Republicans Prefer to Act in Secret

The weakness of the Republican response to President Obama’s speech yesterday at Newport News was remarkable.  According to the NY Times, John Boehner said that the president was using the country’s military men and women as props for yet another campaign rally. In other words, Mr. Boehner had nothing of substance to say. He had nothing to add to the discussion.

We could not have a clearer demonstration of the bankruptcy of Republican political thinking.  The radical rightists who have come to dominate what was once a real political party have only one goal, and that is to reduce the size of the government. To achieve that goal, they are willing to do anything and cause any amount of suffering.  Having won their jobs by the most extreme gerrymandering in recent history, they are now dead set on making sure that thousands of other people lose their jobs and that thousands of businesses lose sales and perhaps go bankrupt.

For what purpose do they want to cause all that suffering? Well, as I said, they want to reduce the size of government, but what does that really mean?  It means that businesses will be free to rape our environment.  It means that the research and development that drives our economy will slow down. It means that there will be less educational opportunity because support for education will decline.  It means that our borders will be less secure, and our military will be less prepared.  It means that businesses that sell to the government will lose sales.  In the Fox Valley, it means that there will probably be layoffs at Oshkosh Truck.

 That is what the radical rightists want to do.  Of course, no one with any sense wants to see any of that. So, the radical rightists can say nothing except to accuse the president of “campaigning.” They are upset that he is telling the American People what the radical right wants to do.  I guess they would rather do it in secret.  I can’t imagine why.

Barack, Beyoncé and Baloney: the Absurdity of Race in America Today

Obama's Inauguration a Proud Day for All of US

President Obama’s inauguration was a proud day for black people in our country.  The first black President of the United States was sworn in for a second term, and a black singer gave an inspiring rendition of our national anthem.  It was a proud day, too, for the rest of us because of the progress which our country has made in our long journey toward racial equality.  One small but telling measure of the distance we have come is that in 1940, Marian Anderson, a world-famous black singer,  had to give a concert at the Lincoln Memorial because the Daughters of the American Revolution would not allow her to perform in the hall that they owned, which was then the only large concert hall in Washington.

We Have Not Yet Grasped the Absurdity of Race in the U.S.

Yes, we have come a long way, but we have not really grasped the full absurdity of racial discrimination in our country.  Think for a moment of Barack and Beyoncé.  Think how they really look.  Just how black are they?  We see them as black only because we have inherited a system of classification that says that anyone who has even the smallest amount of black blood in his veins must be thought of as black.  Under this system of classification, the only people who can claim to be white are those who can claim to be pure white, but if we all knew the truth, who among us could make such a claim?

European Settlers Were of Mixed Race

All of the European settlers in North America came from countries with racially mixed populations.  Every country in Europe had been subject to multiple invasions over hundreds of years including invasions by Asiatic tribes like the Mongols and the Huns. We all know what the behavior of invading armies is like, and it seems unlikely that there are any Europeans with no Asian blood.  In addition, Europeans had African slaves in small numbers for hundreds of years before  and after they were imported into North America. We also know that there are families of African-American ancestry in southern cities and northern ones who have been “passing” for white for several generations, and of course members of those families have married “white” people.  Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren form part of the white population.

African Americans Were Exploited Sexually

The situation is not different for black people.  We know that when they were slaves, black women were exploited sexually by their owners and by the sons of their owners.  We know too that in general, upper-class men of every race are very generous with their genetic material.  So, it is not likely that there are any pure Africans in the United States today.

Race Does Not Explain Anything

The absurdity does not stop there. The concept of race in its modern sense was developed in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, and it was used by biologists and social scientists to explain differences in culture and in behavior.  However, more careful research since then has shown that race as a biological construct cannot explain anything in the domains of culture or behavior.  There are no cultural or behavioral differences between groups of people that can be explained by biological differences between them.

Racial Differences Explained by Discrimination

What then does race explain?  Clearly there are differences among the races in the United States in levels of wealth, social position and education. They are explained not by race as such but by racial discrimination.  Black people are on average poorer than white people, not because they are racially inferior but because they have been subject to discrimination.

Today, the census recognizes that race exists only in our minds by allowing people to choose “mixed race” as a racial identity.  Today, in the census, I can be whatever race I choose to be including “mixed”. Of course, we know that in a biological sense, we are all mixed, but each of us can either acknowledge that or choose one of the supposedly pure racial categories.

Racial Categories in the U. S. Are Baloney

So here we are in the United States with a legacy of racial discrimination even though we have practically no people of pure race.  Our racial discrimination is real but the categories on which it is based are not.  To see how true this is, we have only to look at the images of Barack and Beyoncé on TV.  They are black only by social convention, but the reality of that convention is so strong that we can legitimately feel proud to see them there, and we can hope that their presence there points to a brighter and more equal future.  We will take a major step toward that future by recognizing that the races don’t really exist except in our minds.  They are baloney. 

Rubio's "Government Holds You Back" Remark is Shockingly Hypocritical

In his response to the State of the Union address, Marco Rubio said with breathtaking hypocrisy, “More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back.” (Post-Crescent, February 13, 2013)  What makes this remark hypocritical is that Rubio knows better. He represents the State of Florida, which benefits mightily from government spending and other forms of government assistance.

Social Security Checks Are Spent in Florida

Florida is a mecca for retirees who flock there for the warm weather. Most of them receive Social Security and spend it in Florida. Some who continue to maintain homes in Wisconsin and other states spend the winter in Florida. The Social Security that is spent in Florida supports thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of jobs.

Florida Gets Lots of Money From Medicare

Florida’s status as a prime retirement location also means that the state receives a great deal of money from Medicare, which pays the hospital and doctor bills of the senior citizens who retire there. The Medicare funds that are spent in Florida are a large part of the income of the state’s medical institutions and support thousands of health-care jobs in all parts of the state.

Florida’s Sugar Industry Is Supported by Federal Subsidies

Florida is also the largest producer of sugar in the United States. The sugar industry receives extensive government help in the form of price supports, marketing controls and import restrictions, which maintain the price of sugar and limit the amount of sugar on the market. The price support program costs American consumers billions in increased food prices each year. (See http://fcir.org/2012/09/09/in-sugar-price-supports-sour-tastes-for-consumers/)  An effort was made in 2012 to end the price support program. Senator Rubio was among those who voted to keep the program going.

Florida Agriculture Benefits From the Interstate Highway System

Other Florida farmers ship their oranges and berries to us in Wisconsin and other northern states via the Interstate Highway system.  Without the federal highways, the farmers would not be able not ship their crops north, and in that case, they would not continue in business or hire the thousands of people who pick those crops.

Florida Benefits From Military Spending

Florida is also home to a large number of military bases including the naval air station at Pensacola, one of the navy’s largest installations. Anyone who has ever visited Pensacola knows that it is a navy town with thousands of businesses and jobs that are dependent on the money spent by the navy and its members.

Rubio Is A Liar

So, the federal government is a key part of the economy of the State of Florida, and many middle class jobs are supported by the money that the federal government spends there.  Of course, Mr. Rubio knows all that. He isn’t ignorant. He’s just a liar.

Governor Walker’s Health Care Plan Hurts Our Economy

Governor Walker Will Not Expand Medicaid

The Post-Crescent reported on February 13, 2013 that Governor Walker has decided against accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid. This is an important decision and will have a big impact on our economy in the Fox Cities.

Governor Walker’s approach, which he calls a “hybrid,” has two components. One is that eligibility for Medicaid (Badgercare) will be tightened. Today, a household is eligible if its income is less than twice the official federal poverty level of $11,490 for individuals and $15,510 for couples. Under the Governor Walker’s approach the eligibility level will be lowered to the federal poverty level, and people whose incomes are above that will have to buy their health insurance through the health insurance exchange that will be set up. Since their incomes are very low, they will presumably be eligible for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

Thus, a part of the cost of health insurance for those who are no longer eligible for Medicaid will be shifted to the people themselves. This is indeed Walker’s goal. He said, ““I want to have fewer people in the state who are uninsured, but along with that I’d like to have fewer people in the state who are dependent on government.”

The Effect Depends on the Size of the Subsidy

How this works out in practice will depend on the size of the subsidy. Clearly, a family with an annual income of $31,000 a year does not have a lot of money to spend on health insurance. So, if the subsidy is large enough, this may work well, but there is reason to doubt that the subsidies will be large enough.

On February 15, 2013, the Post-Crescent reported that at an analyst who is no friend of Obamacare said, “To me, this [Walker’s plan] is crazy policy. These exchange plans were never designed for Medicaid-eligible people. They’re designed for middle-class people who can afford deductibles and co-pays.”

The Wisconsin Hospital Association agrees. An article in the Business Journal on line quotes the association’s president Steve Benton: “Hospital executives are concerned that Walker’s plan will result in fewer people with insurance coverage and an increase in uncompensated care.”

Walker’s Plan Will Likely Cost Jobs in the Fox Cities

This is a key point for our economy in the Fox Cities. We have three major hospitals: Appleton Medical Center, St. Elizabeth and Theda Clark, and we have two major health care organizations: Affinity and Thedacare. They are an important part of our economy, and they are among our largest employers. (Thedacare and Affinity Health Care are Appleton’s largest employers after Kimberly-Clark.) Our health care organizations bring money into the Fox Cities because they are regional centers. Their patients include many people from outside the Fox Cities. So, any change in health care policies will have a profound effect on our community.

The income of our hospitals is heavily dependent on Medicare and Medical Assistance (Badgercare). According to data provided by the Wisconsin Hospital Association, 44.1% of revenue of hospitals in our area (Analysis Area 3 of the report) came from Medicare, 10.2% came from Medical Assistance, 40.9% from commercial insurance and 4.7% from all other sources. In other words, 53.3% came from Medicare and Medical Assistance.

Hospitals report what they call “deductions” from gross revenue, and these include the cost of charity care as well as the discounts obtained by large payers like Medicare or insurance companies. According to the report cited above, such “deductions” account for 49.2% of revenue in our area. Discounts provided to Medicare accounted for 27.4% of gross revenue, deductions for Medical assistance 6.8%, discounts to Commercial insurance companies 12.7% and the cost of charity care was 1.3%. All other deductions were 1.1% of revenue.

Walker’s Plan Will Likely Drive Up the Cost of Health Insurance

If the number of people without health insurance increases as WHA expects, the cost of charity care will rise. Some part of the rise will be absorbed by the hospitals, and they will try to offset the rise through cost savings including hiring fewer people. So, Walker’s plan will cost jobs in the Fox Cities.  Another part of the cost will be passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher hospital charges, which will lead to higher health insurance premiums. This will hurt businesses in our community. So, Walker’s plan will hurt business and individuals in the Fox Cities by reducing the number of jobs here and by raising the cost of health insurance. 

Walker’s Plan Fits With the Goal of Reducing the Size of Government

None of this should surprise us.  We have to remember that Governor Walker – an accredited member of the Radical Right – has one overriding goal. He wants to reduce the size of government and lower taxes. He does not care who suffers in the process because in the radical rightist mind, everything will be just hunky-dory in the end if we can just get government “out of the way.” This quasi-religious faith in the power of free enterprise to solve all problems is at the root of his policies. As he said, “I’d like to have fewer people in the state who are dependent on government.”

The Private Sector Depends on Public Investment

The Radical Right Contradicts Itself

Several recent articles in the Post-Crescent show how odd and contradictory the radical right’s attitude toward government is.  In general, radical rightists do not like government. Their attitude was expressed most famously by President Reagan, when he said, “Government is not the solution. Government is the problem." In this view, all good things are done by the private sector, and government’s interference with economic matters should be minimized.  But the radical right is not consistent in this view.

On February 8, 2010, the Post-Crescent reported that Governor Walker said that he wants to create “a $75 million development loan fund in his next budget.” That is, he wants the State of Wisconsin to compete with private funding sources in order to attract economic activity to our state. He wants to do this in order to create jobs in Wisconsin. In other words, Governor Walker doesn’t believe that the free market will do the job by itself. State government must be involved.

On February 11, the Post-Crescent reported that our Governor wants to spend $100 million on job training. I applaud this idea, but how does it fit with the Governor’s plans to lower taxes, and how does it square with the idea that government is the problem?

On February 9, the Post-Crescent reported that Skyward Inc., a software company in Stevens Point is protesting the fact that it lost a contract to provide software to Wisconsin’s schools. This is the case where WEDC messed up the bidding process by offering Skyward nearly $12 million in tax breaks while the bidding was going on.

Government Investment in Business Is Common in Wisconsin

These are not isolated instances.  Here are some other examples from the website of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

·         Glacier Transit and Storage recently announced an expansion of its warehouse facility in Plymouth, WI and that it would receive $70,000 in tax credits.

·         WEDC announced a grant of $100,000 to expand revolving loan fund of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin.

·         In January, Milwaukee Tool Corporation announced that it would be expanding its Research and Development Facility in Milwaukee, and WEDC announced tax credits of up to $2.05 million to support this effort.

·         In January, the City of Lake Mills was awarded a WEDC grant of $46,750 for environmental assessment of an old industrial site in the city in preparation for fixing it to make it available for use again.

·         In November, The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation was recently awarded a $661,087 State Trade and Export Promotion (STEP) grant from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

I do not wish to dispute the value of any of these grants or tax breaks, but they point to the fact that the private sector is heavily dependent on government activity. No one – least of all Governor Walker – believes that the free market left to itself will provide the jobs that people in Wisconsin need.

The Governor Wants to Pick Winners and Losers in the Economy

We should note also that Governor Walker’s policies involve something else that the radical rightists usually say they don’t like, and that is picking winners and losers among businesses or among sectors of the economy. (See, for example, a recent blog post by Michael Sandoval.) Obviously, if our state is going to invest $100 million in new companies, decisions will have to be made about which companies and which sectors to invest in. Our state will have to pick winners and losers.

Our Economy Has Always Been a Partnership Between Business and Government

Governor Walker’s plans to use government resources to stimulate the economy do not represent something new in our history. Our economy has always been a partnership between government and private business. Here are some examples.

·         At our country’s beginning, Alexander Hamilton’s insistence that the new federal government assume the debts that the states had incurred during the Revolutionary War made it possible for our currency to be accepted worldwide and laid the basis for the US to become a great trading nation.

·         Abraham Lincoln’s establishment of the Land Grant colleges created the institutions that train most of our engineers and that do the research that underlies our extremely productive agriculture.

·         The transcontinental railroad was built with huge government subsidies in the form of land grants.

·         Dwight Eisenhower’s investment in the interstate highway system laid the groundwork for growth in our national economy. (If you buy blueberries in January, thank President Eisenhower.)

Then, there are the ordinary government programs that business needs.

·         Public schools provide an educated work force

·         Roads make it possible for a company to ship its products to market.

·         Business facilities are protected by police and fire departments

·         The rights of owners are defined in law and are protected by our system of courts.

What Governor Walker Really Believes

Without these investments by federal, state and local governments, our economy could not function as it does, and we would all be much poorer. Governor Walker seems to understand this but only when he is desperate to create the jobs that he promised us.  The rest of the time, he follows the standard radical rightist line and pushes for lower taxes and smaller government, but now we know that he doesn’t really believe it.  He really believes that government should be big when it helps business but small when it does other things like protecting the environment.

Legislators’ Positions on School Vouchers and on the Mining Bill

During the last couple of weeks, I posted my analyses of two truly poisonous proposals: the mining bill (AB1/SB1) and the expansion of the private school voucher program. This post lists the positions of the Fox Valley’s legislators on these proposals. I hope that this will help us all to hold our legislators responsible. In the list below, the senators are listed first followed by the state assembly representatives. Please use the links in the list if you want to do your own research on this topic.

State Senators

Robert Cowles

Private school vouchers: Sen. Cowles voted against the expansion of the school voucher program when it was proposed in 2006.  So he will probably do so again.

Mining Bill: He believes that the current bill provides insufficient protection for water quality standards and is seeking changes.  He believes that current water quality protections should be maintained.

Michael Ellis

 Private School Vouchers: He believes that a local referendum should be required before private school vouchers may be used in a school district

Mining Bill: I called his office and was told that he will probably vote for the mining bill.

State Assembly Representatives

Al Ott

Private School Vouchers: He supported the expansion of the voucher program when it was proposed in 2006.  So, he will probably support the current proposal.

Mining Bill: He is a sponsor of the current mining bill (AB1/SB1).

Jim Steineke.  Mr. Steineke is a genuine radical rightist. He organized Appleton’s first Tea Party Group.

Private School Vouchers: I called his office, and returned my call. He said that in general, he supports the idea of private school vouchers because he believes that parents should have a choice when the public schools are not meeting their children's needs.  His specific vote, he said, will depend on what the governor actually proposes. (Updated on Feb 2, 2013 at 2:50 PM after speaking with Mr. Steineke.)

Mining Bill: Mr. Steineke has supported the mining bill in articles in the Post-Crescent.

Gary Tauchen.

Private School Vouchers: He says that such vouchers would be good for school districts financially but adds that further study should be done before the voucher program is expanded.

Mining Bill: He is a sponsor of the current mining bill (AB1/SB1).

Dean Kaufert

Private School Vouchers: He supported the predecessor of this bill in 2006. So, he will probably vote for this bill.

Mining Bill: He is a sponsor of the current bill.

David Murphy

Private School Vouchers: I called his office and was told that he supports the expansion of private school vouchers.

Mining Bill: I called his office and was told that he supports the current mining bill.

Penny Bernard Schaber

Private School Vouchers: She opposes the expansion of the private school voucher program.

Mining Bill: She opposes the mining bill.

Undocumented Immigrants on Wisconsin's Dairy Farms

Immigrant Labor is Important to Wisconsin’s Dairy Farmers

I read with interest the views of immigration reform expressed in the Post-Crescent on February 4, 2013 by members of our community. Several different points of view were represented, but I was struck by the fact that none of the writers said anything about the importance of immigrant labor in Wisconsin’s dairy industry.  Immigrant labor is very important in this industry, which would have difficulty surviving without it.  Immigrants account for about 40% of the hired labor on Wisconsin dairy farms according to reports published by the University of Wisconsin’s Program on Agricultural Technology Studies (PATS) in 2009, and the percentage is higher on larger farms. 

In the past, most of the labor on Wisconsin’s dairy farms was performed by family members, but that is no longer the case.  Farms are much bigger now than they used to be, and farm families are smaller.  There are many opportunities for farmers’ children in other occupations.  For all these reasons, much of the labor on dairy farms today is performed by hired labor.  At the same time, native-born workers have not been available to do the work, and therefore, many immigrant workers have been hired.  88.5% of these workers are of Mexican origin, and almost all the rest are from Central America.  The farmers interviewed by the researchers insisted that the immigrant workers were not displacing American citizens.  Rather the situation was that the farmers could not find American citizens who wanted to do the work. One family farmer said, " So, as our last two children entered high school, and I realized that soon I would have no family labor to rely on, we moved our farm to all hired labor.  I have not been able to hire an American citizen since 1997.  I have tried!  The way I see it, if we didn’t have Hispanics to rely on for a workforce, I don’t believe I could continue farming. "

Immigrant Laborers Are Full-Time Permanent Residents of the Communities Where They Live

Dairy farm workers are not seasonal workers because cows must be milked every day.  So the workers are permanent residents of the communities where they live.  Moreover since they are not migrants, they often have families living with them.  The PATS studies report that 63% of the workers are married, and of these 85.5% are living with their spouses in Wisconsin. So, when we speak of immigrant workers on dairy farms in Wisconsin, we are speaking of full time, permanent residents with families, who are an important part of the communities where they live

How many people are we talking about?  According to the PATS studies, there were approximately 12,551 hired workers working on dairy farms in Wisconsin in 2009.  Of these, about 40% or 5316 were immigrants.  The researchers say that they believe these numbers to be conservative because some farmers did not wish to report the presence of workers who had been hired “under the table” and because data were not available for small farms.  How many of the immigrant workers were undocumented?  It is of course difficult to obtain reliable statistics on the number of  undocumented workers, but the studies estimated that approximately 50% of the immigrant workers were undocumented, which would give us 2658 undocumented workers.  If we add to that the members of their families living with them, we can conservatively estimate that undocumented dairy farm workers and their families number perhaps 8000 in Wisconsin.[i]

Immigrant Workers Are Taxpayers and Consumers

These 8000 people pay taxes in our communities. They shop in our stores.  You can see them at the Fox River Mall. How much do they spend?  Well, the average hourly wage for the workers surveyed was $10.06, and the typical worker works 57 hours per week, which gives $573.42 per week. If we subtract approximately 30% for various taxes, that gives us $401.39 of spendable income per worker per week. There are 53 weeks in a year and 2658 undocumented workers. So, they earn about $56.5 million in total. Of course, some of that is sent home to parents in Mexico or Central America, and perhaps a little of it is saved, but we can conservatively estimate that at least $45 million is spent in Wisconsin each year by undocumented dairy farm workers and their families. The local impact of this money is larger than its statewide impact because the money is not spread evenly across the state.  It is concentrated in the communities where the undocumented workers live, including some communities in the Fox Valley.

Are We Stupid Enough To Expel People Who Make Important Contributions To Our Economy?

In short, we can say that as workers, the undocumented are crucial to the dairy industry, which is one of our most important industries, and as consumers, they play a large role in the economies of the communities where they live.  These are facts that we need to consider when we think about changes in the immigration laws.  Some of those who responded to the Post-Crescent’s question said that the undocumented immigrants should be sent back to their home countries.  Are we really stupid enough to expel thousands of people who make a large contribution to our economy?

---

[i] This is not a precise estimate, but it is probably conservative. If we assume that a typical family has 4 members, we get 10,632 people (4 x 2658), but that is probably too high because some families may have two members working on dairy farms. To account for them, I reduced the number by 2658, which gives 7974. I rounded that number up to 8000.

 

Private School Vouchers: Bad for Education in Our Community

Governor Walker Supports Vouchers

The Appleton Post-Crescent (January 31, 2013) reported that Gov. Scott Walker is in favor of expanding the voucher program that allows families to use public money to attend private schools.  Since this is going to be an important issue this year we should understand what it can and cannot do in our community. What is the purpose of the voucher program?  Can the use of public money to support private education provide a solution to the problems of education in our community?

Will the Program Help Education the Fox Cities?

There are 12 private schools in the Fox Valley that offer secondary education through the 12^th grade.  They are listed in the table below.  (The table includes all schools within 25 miles of ZIP Code 54911 according to Private School Review, and on-line source of information about private schools.)

Private High Schools in the Fox Valley

School Name	Location	Enrollment
The Academy of the Fox Cities	Appleton	68
Xavier High School	Appleton	585
Fox Valley Lutheran High School	Appleton	611
St Mary Central High School	Neenah	233
Oshkosh Christian School/Valley Christian High School	Oshkosh	204
Lourdes High School	Oshkosh	291
Wyldewood Christian School	Oshkosh	37
Beth Haven Academy	Green Bay	17
Starr Academy	New London	37
Notre Dame de la Baie Academy	Green Bay	718
Adventist Junior Academy	Green Bay	39
Bay City Baptist School	Green Bay	84
TOTAL		2924

 As you can see, the total enrollment of all of the private high schools in the Fox Valley is 2924 students.  This contrasts with a total enrollment of 12,925 students in all high schools in the Fox Cities according to data on the website high-schools.com.  It is easy to see that the private schools in our area could not possibly enroll any large percentage of the high school students in our area.  The private schools would be overwhelmed.  So, under the voucher program, most of our students will have to remain in our public high schools, and we will have to educate them adequately and prepare them for the world in which they will live and the jobs by which they live.  The voucher program cannot do this for us.  In fact, the voucher program will make it harder for us to educate our children because the voucher program will drain money from the public schools – money that might have been used to make the public schools better for everyone.

Vouchers in the Fox Cities Will Give Money to Religious Schools

In addition, we can see that almost all of the schools listed above are religious institutions. (The one exception is The Academy of the Fox Cities, which enrolls only 68 students.)  A religious school considers the inculcation of religious values to be an important part of its mission.  Parents who send their children to a religious school do so at least in part because they wish their children to learn those values.   

There is nothing wrong with a school’s inculcating religious values.  A religious group is certainly entitled to establish schools for the purpose of inculcating the group’s values, and it is equally the right of parents to send their children to those schools.  However, it is no part of the duty of the state of Wisconsin to support such schools.  We provide public schools which are very carefully nonsectarian in order to provide our children with the knowledge and skills that they will need and to teach them the basic values of democratic society in the United States.  Religious schools are private precisely because their missions are not compatible with the limitations that we impose on our public institutions, which must not support specific religious groups.  If our state were to give money to support religious schools, it would be violating our most basic political traditions concerning the separation of church and state.

The Voucher Program Will Not Increase Choices For Parents

Governor Walker says that we need the voucher program to provide parents with choices about where to send their children to school, but that is not true.  Of the schools shown in the table above, 6 large schools enroll 92% of the students (2645 out of 2924), and all of the large private schools have financial aid for parents who cannot afford the tuition.  Fox Valley Lutheran High School says on its web site, "No student will be denied a Christian high school education due to financial need!"  This means that parents already have choices.  They do not need the voucher program. So, what is its real purpose?

The Real Purpose of Vouchers is to Take Money From the Public Schools

The real purpose of the voucher program is to reduce the funds available for public education by funneling the money to private, religious schools.  Reducing the size of all government functions is the main goal of the Radical Right. This goal was most famously expressed by Grover Norquist (of the “no tax” pledge), when he said, "I don't want to abolish government.  I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."  Governor Walker and the other radical rightists in Madison have already made large cuts in state aid to local school systems, and the governor is planning to make a large part of those cuts permanent by using this year’s budget surplus to fund cuts in state income taxes.  Now, he wants to take some of the remaining funds and give them to private, religious schools.

In short, we should oppose the voucher program because:

·         The voucher program will not help parents or children, because they already have choices.

·         The voucher program will harm our public schools and reduce our ability to educate our children.

·         Vouchers for religious schools go against our basic tradition of the separation of church and state.

Our public schools are one of the real glories of our community. They are among the best in the country. We have to do what we can to preserve and improve them.  Call your representatives now and let them know that you oppose giving our community’s public education’s funds to sectarian, religious institutions.