Wisconsin Update

Breaking News:Madison school officials aren't yet sure if school will be held on Thursday
Schools, teachers are focus of third day of protests at state Capitol

MATTHEW DeFOUR |
madison.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 5:44 pm


Schools and teachers were a central focus at a third day of protests at the Capitol on Wednesday as Madison teachers and students joined thousands of public union workers to blast a plan to strip them of collective bargaining rights.

The Madison district canceled school Wednesday after nearly half the district's 2,600 union teachers had coordinated a sickout by late Tuesday.

It was unclear as of 5 p.m. Wednesday whether the union would call for another sickout Thursday and Madison officials wouldn't speculate as to whether schools would close again.

Officials disputed the number of people at a noon rally, but it appeared the presence of Madison teachers — many with their own children — and students swelled the numbers beyond Tuesday's gathering, when 10,000 rallied outside of the Capitol and another 3,000 showed up inside to attend a budget hearing.

"This is the scariest thing I've ever seen," said Betsy Barnard, a physics teacher at West High School, "This is going to change Wisconsin forever."

Barnard and other teachers at the rally said they are willing to make wage and benefit concessions to help fix the state budget, but that Walker's plan to effectively dismantle the 50-year-old collective bargaining process for unions goes too far.

She said it was harder to make the decision to call in sick Wednesday than it was in 1995, when nearly 2,000 teachers didn't come to school to protest contract negotiations.

"We risk our public image," Barnard said.

Unlike 1995, however, the response from parents has been far more positive, she added.

The state Department of Administration estimated 10,000 people attended the Wednesday rally. But Madison police estimated the crowd at 20,000, spokesman Joel DeSpain said. The entire inner loop of the Square was closed to vehicle traffic, which wasn't the case Tuesday.

At the rally, parents carried infants and signs stating "At our school we call this bullying" and "Walker's report card would read — does not work well with others." Preschoolers repeated the popular slogan "kill this bill," and teachers young and old came ready to forfeit a day's pay to make their voices heard. DeSpain described demonstrators as "angry," "spirited," and "cordial."

Cerise Pipson, a West High School freshman, discussed with her mother, Marie Seguin, a West High School teacher, how this week's events were historic.

"It's amazing that so many people can be here to support (union workers)," said Pipson, whose history class has been studying labor history in recent weeks.

Other than Madison, school district officials around Dane County reported normal teacher absences Wednesday and said they did not anticipate having to cancel class Thursday or Friday. Christina Brey, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said she is unaware of any other coordinated actions by teachers around the state.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, speaking Wednesday at a labor-management collaboration conference in Denver, said he had "real concerns" about the Wisconsin collective bargaining proposal, according to an online post by a National Education Association representative. Duncan's office said he has a phone call scheduled for Thursday with Walker, but wouldn't elaborate on his reported comments.

The Wisconsin Association of School Boards also said it had concerns with Walker's proposal this week, saying it asked Walker and the Legislature to limit certain bargaining subjects, "but not everything."

The school boards association supports allowing districts to take several actions without bargaining such as picking health insurance companies, contracting out services, setting school year dates, ordering furloughs and basing layoffs on qualifications rather than seniority, executive director John Ashley wrote to the Joint Finance Committee.

Student walk-outs continued around the region Wednesday.

In Lodi, about 70 high school students walked-out around lunch time. In Oregon, about 500 high school students walked to a nearby park for about an hour and about 350 middle school students spent about 20 minutes outside on school grounds to show support for teachers and staff, said Andy Weiland, Oregon School District's business services manger.