Taking their cue in part from state legislative leaders and the nothing-to-negotiate-nothing-to-compromise Scott Walker, Janesville school teachers said they are not interested in re-opening their contract after the school board made yet another attempt to extract economic concessions from teachers to help fund education.
Over the past several months, Janesville school teachers have endured heightened public scrutiny arising from repeated misinformation campaigns spread by certain union-unfriendly school board members and their media enabler, the Janesville Gazette. During each attempt, the newspaper published multiple negatively slanted articles, blog postings and editorials while delivering a steady diet of anonymous rantings against the teachers in their "Sound Off" columns. Surfing through their internet content alone doesn't quite show the full extent the Gazette has gone to in their campaign against organized labor and public school teachers. You'd really have to include their daily hardcopy to get the full breath and scope of their agenda. All in all, it's been business as usual.
But this relentless local school board/media campaign to break the teachers unity gives me an idea I'd like to see implemented by an Assembly/Senate Democrat or two in the state legislature. I don't know the exact procedural steps involved, but I'd like to see a legislator write up a durable resolution to repeal Act 10 and present it to legislative committees. Ask for supporting sponsors each time and record and document the positions taken by fellow legislators on the resolution. After each submission, write up a press release every week listing who, why and how the resolution was refused. Accuse opposing legislators for being uncompromising and belligerent and constantly foment public opinion against them through the comment sections of major Wisconsin newspapers. Do this every week. Of course this won't work as well without compliant media outlets, but at least we'll be applying the same tactics they seem to be using here in Janesville.
Plus, what's the harm?
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