MADISON-Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate in response to Scott Walker’s participation in an NBC “Education Summit” today.
“Having cut $1.6 billion from Wisconsin’s public education system to finance tax cuts for millionaires, there is little chance that Scott Walker will speak truthfully when he tries today to sell his radical power grab on NBC. Wisconsin has seen firsthand Walker’s willingness to demonize teachers, to cut programming to the bone, to shift resources from poor school districts to rich ones, and to actually increase subsidies for private schools at the same time he has slashed the budgets of school districts throughout the state, without regard to the consequences.
It is true that Scott Walker is a leader in education, but where he has led is the single biggest step backward in the history of public education in Wisconsin and the biggest cuts to education per pupil in the nation. The greatest tool for advancement for working families is being blunted by the Walker-Koch Brothers agenda, to the point that it will not be ability or hard work that predicts success in the future, but the only the size of your parents’ bank account.
Ultimately, as we prepare for his recall, it is too bad for Scott Walker that Wisconsin’s schools have done their job, leaving a state too smart to believe his lie that cutting $1.6 billion from our schools will improve them.”
