A quick follow up on this post praising our local educational leaders for supporting the Penny for Kids dedicated sales tax for education campaign.
Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education President Arlene Silveira highlighted the effort in her most recent Board of Education Progress Report (read the full Report here):
A Penny for Kids: Wisconsin’s school funding system is broken and is failing our children and our community. Comprehensive school-funding reform is the long-term answer for our schools. To address the funding crisis, Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools has launched “A Penny For Kids” campaign to raise the sales tax one-cent to help fill the gap in public school funding created by the 2009-11 state budget (which was devastating for MMSD) and try to keep a lid on property taxes. The Board voted to endorse the campaign. We hope you will too. To sign the petition and learn more, go to: www.apennyforkids.org.
And from the latest issue of Solidarity!, the Madison Teachers Incorporated newsletter.
Sign the Petition for the WAES “Pennies for Kids” Campaign
MTI has a long history of advocacy for school funding reform. The Union has worked for many years with the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES). Executive Director John Matthews and Assistant Directors Doug Keillor and Ken Volante have participated in WAES meetings around the State for more than a decade, in attempt to bring about progressive changes in school funding legislation.
WAES’ new campaign is to increase Wisconsin’s sales tax of 1 cent. The new campaign arose as an emergency response to the drastic cuts resulting from the current state budget. Madison schools were particularly hard hit with a 15% cut in state aid. This outrageous cut came on the heels of a decade and a half of continued revenue limits imposed by the State, which continue to starve our public schools.
One easy first step to announce your support for much needed school funding is to sign the online petition which can be found at http://www.apennyforkids.org. This small step will add to a growing list of supporters and will also help keep one advised of rallies and events in support of the proposal.
The situation in school funding is dire but the WAES proposal comes at just the right time to stabilize funding for our public schools. For more information on the campaign watch for continued updates in MTI Solidarity! or contact Ken Volante (volantek@madisonteachers.org) at MTI Headquarters.
They are doing their part. Are you doing your’s?
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 