DIFFICULT YEAR FOR EDUCATION COMES TO A CLOSE
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 -- 9:20 AM
It?s the last day of school for Neillsville Public School students, and what a strange year it was for education.The school year started off innocently enough back in September; then the November elections rolled around and the newly elected Governor and Republican-controlled legislature set to work.
The [url=http://www.wrn.com/2011/06/supreme-court-considers-collective-bargaining-law/]smoke still hasn?t cleared[/url] from Gov. Walker?s push to end collective bargaining for teachers and other public sector employees, and we're still waiting to see how big of a cut the legislature will make to state aid for public education.
As students are packing up for summer, a number of Neillsville teachers and support staff are getting ready to clean out their rooms for good.
"We have 18 retirements," reports Neillsville superintendent John Gaier. "We're busy doing interviews. The faces will definitely change around here in Neillsville."
So the kids coming back to school next year will have to get acquainted with some brand new teachers.
But in some cases, the teachers probably won?t even be replaced.
"At least four positions won't be hired back (in the elementary). Those are the elementary SAGE positions," he says.
SAGE is a program that supplies funding for schools to keep their class sizes small. Neillsville has SAGE teachers in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Gaier says the school will likely cut two other positions, reducing their teaching staff from 73 to 68.
And while legislators are not framing the debate this way, Gaier says the writing is on the wall: lawmakers want to allow private schools more leverage.
"I don't think there's any secret in this budget that there is a real effort to privatize education in many parts of Wisconsin. That's going to hurt a lot of the kids that have benefited through public education," he says.
Gaier says the budget proposal approved by the Joint Finance Committee and sent to the full legislature would cut Neillsville?s revenue by about $750,000 for the 2011-2012 school year. [img]http://www.cwbradio.com/news/ink/uploads/apple.jpg[/img]
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