Madison – Today, Rep. Dave Considine (D-Baraboo) issued the following statement on Governor Walker’s 2017-2019 budget proposal, particularly his claims that public education is “at an all-time high”:
“Our public schools and universities are indeed doing very well, but it’s no thanks to Governor Walker. Instead, we should be thanking our teachers, teaching assistants, administrators, and school boards for their hard work, and local property taxpayers for their ongoing support of our local public schools.
“Public schools around our state are doing a phenomenal job with what they have, but they deserve more. They deserve to be able to spend less time testing our kids and more time educating them. They deserve to be on a level playing field with voucher schools, and they deserve better than this budget.
“We have to stop sending our tax dollars to private schools that don’t even have the same accountability requirements and start providing real support for our public educators and rural students. It is not fair to hold state support conditional on whether they can produce enough worker bees to bring Wisconsin’s economy back. It’s time to give our public schools the support they need to build productive members of society.”