Issue of the Week: Saving Teachers’ Jobs

MilwaukeePublic Schools (MPS) plans to lay off almost 700 employeesincluding 482teachersbut is unwilling to support a bill pending in Congress that wouldprovide emergency funds for cash-strapped schools? That appears to be thehard-line negotiating tactic for MPS, which is trying to convince the teachers’union that it should accept health care concessions. The concessions may be agood thing, but they should be negotiated during the collective bargainingprocess, not in the press and not during the budget process. Teachers are stillworking under their 2007-2009 contract, since negotiations with MPS haven’tproduced a resolution on matters such as salary, health insurance and classsize. Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s Robert Kraig, who supports the federalfunds, calls MPS’s stand “educational treason.” What’s more, MPSlike stateSuperintendent Tony Eversshould support the federal emergency funds, then workon changing the statewide funding formula so that the district has adequateresources in the coming years. This sort of game-playing isn’t serving ourkids.

Heroes of the Week

Barefoot Firefighters

The nature of theiremployment is heroic in and of itself, but this week area firefighters will gothe extra mile by helping the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). MDA’s “Fillthe Boot” campaign will see firefighters from departments in Hartford,Greenfield and South Milwaukee remove their boots and thenfill them with money from motorists and pedestrians passing by. The funds willbe used locally for MDA client services, such as clinic visits, wheelchairpurchases and repairs, and trips for children and young adults to MDA SummerCamp.

Greenfield firefighters will be at 76th Street and Layton Avenue from9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Wednesday and Thursday, June 23-24; the Hartford and South Milwaukee departments will collect on Friday, June 25.The Milwaukee Fire Department is scheduled to participate in August.

Jerks of the Week

BP’s RepublicanDefenders in Wisconsin

Lastweek we called out Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (a BP stockholder) for whining aboutPresident Obama being too tough on BP. But he’s not the only BP defender in Wisconsin’s Republicandelegation. Take Rep. Paul Ryan, who is part of the Republican Study Committee,which released a statement calling BP’s $20 billion escrow fund “Chicago-styleshakedown politics.” Then there are Ron Johnson and Dave Westlake, theRepublican Senate candidates who hope to challenge Russ Feingold in the fall.They both disagree with the escrow fund as well, even though the fund is aimedat covering some of the damage caused by BP’s oil spill. Looks like theseRepublicans think BP’s bottom line is more important than aiding those who havebeen affected by the corporation’s disastrous drilling.