Walker's WI Act 10 destroyed the teaching profession

[September, 2, 2020 Update] - The dramatic cuts to public school funding in Wisconsin which Walker and GOP legislators still ruining things had inflicted on education may make the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic worse in freshly lean times, a new study has found.

"Because K-12 education is the single largest category of general purpose revenue spending in the budget, it may be difficult for state leaders to avoid contemplating cuts in this area," the report said. "However, as they do so, they should consider Wisconsin's spending trends relative to the nation over the last decade."

[Updated several times from 9/1/17] 

The Journal Sentinel today, 6/10/19, documents the devastating exodus of educators from Milwaukee Public Schools since Act 10. Remember this the next time you hear Walker or his drones tout Act 10, which was disingenuously pitched as cost-cutting when, in reality, it was an attack on collective bargaining rights for partisan, power-holding purposes, with damage to children's learning its consequences and his toxic legacy.

MPS has been particularly hard hit. It saw a net loss of 730 teachers between 2010 and 2014, according to a 2015 report by the Public Policy Forum. In addition, more than 1,600 resigned, retired or were dismissed in the last four years alone, the district said. The district has 330 vacant positions, 268 of them for teachers. 

The net effect, teachers say, is a hodgepodge system in which students are taught by fledgling teachers on emergency licenses, or teachers aides and subs — if schools can get them. And when they can’t, full-time teachers take turns filling in during their prep periods, or they bring those students into their own classrooms.

I have heard these accounts from teachers for years since Act 10; now we have the data. And while Republicans have restored some of the money they and Walker stripped from state public schools, none of the bargaining rights and other incentives that could attract and retain teachers have been returned. 

You wonder why the state's growth remained in the lower third nationally for Walker's eight years in office? Look no further than what he did to public education here.

For the record, this posting is the most-downloaded item I have posted among nearly 20,000 on this blog since 2007.  People can deeply about their children's education and are attracted to information that can move issues forward.
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The divide-and-conquer sneaky, partisan and giddily disrespectful Walker "dropped the bomb" on the teaching profession, and the consequences are unfolding:

After Act 10 was passed, [teacher] Ferrell-Huber found herself emotionally burned-out and unsure of the future in a state she tells TODAY'S TMJ4 she felt no longer respected her. That's when Ferrell-Huber walked away. She's just one in a trend of fewer teachers in Wisconsin.

"The problem is that the pipeline behind them isn't filled," said Alan Shoho, the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He said the school's enrollment is down from historical numbers. He tells us jobs that once had 120 candidates before Act 10 now fall closer to 20.

"We can talk about compensation, we can talk about working conditions, but I boil it down to this one word and it's respect," he said. He feels the lack of respect has caused detrimental changes in teacher education.

Is this where the Foxconn workforce wants to raise the kids?

Where government pits educators against parents, conservationists against business and blue-collar workers against public employees?

Here's a summary post with more than 325 links to Foxconn stories, items and commentaries.

9/4 Update: Walker has claimed that his proposed 2017-'19 state budget contains an historic increase in education funding - - a claim rated "mostly false" by Politifact - - and the sum for schools which he has proposed to add does not fully replace education dollars he he'd previously cut from state budgets as part of his attack on teaching and teachers:

In the second year of the biennium, the state’s share of K-12 funding will rise to 64.6 percent (the rest comes from property taxes and federal aid). That’s the highest since 2009 after dropping below 62 percent in 2012, when Walker cut $782 million from public schools — which was largely absorbed by teachers forced to pay higher pension and health insurance premiums.

9/6 Update - - Walker takes to Twitter to amplify an education record filled with whitewash and distortion. 

9/27/17 Update - - Walker vetoed from the budget an Assembly provision that would have added revenue to lower-income school districts. His real motivation was to punish Assembly leaders for having held up the budget. Talk about a vindictive politician.

Again, who pays the price?