To all of you who spent evenings knocking on doors and weekends getting out the vote: Thank you and congratulations! Congratulations on seeing that hard work rewarded last night with the overwhelming, seismic victories up and down the ballot in Wisconsin and throughout the United States. You organized because you know what is at stake when the next school day begins, when you look across the classroom into the eyes of Wisconsin’s future.
You have been doing it for years. We have been organizing for this moment. We were often shut out of the conversation, but we never stopped standing up for students. We did more with less, but we never stopped demanding better. We are ready to reclaim our rightful place at the bargaining table, where we will negotiate for fair pay and working conditions, defend academic freedom and help shape the schools our students deserve.
We welcome the election of David Crowley and Sarah Godlewski, the re-election of Josh Kaul, and the new public-education-friendly majorities in the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly. We are grateful for the many school district referendums that passed. But Wisconsin’s voters delivered a clear message Tuesday: They are done with the damage of the Scott Walker years. Done with lawmakers’ refusal to fund schools, instead shifting costs to local taxpayers. Done with politicians who demand more while giving our students less.
Governor-elect Crowley and the pro-public-education leaders elected to serve in Madison and Washington have an opportunity and an obligation to deliver for students. The future is suddenly much more promising, but promises don’t staff classrooms, fix leaking roofs, or pay for up-to-date materials. Budgets do that. Adequate state and federal funding does that.
The government must do its job. Our job is to make sure that it does. And we will, because as educators, we always do our job.
