Notes on a Democratic listening session

RealDebateWisconsin recently attended a Democratic listening session in Racine. At his request, I am going publish his post here in its entirety. Go to RDW to comment on his post.

UWP Listening Session Thoughts.

I attended the Democratic listening session tonight at UW Parkside. It was a struggle to keep in my seat and not speak my mind on so many occasions. The session was to provide feedback on the budget, on the dais sat Senator Wirch, and Reps Lehman and Turner. I will only place comments and name names of public office holders.

Thoughts and comments:

From Racine Mayor Gary Becker: Mayor Becker spoke to unfunded mandates and asked the Governor to keep school funding at 2/3. Uh Mr. Mayor Racine gets 74% of its funding from the State. Most outrageous quote, "How do Republicans know better than us? It boggles the mind."

From UW Parkside Chancellor Jack Keating: The Chancellor started the session saying to day he was "only weeping today, yesterday I was balling" He was being melodramatic over 8 million in replaced financial aid to the budget. It is the Chancellor's opinion that the UW system is in crisis and is just a breeding ground for recruitment to Universities outside the state because we pay so poorly. He also added ever dollar of UWP spending adds 4.5 dollars to the local economy. Rep Turner chimed in we do not have enough Federal Education dollars due to the Iraq war.

From Kenosha School Board Member Gilbert Ossman: Mr. Ossman confirmed Kenosha will be putting out a referendum in November. He also pointed to 20% increases in Hispanic students and the need for Hispanic instruction. He also is concerned about class sizes, approaching 30. His parting shot, "The majority party must work with people who are supportive of education." Translation: HEY REPUBLICANS SEND MORE MONEY
Rep Lehman Response, "The Governor started the budget with k-12 education in mind with $938 million in new spending, now we don't have any money left in the budget for schools." Huh?

Robert T. Stepien, Assistant Superintendent of Business Racine Unified School District: (quite a title) Mr. Stepian spoke on behalf of Dr. Hicks whom was apparently too busy to attend. Mr. Stepian was very passionate and it appeared he was close to tears when he spoke as to how difficult it was to get referendums passed in Racine now. He spoke as to how teachers had not seen a salary increase in 18 months. He then said we were not far from being like Florence and just having to close our doors. Ok Mr. Stepian, salary + benefits = compensation. They always leave that out of the formula. Mr. Sepien clearly learned his rhetoric from Dr. Hicks.

Ron Frederick, Kenosha Alderman, had the laugh of the night from the sympathetic room when he called putting restriction on stem cell research the "Right to Suffer" Senator Wirch chimed in saying for every good job we lose we make three lousy ones out of it.

Your humble blogger did get a chance to speak. I spoke to rhetoric in the process and asked how Democrats could portray a $458 million increase as a cut. I added if you think the $458 million is not enough, just say so, but do no tell lies stating the amount suggested is a decrease when it is actually an 8.6% increase, 3 times the rate of inflation. All three on the dais agreed with me saying the rhetoric was too loud from both sides of the aisle, none of them though gave any indication they would temper their language. Rep Turner tried to tell me this does not catch up to prior cuts, I cut him off and said fine, then that is what you should be saying from the floor and in the press, not portraying this increase as a draconian cut. More interestingly all three were very serious for the whole presentation, until I spoke and announced myself as having a differing viewpoint. They were all giggly not really taking me seriously.