Wednesday-go-to-meetin'

My union is in the process of conducting a Superintendent's Interim Report Card, so that he can get a sense of what we really think about him and his attempts to break our backs and our spirits. As I filled out my survey, I had to be honest, and give the superintendent high marks in a single area: The man fights for MPS in Madison, putting himself in the crosshairs of the Joint Finance Committee and other collections of anti-education Republicans who see it as their solemn duty to undermine public schools. So, as much as he screws us teachers out of MPS's limited resources, our superintendent does recognize that if those resources get more limited, it makes his job that much harder.

The same is true for some of the "reform" wing of our school board. While the "reform" majority on the board does favor private-school vouchers and the like, some of them do also see the benefits of fighting for the funds from Madison to do the job of public education.

Given the Joint Finance Committee Republicans' plans to underfund public schools, the MPS board has called an emergency meeting tonight to discuss the impact--up to $73 million over the next biennium--of the JFC's short-sightedness:

MPS Strategic Planning & Budget Committee
Emergency Worksession and Public Hearing on the State Legislature's K-12 Budget Proposal
Wednesday, 1 June, 2005, 6:30 p.m.
Central Services Auditorium
5225 W. Vliet Street

I don't think I can make it--my wife is sick and I am spending the early evening at Saturn getting new brakes--but any and all interested Milwaukeeans should try to be there.