Rally, march about school funding issues begin in Palmyra on Saturday
By Todd Mishler
Copy Editor
They did not seek the spotlight, especially not for this reason. But members of the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District family will wear that banner again starting this Saturday.
PEASD faces dissolution following the upcoming school year after voters shot down a four-year, nonrecurring referendum in April.
And despite such a dire outlook for many parents and students— at least for those who haven’t open enrolled out already — some of them are continuing their fight, and they’re taking it to the state Capitol.
Palmyra is the host site for a rally, which starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, and the kick-off of the March to Madison.
The approximately 60-mile journey will culminate on Tuesday (June 25) in hopes that lawmakers, particularly Republicans in charge of the state Assembly and Senate, will heed their rallying cry about education funding as representatives debate the new biennial state budget.
Led by the Wisconsin Public Education Network, which bills itself as a grassroots, nonpartisan coalition, local supporters of the cause will be walking and making sure their voices are heard while advocating to get the funding they say their kids deserve.
“Somebody up in the Milwaukee area was the brainchild, but they decided to support our district and put the spotlight on our situation,” Tara LeRoy said of beginning the march in Palmyra. “We’re hoping this rally and march illustrate to people how real this has become. We could be the first school in the state to ever be dissolved in this process, but many other districts are facing the same problems.”
The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, on a party-line vote, recently moved its version of the state budget forward, approving a $500 million increase in education funding, around $900 million less than Gov. Tony Evers proposed.
That included a $97 million raise for special education, with the reimbursement rate increasing from the current 25 percent to 26 percent and then 30 percent in the two years. However, that is a drop in the bucket compared to what Evers asked for: $606 million. The Wisconsin Education Association Council points out on its website that JFC Republicans support continuing the 90 percent special education reimbursement rate for private voucher schools.
And thus, public school proponents have issued a call to action, especially in places such as PEASD.
“We want to stress that the march is starting in Palmyra to highlight the impact that inadequate state funding of schools has on local communities,” said LeRoy, who grew up on a farm in Jefferson County and whose husband, Tom, and his family have deep roots in the school district. “The way that the funding system works is forcing districts statewide to go to referenda, and here in Palmyra-Eagle the community and kids are suffering the most in the entire state.
“At this point we’re losing our school district and can’t lose anymore,” added LeRoy, who pointed out that most of the other area districts have or will be receiving PEASD students have undergone or will be undergoing referendums.
So, they plan to walk. And other participants can join them for as little or as much as they want along the route, which will cover an ambitious goal of 16 to 18 miles per day the first three days, with lunch stops and local rallies planned along the way.
The first leg on Saturday will go from Palmyra to Hebron and finish in Fort Atkinson.
The final leg on Wednesday is a 12.5-mile jaunt from Sun Prairie to Madison East High School and the final two miles to the Capitol and a final call to action.
LeRoy, who has two children in the PEASD, and others in her camp from around the area and state face the proverbial uphill climb, but she said they simply are demanding funding fairness in an environment in which education budgets don’t keep up with inflation.
They want lawmakers to restore the special education funds and aid for mental health, poverty and English Language Learners that was cut from Evers’ budget proposal.
“The politicians and lawmakers don’t realize what (these cuts) do to students and parents and don’t understand what they’re asking us to do,” LeRoy said. “We have a lot of farmland in Jefferson County, and we have 25,000 acres of state forest in our school district. You can’t build or expand the tax base.
“This has been so heartbreaking for us on so many levels … I still don’t think a lot of people understood the referendum and the ramifications,” LeRoy added. “We’ve been scraping to make ends meet, and doing it with table scraps (from the state). These politicians don’t have to look these kids in the eyes.”
For more information about the Wisconsin Public Education Network or the March to Madison, visit www.wisconsinnetwork.org or contact Heather DuBois Bourenane at hdb@WisconsinNetwork.org or 608-572-1696.
