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EQUAL
TIME |
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Response To Dave Hutchison's
Editorial
"Republicans May Soon
Dominate Wisconsin Government" |
Response
To Dave Hutchison's Editorial
By Door County Democratic Party Vice Chair William H. Perloff,
M.D.
June 24,
2008
I applaud Roger Utnehmer for his insightful editorial addressing the
politics of school funding reform, and appreciate Dave Hutchison’s
response.
Several points have been raised which deserve further consideration.
First is the
assumption, which Mr. Hutchison questions, that the Democrats will
control both houses of the legislature in 2009. The fact is that on
November 5th predictions will be irrelevant. Either the Democrats
will control the legislature or not.
More significantly, is the underlying issue addressed by Mr.
Utnehmer of the fairness and adequacy of property tax as a means of
funding our schools. Mr. Hutchison directs his attention to the
funding formula that favors schools with growing enrollments, and
raises concerns about where the money would come from if the state
assumed a larger burden of school support.
I believe that Mr. Hutchison has missed the essential thrust of Mr.
Utnehmer’s commentary: namely that our schools are seriously
underfunded, and that our children’s future will suffer without
fundamental changes in the assumptions that dictate our approach to
school funding. Everywhere in our state schools are eliminating
programs, reducing teaching staff and shrinking opportunities for
students that are important for their development.
One example of many is music, such as band, orchestra and chorus.
Many people would consider this a “frill” which can be safely
eliminated to make our schools more “lean”. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Playing in a band or orchestra teaches discipline,
teamwork, and organizational skills that translate into mathematics,
physics and language, among other fields. The developmental effects
of such experience are quite significant. A similar point can be
made about many of the so-called “nonacademic” activities that
schools have been forced to sacrifice in recent years.
The reform in school funding that is needed is to start with the
question: what are the elements of a quality education that will
make our young students competitive in the 21st century? Certainly
the answers must include a diversity of programs and salaries that
can attract the high quality teachers needed to impart them. Thus
our goals must be the educational results that prepare our children
for the future, not an “equalization formula”. Clearly we must find
the funds to achieve the educational goals, and a way to collect
them that is fair, but our primary objective must be to do the best
for our children. That is real “funding reform” of which we can be
proud.
If, in fact, the Democrats do gain control of the state government,
it is my hope that they will accept Mr. Utnehmer’s challenge to
produce real reform in the premises underlying support of our
educational system. |
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Response To Roger Utnehmer's
Editorial
"Democrats Will Soon Dominate
Wisconsin Government" |
Republicans
May Soon Dominate Wisconsin
Government
By Kewaunee County Republican Party Chair Dave Hutchison
June 20,
2008
 My good friend, Roger Utnehmer's assumption that the
Democrats will win a majority in the State Assembly this
fall and as result control the Assembly, the Senate and the
governor's office is a possibility but not a probability.
His second assumption that the Democrats will somehow do
away with the property tax to fund schools is an even
further stretch.
The Democrats do only need to pick up three Assembly seats
to gain the majority. That sounds like fairly achievable
goal, especially since the Republicans will have six open
seats and the Democrats only three.
But my sources in Madison tell me that two of the six open
seats are a virtual "lock" for the Republicans and one of
the Democrat's open seats is highly likely to be won by a
Republican.
If the Democrats won three of the open Republican seats,
that would mean that the Republicans would also have to lose
all of the open Democrat seats as well as not pick up any
other new seats.
According to my source, there are five or six seats that the
Democrats won in the last election that are going to be
highly contested and he predicted the GOP would win at least
two or three of them. My prediction on the Assembly after
the election: GOP, 53- Democrats, 46.
I agree with Roger that Wisconsin is disproportionately
dependent on the property tax for schools. But my question
is: Where would our state get the money to replace the
current multi-billions--and rising with each new budget--
that goes to fund our schools?
Maybe a better place to start is to take another look at the
state's equalization formula for funding schools. The
biggest problem with the formula is that it dramatically
favors increasing enrollment schools and is extremely unfair
to decreasing enrollment schools and we have several of the
latter in Door and Kewaunee County.
Now that is a problem that needs solving.
This is Dave Hutchison, Chair of the Republican Party of
Kewaunee County |
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The Party Of Family
Values Is Losing Its Value Of Families
by
Roger Utnehmer
DoorCountyDailyNews.com
President and General ManagerMay 30, 2007
Politicians proud of touting “family
values” are losing their value for families.
The immigration reform bill being
considered by Congress will divide families by requiring
undocumented parents of legal citizens to return to their
country of origin in order to obtain citizenship.
Another provision would establish a
temporary worker program with a new merit-based system for
awarding permanent resident visas. That would give more
weight to job skills and education and less to family ties.
Our immigration policy needs to be
tough on terrorists attempting to get into the country and
compassionate when it comes to keeping families together.
It is sad to see that Congress is about
to approve spending millions of dollars building a 370-mile
fence along the Mexican border. The visual image of the
United States of America is in danger of becoming a
barbed-wire, chain-link fence rather than the Statue of
Liberty and the hope she symbolized to so many of our
ancestors.
Tourism and agriculture, locally,
depend more on foreign labor than ever before.
Hotels, restaurants, nursing homes,
hospitals, meat plants, the construction industry and dairy
farms across America face a serious labor shortage. All need
foreign workers.
Without immigration reform that is as
compassionate with families as it is tough on terrorists,
Lady Liberty will be tarnished by the tears of broken
families with broken hearts.
Our borders need to be secure and our
value for families affirmed.
That’s my opinion. I’d like to hear yours. I’m Roger
Utnehmer. |
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Todd Lohenry's
Response... |
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| Todd Lohenry is chair of
the Kewaunee County Republican Party and a member of the
Algoma City Council. |
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I agree! Our borders need to
be secure and our value for families needs to be affirmed.
For American families that is...
The preamble to the
constitution states “We the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.”
These “blessings of liberty”
are available to all who legally enter the country
and embrace our values and we owe it to ourselves and our
posterity to protect what we have. Most countries have to
put up fences to keep people there against their will – we
need those fences to prevent people from stealing the
freedoms we enjoy.
Frankly I’m shocked that
your best argument is “tourism and agriculture, locally,
depend more on foreign labor than ever before.” Isn’t that a
little utilitarian? If that’s the only consideration, think
about this: Anchor babies alone cost this country $6
BILLION a year! You, “the media use young children, even
babies, as showpieces, arguing that if the government does
not legalize, or grant amnesty to their parents, then these
children will be left without mothers and fathers if their
parents are deported. It's one sob story after another.” WE
SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD THE CHEAP LABOR PROVIDED BY ILLEGAL
ALIENS!
In his epic speech ‘True
Americanism’, Teddy Roosevelt said in 1894“The mighty tide
of immigration to our shores has brought in its train much
of good and much of evil; and whether the good or the evil
shall predominate depends mainly on whether these newcomers
do or do not throw themselves heartily into our national
life, cease to be Europeans, and become Americans like the
rest of us.” He goes on to say “But where immigrants, or the
sons of immigrants, do not heartily and in good faith throw
in their lot with us, but cling to the speech, the customs,
the ways of life, and the habits of thought of the Old World
which they have left, they thereby harm both themselves and
us. If they remain alien elements, unassimilated, and with
interests separate from ours, they are mere obstructions to
the current of our national life, and, moreover, can get no
good from it themselves.”
The Statue of Liberty that
watches over Ellis Island is the same one that watched the
twin towers of the World Trade Center fall at the hands of
terrorists. She’s older and wiser now… |
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