SP Alum Gains Fame!; Oh Yeah...Didja Hear About the Budget Repair Bill?

Yes, loyal readers, SP-EYE is well aware that Governor Walker's thinly veiled attack on collective bargain rights--hiding behind the title, "Budget Repair Bill"-- has launched massive, soon-to-be unprecedented, protests at the Capitol.  We happen to have obtained a few personal cellphone images of the rallies.


Oddly enough, the protests have served to swing the fickle finger of fame's spotlight onto one Sun Prairie alum (Class of 2005), whose video montage of the protests is apparently "going viral":
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/19/viral-video-the-view-from-the-front-lines-of-the-wisconsin-protests/.    Congratulations to Matt Wisniewski!


Oh...you wanna know what we think about the situation?
Well...since we just happen to be intimately familiar with the situation from the eyes of the state worker, we think our position is fairly clear.  There's simply no need to pillage unions to balance a budget.  Busting unions is not the answer.  Scott Walker and the Republicans (is that great band name?) have labelled public employees the "HAVES" and private sector workers the "HAVE NOTS".  We're not going to argue the point, we think the following article does a good job of making an unbiased analysis:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_d4093848-3c92-11e0-ac18-001cc4c03286.html

What we will say is that this is precisely what we have been warning the school board and school district for years.  It wasn't ONLY state employees "bloated" bennies that put the state in the mess it's in.  Again and again we've advocated for injections of fiscal conservatism.  To no avail.  But, I think we have people's attention now.  Now we are ALL in it: teachers, unions, state, municipal, and county workers.
And this is only the Budget REPAIR Bill.


On March 1, we will hear Walker's 2011-13 biennial budget plan.  Our sources indicate that among others, DPI will see a cut of $900 MILLION to $1 BILLION dollars.  That translates to a reduction in state equalized aid of approximately $500 per student.  In a typical year, state aid INCREASES by about $200 per student.  SPASD has about 7,000 students.  Do the math.


It means CUTS, people.  Deep, and mortal wounds to positions and programs.  Oh...and definitely no more sea bass dinners (Ahem!).
Stay tuned.