I hear a politician promoting private school vouchers under the guise of choice, I want to vomit.

Every single taxpayer dollar paid towards private schools in the form of a voucher is another dollar taken away from public schools. I can’t imagine any business in the private sector who would be willing to pay its “customers” to go elsewhere looking for a better product. It is suicidal and responsible for the spiraling down condition of our schools. But it’s much worse than I’m describing, because our entire federal system is under attack resulting in the tax atmosphere we have today. We will have higher local taxes, point of use fee’s, tolls and sales taxes – I guarantee it, all while the Republicans in Congress push to cut non-security discretionary spending in its efforts to balance a budget built on tax cuts to the wealthiest among us. This is the most basic reason I have to vote Republicans out of government. Abortion, gun control, gay rights and religion are merely divisive hot button issues that pale by comparison.

Personally I believe the State of Wisconsin school funding system is not broken, and as witnessed by its large bite out of property taxes it pays more than its fair share into our schools. I firmly believe that nationwide school funding shortfalls and other school revenue problems lies at the Federal level. This is where people like Rep. Paul Ryan need to step up to the plate and write emergency school funding into appropriations bills. Just one billion dollars annually is enough to take care of 500 $2 million school district shortfalls, that's an average of ten in each state. And to think what I’m asking for is so wrong and terrible or impossible to accomplish.