Letter: Don’t dismantle our great school system

I look to the future under Gov. Walker and I see a great dumbing-down of Wisconsin and the loss of our distinct competitive advantage — the quality of our schools.

I am scared to see the result of Walker’s divisive, ineffective leadership and the absence of the investment in quality education and the loss of a strong teacher union.

Take a look to many southern states and a void of a strong teachers’ unions. There, high school dropout rates are staggering.

I will never forget ABC’s 20/20 2009 episode where Diane Sawyer exposed the epidemic proportions of illiterate, dropout parents in eastern Kentucky giving their infants Mountain Dew in baby bottles instead of milk.

I am perplexed by the great disconnect between Gov. Walker’s words and reality, and his unwillingness to compromise. There is no doubt we are living in hard economic times. However, the end of collective bargaining is not a fiscal necessity.

State employees quickly accepted proposed benefit cuts. The fact that Walker still demands the end of collective bargaining is dumbfounding. It will not solve our budget problems but will only lead to diminishment of our schools.

Wisconsinites value quality education. It’s no coincidence that we enjoy one of the finest public school, university and technical college systems in America. This is a result of collective bargaining.

With collective bargaining we attract the brightest, highest quality teachers and encourage our young to go into education. Wisconsin’s private and public workers alike have long recognized this.

Let us keep this tradition. Wisconsinites are resilient. We will make it through these hard economic times.

Let’s not do it at the expense of our values, the quality of our schools, and the right to collectively bargain. Let us do everything in our power

Tags: opinion, letters, politics, kinnickinnic