In the November 15, 2011 issue of the Daily Cardinal you ran an article titled, “Letter: Walker’s policies harmed state, now time for recall”. While I hesitate to engage in the overtly divisive talks concerning our current governor, I will, however, comment on this article’s claim that, “students of all ages have been hard-hit under the Walker administration”.
Our students are our future and there is no denying that. What I can deny is that Governor Walker is hurting our school districts, their students, and the educational process. I went to school in Verona, WI which has just over 11,000 people. With a small town like ours, the schools are central to us.
By Governor Walker asking employees to contribute to their health care premiums and giving school districts the freedom to shop various providers, the Verona school district has already saved $800,000. For a modest town like ours, this amount is almost unfathomable. With this money the Verona School District has been able to hire more teachers and lower class sizes.
Verona is not the only case of this money saving phenomenon, either. Other school districts, like Oshkosh, Portage County, Appleton and Milwaukee County have been able to save over $1 million. If saving school districts money, hiring more teachers, and lowering class sizes are a “hard-hit” to our students, I can’t wait to see what helping them looks like.
Maggie Richardson is part of the Student in the Community & Nonprofit Leadership Program at UW. Please send feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
