A group exclusive of the Janesville teachers' union has formed to collect donations from the Janesville community in hopes to help shore up the district's $13.4 million budget shortfall.
Sunday's Janesville Gazette editorial was not shy about salting wounds in a punishing attempt to use the "Save Janesville Schools" campaign as a tool to malign teachers for standing up for their collective bargaining rights. A lot of people would like to keep the school's fundraiser apolitical. So much for that thought.
Janesville Gazette Editorial:
Sure, some will see the irony and even hypocrisy in teachers and the Janesville Education Asociation raising money to save jobs. After all, the union refused to reopen its contract out of fear of exposing itself to Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining limits. Then members joined protesters who harassed and intimidated local business people arriving to hear Walker's March 29 speech at a Forward Janesville meeting.
I don't see that as much of a hypocrisy as I see it as a challenge to the business community. But the hypocrisy I do see was when the organization, Forward Janesville, sent a letter calling the fundraiser "good news" and urging members to attend last Tuesday's fundraising meeting. This coming after nearly every key member of the politically active lobbyist group financially supported Scott Walker's campaign and applauded his every statement with standing ovations at the Forward Janesville dinner meeting. It's either you believe in supporting public schools and giving children a quality education or you don't. I don't know how much money FJ could give to Janesville's schools that would reconcile their support for Walker's plan to strip away bargaining rights and cut over $800 million from public education. For many obvious reasons, no amount of cash donations would likely be enough. Everyone would have been better off opposing Walker's budget repair bill. But that's just my opinion.
But this will be interesting to watch and see if their donations to Janesville's schools will exceed their donations to Scott Walker. And if it does - what will it mean?
3 comments:
Gov. Walker and Paul Ryan are at the forefront of advancing the Republican agenda; the elimination of public financing for all government programs except national defense. One of their justifications is their belief that these programs are better financed through private charitable contributions. They push for elimination of; unemployment benefits, Pell grants, Badgercare, Seniorcare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and of course the elimination of Public Schools, believing private financing is more effective. Without forgetting that these programs have proven essential support for the poor and working class in our and our neighbor’s lives, let’s also see if the rationale, that these programs can be replaced and funded by charitable donations, is backed up with donations from businesses that support Walker’s and Ryan’s Republican agenda.
I completely agree, AMC. The Janesville Gazette, Forward Janesville and their supporters show their true colors of hypocrisy by eliminating tax support of the programs you mention only to spin around and advance charity. I also have plenty of trouble understanding the creators of this fund drive when they flip the coin by saying they support Forward Janesville, when locally, FJ financially contributed (Walker) to the cause for the schools underfunding. People in Janesville are either fooling themselves or trying to fool us with their support for Forward Janesville, Walker and Paul Ryan. This is ideologically driven and it is against everything our country was founded on.
That editorial was just another attempt by the Gazette to push the teachers and the union down again while making Forward Janesville look like the good guys. They can't wait for the teachers contract to expire.
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