Progressive Thinking

This week Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the lack of K-12 Teachers in Wisconsin.

PLUM CITY, WI - “Please sound the alarm,” Superintendent Mary Baier wrote to me. “We are not able to find people to fill positions in Wisconsin.” She needed a special education teacher and only one applicant had applied to her rural Plum City district.

When the school bells ring across Wisconsin, parents expect classrooms to be filled with qualified teachers. But a dramatic decline in education majors at university-based programs and an exodus of both newly minted and experienced teachers have left Wisconsin parents asking, “Who will teach our children?”

The “impending crisis” is here.

Schools are scrambling to find qualified teachers. For example, less than a month before school started, News 8 WKBT reported the La Crosse district needed to fill 23 positions.

Districts have done more with less for years. Existing teachers covered more classes and received cross training. Districts asked current teachers to go back to school and obtain certification in different subjects. Local schools already share many teachers, guidance counselors and other staff. Teachers move between schools, between districts and even across state lines during the course of their workweek.

Some districts use special “waivers,” or permission to bend the rules on teacher certification, allowing a district to place an unqualified teacher in a position as long as that teacher seeks proper certification.

But the teacher shortage is growing and it affects urban, suburban and rural schools.

Christine Hedstrom works in Human Resources for the Waukesha School District. She told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “You could technically start a school year without an administrator in place, but you need to have a teacher in the classroom.”

But rural schools are particularly hard hit.

Rural schools often have fewer options and already greatly diminished choices for students. They’ve already combined, shared, downsized and cross-trained. Having a teacher in the classroom may not even be possible in some local rural classrooms.

A rural western Wisconsin district board member told me, “We are starting the school year with two positions unfilled”- one of the positions was a Spanish language teacher. “I guess we’ll have to use some type of video/distance learning option,” the board member told me. “But that’s not a good way for students to learn a language.” Spanish is the only foreign language available to students in this rural district.

When I asked folks why we had a teacher shortage, I heard several comments over and over. “Fewer students going into teaching.” “New graduates not staying in Wisconsin.” “More teachers retiring or leaving the profession.” “Teaching is no longer a valued profession.”

The Wisconsin Budget Project reported over the last eight years the number of teachers in Wisconsin public schools fell by nearly 3,000 even as school enrollment increased.

They also reported on a troubling decline in experienced teachers. "In the 2013-14 school year, teaching staff of 39% of school districts had an average of 15 or more years of experience. That share has fallen dramatically since the 2004-05 school year, when 58% of school districts has a teaching staff with an average of 15 or more years or more of experience.”

Not surprisingly, fewer students are entering the education profession. Statistics from the United States Department of Education show a dramatic drop in the number of university students learning to be teachers in Wisconsin. In 2011, 12,624 education majors were enrolled in all types of university-based programs. By 2014, this number had dropped by almost a quarter to 9,563 education majors.

Of course, in 2011, we saw the passage of anti-public employee legislation in Act 10 and the largest cut to public education in Wisconsin’s history. It’s not hard to imagine why a college student might decide to change majors following the words and actions of many elected leaders.

The future troubles many education professionals with whom I spoke. Just who will teach the children born in 2020?

“As we move forward, my largest concern is the quality of teachers. We have become a state that doesn’t value quality education. Why would anyone go into teaching?” Superintendent Baier asked.

I remind my colleagues who voted for Act 10 and the budgets that created this problem just what my mother told me eons ago as I answered that first school bell.

Actions have consequences.

LA CROSSE, WI - With the ringing of school bells and the roar of high school football games, students across Wisconsin are heading back to class. But in many classrooms, the start of school is also marked by the rumbling of empty stomachs.

Amid all of the headlines about state budget cuts and teacher shortages, many schools are struggling to deal with the challenge of student hunger. It is a crisis that has worsened dramatically over the past several years as participation rates for free and reduced school meals have skyrocketed. Over 350,000 Wisconsin children, more than 43 percent of all students, now qualify for free and reduced meals.

Schools and communities across Wisconsin are doing their best to address this issue despite declining state support. Many parents, teachers and local businesses have stepped up to organize their own school meal programs, stock student food pantries and supply backpacks with meals for children struggling with hunger at home.

The community efforts being undertaken to combat student hunger are commendable, but they are a sign of the larger economic and financial challenges facing our state. Combined with Wisconsin’s shrinking middle class and the decline in family wages, state budget cuts to school funding are having a noticeable impact.

One proposal to help address the crisis of student hunger was recently introduced by Rep. Andy Jorgensen (D-Milton) and Sen. Janis Ringhand (D-Evansville). Commonly referred to as the “Food for Thought Act,” Assembly Bill 234 seeks to increase school breakfast program enrollment and provide more children with access to a quality meal. Given the well-established correlation between hunger and low academic achievement, the “Food for Thought Act” is helping to spark a much-needed discussion about this important topic.

It’s clear that we need to take a close look at how student funding cuts and increasing poverty rates are affecting classroom learning. Instead of taking more resources away from Wisconsin children, we must work together to invest in local schools, reduce student hunger and improve student achievement.

For too long, Republicans have prioritized tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of funding for our schools and communities. In recent months, Gov. Walker’s presidential ambitions have overshadowed the real challenges facing families and distracted from our ability to find solutions to this growing crisis.

It is high time we focus on the important issues affecting Wisconsin families and local schools. Together, we can work to end childhood hunger in Wisconsin and provide all hardworking students the opportunity to succeed.

Jennifer Shilling serves as the Senate Democratic Leader and represents the 32nd District which covers La Crosse, Vernon, Crawford and parts of Monroe County.

Assembly Republicans have been meeting in secret on a plan to merge the state’s 2-year UW campus system and the Technical College system. Such an important plan should not be hatched behind closed doors.

MADISON - According to recent news outlet reports, Assembly Republicans have been meeting in secret on a plan to merge the state’s 2-year UW campus system and the Technical College system. The plan could have a huge impact on the students, faculty, staff and the local communities the campuses serve.

Two Democratic leaders in the State Senate’s Universities and Technical Colleges Committee don't think such an important plan should be hatched behind closed doors. And they are doing something about it.

In a letter to the committee's chair, Senator Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and State Senator Janet Bewley (D-Delta) called today for a public hearing on the impact of the plan. In the letter they said it was “disturbing to learn that meetings on the proposed merger have been held out of the public eye. Such a significant change in our system of higher education is deserving of public input early on in the process rather than waiting until a deal has been struck behind closed doors.”

The senators are questioning why details of the plan, how it would work and how it would impact the campuses and the people and communities they serve have not been available to the public.

“The public hearing and committee process exists to provide people with not only an understanding of legislative undertakings but to make their voices heard during the legislative process," they say. "Certainly such a substantial and significant change to our system of higher education merits early and significant public input.”

Recently Republicans tried to slip major changes weakening the state’s open records laws and the board that oversees the Wisconsin Retirement into the state budget. It was only after the public became aware of those secret efforts that they were dropped from the budget. Hansen and Bewley believe given the complexity that would surround merging the two systems the public should be given a chance to weigh in before a plan is rushed through the legislature.

“We respectfully request that a public hearing be held as soon as possible so that the committee can hear firsthand from all stakeholders about the potential impacts of merging the UW 2-year Campus and Technical College systems," their letter continues.  "This hearing should include testimony from administrators, faculty, staff, students, parents and community leaders.”

Despite major changes made to the UW System including cutting $250 million from UW Campuses and making major changes to tenure and shared governance, to date the Universities and Technical Colleges Committee has held only one public hearing. The hearing was held on June 4th during which the committee heard testimony on five appointments and one senate bill.

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Legislative staffer Jay Wadd contributed to this article.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about Gov. Scott Walker’s recently revealed health care plan, what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) does for all of us, and how the governor contradicts himself.

ALMA, WI - “ObamaCare must be repealed immediately,” begins Governor Walker’s health plan for America.

Recently the governor unveiled his health plan to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He chose Minnesota as the backdrop - a state whose state-based marketplace offers health premiums to families that are over three hundred dollars less a month than Wisconsin’s federal marketplace according to research by the Commonwealth Fund.

In his new plan, the governor would give states the ability to create high-risk insurance pools – something Wisconsin had and Walker repealed in his 2013 budget. If we had kept this high-risk pool for a few more years, premiums in Wisconsin – for those who buy insurance on their own or as a small business – would have likely been lower.

Walker’s new plan would allow farmers and others to band together in health insurance cooperatives – something Wisconsin law and the Affordable Care Act already allow.

The governor says his plan would encourage flexibility in state insurance laws and “allow plans to be sold across state lines”. However, “selling plans across state lines” is really insurance industry code words for eliminating state regulation. You cannot both increase state regulations and get rid of them.

Walker’s team wrote, “My plan would give states increased flexibility. For example, it is likely many states would choose to extend rules allowing young people to stay on their parents’ plan. Some states, including Wisconsin, extended this option to young people before ObamaCare’s federal mandate.”

This statement is in direct conflict with his actions. When the governor signed his 2011 budget, he repealed the state law I authored to keep adult children on their parents plan until age 27.

The governor ended his proposal by calling out Democrats and then taking credit for the BadgerCare coverage expanded under Democrats.

The good news – for those of us enthusiastic about health care for all – is that health was the first major policy proposal put forth by the governor-want-to-be-president.

Governor Walker knows health is still a top political issue.

But repealing ObamaCare may not be the best political wagon upon which to hitch your presidential campaign. In a recent poll of 1,200 adults, Kaiser Family Foundation found people are about evenly split on attitudes toward the health law (44% favorable, 41% unfavorable) but are overwhelmingly concerned about prescription drugs. Respondents, including a large majority of Republicans, say drug costs are unreasonable (72%), drug companies put profits before people (74%). Respondents agree with requiring drug companies to release to the public how they set their prices (86%) and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices (83%).

Only 28% of the 1,200 adults responding to the August poll said they want the Affordable Care Act repealed.

People like covering their adult children on their insurance until age 26. They don’t want 19 million people to lose health insurance. Most people think women should not be charged higher premiums than men. People like the preventive services now covered by Medicare and don’t want to pay exorbitant drug costs when they fall into Medicare’s ‘doughnut hole’. And most people don’t think a friend diagnosed with cancer should lose his or her health insurance.

People want Congress and those at the statehouses to solve problems, not play politics. If I heard this once at the local fairs, I heard it a hundred times. When I wrote to constituents that the governor’s just-signed state budget included health provisions that would likely break federal law, I also heard back from folks saying they did not want the governor’s political ambitions to drive the state budget.

Over the next year, the state will apply for several “waivers” or special permission from the feds to change programs for those of modest means - BadgerCare and long-term care for frail elderly and disabled folks - FamilyCare and IRIS.

New drug testing requirements, dropping BadgerCare recipients after 48 months (for those without children at home) and giving disabled and frail elderly no other option than a for-profit HMO might make good political fodder but probably don’t jive with federal law.

Governor Walker makes a lot of health care promises, but we must question if his proposals put health insurance companies ahead of people’s health.

This week Sen. Vinehout writes about broadband access and the frustrations of people that live in rural areas that are not served or the service is very poor. This impacts not only people’s homes but also businesses. The way territories are carved out and companies have exclusive territories makes what one person describes as “little pockets of nowhere”.

LA CROSSE, WI - “It’s pedal to the metal on broadband policy—for both consumers and competitors,” said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler at a recent address to the Brookings Institute as reported on a Brookings website.

Internet in rural Wisconsin is closer to Pony Express than “pedal to the metal.”

That’s the general consensus of folks at the Pierce County Fair.

“AT&T is the largest carrier in the world and they won’t come to my house,” Tammy Tollefson told me. AT&T provided phone service to her rural Pierce County residence but not broadband. “We are literally the last mile,” she said.

The family has tried everything: dial up, hot spots, “ISBN” a system that used two phone lines, “Nextera” wireless, satellite. Nothing provided the service Tammy needed for her job – working for a nonprofit based out of her home. “We use Sococo, a virtual office where you can go into someone’s office and have a private conversation or set up a meeting in a virtual conference room.”

Tammy is not alone. Many people in rural Wisconsin work from their homes. They deal with the frustrations of broadband – or lack thereof – every day. My next-door neighbor left rural Alma because he didn’t have Internet speeds to run his furniture design business. He ended up moving to South Africa.

When Tammy heard I was interested in finding a solution, she put together a map of Pierce County and asked fairgoers to mark their location on the map with sticky stars of different colors depending on their Internet satisfaction.

What we learned was striking. Folks in River Falls had excellent service. But right outside River Falls – in a rural stretch of land heading toward Hudson – folks had AT&T cables running near them but could not get broadband.

“I’ve got AT &T cables running through my front yard,” a father of young children told me, “but they won’t serve me. My Internet service is really bad.”

Whole areas in the county appeared to be completely unserved. For example, the entire area around Beldenville was filled with red and orange stars – signifying poor or no Internet service.

I spoke with two county board members who were working the booth next to me. One of them said, “It’s like electricity territories. The FCC set up where telephone companies originally put their lines and that company totally controls that territory.” These territories don’t follow any natural or political subdivision borders – different companies could serve people in the same township. I learned that seven different companies serve Pierce County. Tammy described this piecemeal system as creating “little pockets of nowhere.”

Why do phone companies that control a certain territory not provide Internet service to their customers? The county board members told me, “AT&T has no interest in expanding.”

Problems are so great that a year ago University of Wisconsin - River Falls teamed with local economic development folks to do a survey of Internet service. The survey results showed half of the respondents were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their current Internet provider. Half of businesses surveyed did not have broadband service. The vast majority of these businesses were interested in obtaining fiber optic access. The UWRF team estimated about 13% of households and 16% of businesses responded to the survey.

I learned the town of Troy used stimulus money to lay fiber optic cable to every house in the Township. A recent FCC ruling may allow municipalities to cross the “walls” marking territory and build out into neighboring territory.

Broadband service isn’t the only modern convenience lacking in Wisconsin. Our fair booth Internet map was so popular, we ran out of material. Just calling Tammy to ask for more supplies was one “Can you hear me now?” after another as I moved around the fairgrounds in Ellsworth to get a cell phone signal.

The folks watching me laughed as I planted myself to deliver a few sentences. “Maybe you need a cell phone map too,” one of them said.

“God bless you for trying to solve this problem,” Tammy told me. “Of all the modern conveniences – we are so far behind other countries all over Europe, South America, even Korea of all places.”