This teacher in Wisconsin disagrees.
When your class sizes grow larger, it’s personal.
When the classroom lacks the resources it needs, it’s personal.
When this teacher’s family must make do with less, it’s personal.
When the governor takes advice from businessmen but not educators about how to fix schools, it’s personal.
It just isn’t personal for Governor Walker.
The question before the June 5 recall election in Wisconsin was whether big money would be enough to carry Governor Scott Walker to victory.
Now we know. Money was more than enough.
When I heard the results last night, I was disappointed but not surprised. The polls were discouraging, and they were right. People power was not sufficient to overcome the enormous advantage that Walker had as a result of the millions of dollars that poured in from out-of-state people. Walker had become the poster boy for the hard-right, having stripped collective bargaining rights from working people and demonized their unions.
What hope is there for the future? Plenty. We know from history that bad ideas may prevail for a time, but with enough work, even the worst of autocracies and regimes die. Bad things don’t last forever. They don’t die by themselves; they don’t collapse. They die because of determined, relentless opposition from those who understand what is at stake for their children and their society and who are willing to take personal risks to stand up for what is right. Fools, liars, miscreants, authoritarians, and evil-doers are eventually exposed (this list of adjectives describes many of those now in power, here and elsewhere–it is not a personal reference to Walker).
There will be another election, and next time those who seek a better society for their children and everyone else’s must do more to win popular support.
Walker’s victory was a tremendous loss for our nation. It will embolden the hard right to renew their mean-spirited attacks on those who do the daily work of serving the public. It will embolden those members of the 1% to keep pouring millions into the coffers of those who protect their privilege.
The work of educating the public now begins again. The change will happen. It is up to each of us to do what we can, when we can, where we can, how we can, to make it happen.
Diane
P.S. There is a light in the midst of the darkness. The Democrats seem to have captured control of the Wisconsin Senate by one vote. They won’t be able to roll back any of Walker’s destructive legislation, but they can stop further damage to education, children, and the environment.
Wisconsin has a recall election on June 5. On that date, the voters of the state will decide whether they want Scott Walker to finish out his term or to leave Madison. There are also four Republican state senators on the same ballot.
This article in the New York Times magazine explains the issues and sets them into context. It shows that Scott Walker is an ideologue of the worst stripe. He has rammed through an extremist agenda. He is uncompromising. He wants to get rid of collective bargaining and privatize public education. In his rush to open the state for business, he wants to roll back environmental regulation. And that’s not all. Read the article and see just how far these guys will go to take American society back a century and to abandon any public responsibility for anything.
Scott Walker has the financing of the most reactionary elements in American politics. His policies seek to make corporate greed respectable.
As the article shows, the Wisconsin Idea once meant that legislation should help as many people as possible. The Scott Walker idea is that legislation should help corporations get richer.
For the first time in my life, I wish I were a resident of Wisconsin so I could cast my ballot on June 5 for anyone but Walker.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 