Area Superintendents Holding Press Conference Tomorrow on Education Items in Governor Walker's Budget
Wednesday, June 24th, 2015 -- 12:56 PM
-Area superintendents will be holding a press conference at the CESA 10 office in Chippewa Falls on Thursday at 2pm regarding education items in Governor Scott Walker's budget.Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier talked about why the area superintendents have called this press conference.
Mr. Gaier said, "The press conference was called because many of us believe that it is one of the worst budgets possible for K-12 education and we want to bring attention to some of the things that will actually be in the budget. Whether it be funding for public education or the expansion of for-profit and private school funding for parts of the budget. Or the real attack on the licensing process for teachers. The qualifications that it takes to be a teacher, I think, are some of the things that we want to discuss and get out there so people have an understanding of what's actually in this budget."
Mr. Gaier mentioned some of the topics they'll be discussing at Thursday's conference.
"One of the big things is the freeze that's going to occur on public schools," Mr. Gaier said. "Another thing that's happening is the expansion of private schools and for-profit vouchers. The other things that stick out in this budget, clearly to me, are the attacks on the public school system in general."
Finally, Mr. Gaier mentioned who they hope to see at the conference and what they hope people will take away from it.
"We've invited the local media and we've invited all the local legislators. Hopefully, they will come. I think that it is really incumbent upon a lot of the rural legislators to stand up and talk about the negative impact that it's going to have on the districts that they represent. And to really think about the importance of facts vs. ideology. And to take a real hard look at are we really doing the right thing here or are we just doing the profitable thing at this time? And I think that's something that's vitally important. So, any area media folks, any area legislators, anyone interested in the future of public education are certainly welcome."
Once again that conference is being held tomorrow at the CESA 10 office in Chippewa Falls at 2pm.
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