Improtant Letter from Dr. Jennifer Thayer, Superintendent of the New Glarus School District

School District of New Glarus

P. O. Box 7 District (608) 527-2410

1701 Second Street Fax (608) 527-5101

New Glarus, WI 53574 www.ngsd.k12.wi.us

June 1, 2015

Dear New Glarus Parents and Residents,

Recently the funding of education has been making headlines around the state with the debate of the budget bill in Madison. Most recently, the Joint Finance Committee has put forward a thirty page education package that proposes the following:

• For the first time, Wisconsin will likely fall below the national average in per pupil spending.
• Wisconsin will have seen a 15% decrease in per pupil spending for public education since 2008.
• In the coming budget, public schools will have less state general aid than in 2010.
• Wisconsin will be one of only 5 states that have been keeping spending on public education close to flat. All other states have been increasing spending on education at an average of 4%.
• Under current statute, public school students can open enroll to other public school districts. A total of $6,635.00 follows that student to their new school. Under the proposed legislation, public school students can also enroll in a voucher school (a non-public school approved by the state). A voucher of $7,210.00 for K-8 students and $7,856.00 for high school students follows that student to their voucher school. Therefore, non-public students are eligible for 18% more funding than public school students.
• Besides budget related items, the budget bill also includes many policy items that were added in the middle of the night, with no discussion, and that have nothing to do with the state budget. These policy related items include special education vouchers, home school and private school students participating on high school sports teams, “learning portfolios” for graduation credit, licensing teachers without an education degree, and a new civics test a student must take and pass before they can graduate.

In New Glarus we have been striving for excellence and have received many awards and recognitions to show that we are making great strides toward that goal. If you agree that maintaining our public schools is important, please become educated on what is in the current budget bill and how it will affect our school system. There is not much time to affect change, but if you have reason to oppose any items in the Omnibus Education Bill please be sure to register your thoughts, concerns and opposition.

To begin, it is always good to let your elected representatives hear from you.  The following links identify legislative districts and legislators.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/legislators/assembly

http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/legislators/senate

It is also important to reach out to Assembly and Senate leadership who will be controlling the agenda, issues and debate at the caucus level, which is likely to begin sometime the week of June 8. Representatives Voss and Murtha  (Rep.Murtha@legis.wisconsin.gov  Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov) will be leading the Assembly discussions while Senators Fitzgerald and Harsdorf (Sen.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov  Sen.Harsdorf@legis.wisconsin.gov)  will be doing the same in the Senate.   Reaching out directly to the Governor is also appropriate since he can line-item veto if these measures pass through the caucus process (http://www.walker.wisconsin.gov/contact-us).

As always, thank you for your support of public education and our students. They truly are our future!

If you have questions about any of the measures in the Omnibus Education Bill, please feel free to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer Thayer

Superintendent, New Glarus School District

I'm proud to be a Democrat.

The following essay is written by
Sandy Rindy

Member and Vice-Chair of the Green County Democrats

I grew up, like many, in a middle class family. My dad was a railroad engineer and member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Union, and my mom ran our family-owned country store along with being very active in our small community. Both of my grandfathers were politically active in their own way and my grandmother was a member of the WRC (Womens Relief Corp).

Civic duty was very important to my family. At a very young age I remember going into the voting booth with my mom. Granted, I was at an age where the most fascinating part of the election was mom letting me pull the lever to make the curtain close . . . yes I'm that old and yes you went into a closed booth.

I was then fortunate enough to grow up in a time that our public school system still taught civics. Not just a week or semester of it, but an entire year (I believe it was in eighth grade). It was in the summer of 1971 that 18 year olds were given the right to vote and I couldn't wait for my very first election in 1976 when I proudly cast my vote for President Jimmy Carter! I will humbly admit to a “hiccup” in my belief system and learned my lesson in ideology in 1980 . . . I voted for John Anderson and well we know how that election ended up. I kick myself to this day when I think of how much better off we would have been as a country with President Carter for a second term, rather than the beginnings of eight years of “Reaganomics”!!

Independent thinking is very important, but voting for an independent can be dangerous to our democracy. Admittedly there were other factors at work against President Carter in 1980, but looking back in recent history, the third party vote during a presidential election works as a spoiler. In 1992 Ross Perot ran on the Reform Party ticket which worked as a spoiler for then Republican President George H W Bush. In 2000 Ralph Nader ran on the Green Party ticket, a spoiler for Democratic Vice President Al Gore.

Like it or not, our county is a two party system. The third party may work for State level races, but when it comes to electing a president, I feel we must come together under a unified tent. Granted, the tent gets battered from time to time and needs repairs. I think we are experiencing one of those times now. Therefore, regardless of who wins the Democratic primary, I will proudly vote Democratic in the general election and do my part to help put this party tent back on a Progressive track. A Progressive movement . . . now that's another interesting topic to ponder, but for another day.

I hope you'll join me in educating and revitalizing our middle class and young electorate. But most importantly . . . VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION!! There is never a good reason to miss exercising your right to vote. If you can't make it to the polls, vote on an absentee ballot.

GRUMP fighting for public education.

Share this with everyone you know that cares about the future of public education.

What exactly is a GRUMP?

Here's our definition:

Definition : grand · par · ents

1. your grandchildren don't live in Madison ...but you support public education and you understand the need.
2. You aren't a grandparent, but you are older and understand the value of good schools for succeeding generations and the community.
3. You have grandchildren and they are attending MMSD

For more information on GRUMP go to  http://www.madcitygrumps.com/index.html

Our new State Party Chair wastes no time getting down to business.

On Saturday June 6th, delegates from all corners of the state turned out in record numbers to elect Martha Laning the new Chair of the DPW (Democratic Party of Wisconsin), replacing three term Chair Mike Tate.

Working with her team and Ernie Wittwer, the newly elected leader of the County Chairs Association, Martha addressed all County Chairs and Co-Chairs in a conference call Wednesday, June 10th.  In her efforts to move our state party forward, she is having a survey sent to all 72 counties asking for input on what is needed from DPW to assist in their efforts to win back legislative seats and return Wisconsin to a "blue" Progressive state.  We received that survey two days later!

On June 11th Martha, a former auditor, wrote to State Attorney General Brad Schimel regarding news that he is creating an "Office of Open Government" and asked for the release of documents related to loans extended by WEDC (Wisconsin Economic Development Corp).

Here is a link to Martha Laning's letter:

http://webiva-downton.s3.amazonaws.com/477/82/9/3161/6.11.15LetterToSchimel-signed.pdf

Kicking Controls Out the Window No UW Oversight by LAB a Recipe for Corruption

June 10, 2015

"Suspend current law…requiring the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct an annual financial audit of the UW System. Instead, require the UW System to contract with an independent accounting firm,” read the motion introduced by Senator Harsdorf and Representative Schraa.

Recent action by a majority of the state’s budget writing committee not only kicked the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) out of the UW System but also approved a process to get rid of state purchasing laws at the UW and waive the state’s bidding process for some UW building projects.

The motion effectively throws Wisconsin taxpayer controls out the window for a significant portion of the state budget. The UW System 2-year budget is over $11 billion – about a 7th of the entire state budget.

To justify suspending the LAB’s annual UW audit, the Harsdorf/Schraa motion required UW officials to contract with a private accounting firm.

This action kicked out the watchdog and replaced it with a goldfish.

Private accounting firms count things. They can tell us money was spent and the books were balanced. But their reports won’t tell us about how the money was spent and whether or not the spending was in students’ and taxpayers’ best interest.

Since its creation in 1966, financial audits are a primary responsibility of the Legislative Audit Bureau. In the past two years, the LAB completed 26 financial audits – including the audit opinion of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) of state operations.

In a recent letter to the Co-Chairs of the Legislative Audit Committee, State Auditor Joe Chrisman explained: “In conducting financial audits, LAB follows professional auditing standards issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as generally accepted government auditing standards issued by the Comptroller General of theUnited States.”

The LAB financial auditors adhere to the same standards as private firms. They are required to be independent and sharpen their skills and knowledge through continuing education. Every three years the National State Auditors Association subjects the LAB to peer review. State law prohibits any meddling or outside influence with audit investigations and protects whistleblowers with strong confidentiality rules.

The LAB has extensive experience auditing the over $6 billion annual UW System budget.

Over the last 8 years or so the LAB reported on the following: how the UW allocates state tax money and tuition to campuses; the process followed to assess the financial reporting of entities like the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF); overpayments for retirement contributions and health insurance (some of the health insurance contributions were for employees no longer with the UW); audit differences including financial reporting errors by the UW System; changes in financial activities of the UW including an increase in unrestricted net assets; and internal controls.

The UW does not hire the LAB. Auditors answer to the State Auditor who answers to the Legislature, who answers to the people. No private firm involved.

The LAB answers questions my colleagues, taxpayers and I most often ask: What’s going on? How is it working? Can we do things better?

Kick out the LAB? Doing away with state procurement policies on contracting and hiring private firms? Doing away with some bidding rules? Contracting with a private auditing firm who knows nothing about the complex accounting and operations of the UW?

When I reviewed the Harsdorf/Schraa motion, I was left with a serious question: Why?

Recently Representatives Craig (R-Big Bend) and Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) drafted a bill to entirely eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau and the Legislative Audit Committee. They want to create an Inspector General for each state agency over 100 employees. They transfer all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders. Their bill imbeds auditors in the agencies making them ripe for corruption by executive staff and partisan leaders.

The breadth of the Representatives’ ignorance of LAB activities and processes is staggering. Their bill shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of auditors, the efficiencies in government LAB staff helped created and the fraud, waste and abuse auditors discovered and further prevented through their oversight. All I can ask is why would legislators want do away with the LAB?