I begin here in acceptance
of all who are here who do not agree with us. I begin here in acknowledgement
all of those parents and lawmakers who do. I begin today with open arms to all
of my fellow aspiring teachers, as well as those who have been in their field
for years already. I begin with acceptance of your struggles, and knowledge of
your strife. I begin here in recognition of the toils you have gone through
these last years, since the passing of that horrendous legislation that renders
so many teachers beaten and downtrodden. I begin here, on the steps of our
capitol, in Madison, Wisconsin, to call you to speak out against that
legislation, to deny the law that brings your already meager earnings to less
than half the value of what you are being entrusted.
Today, we are standing
here to bring into direct fire the legislation that our Governor, Scott Walker,
approved on the 11th of February, 2011 known as Wisconsin Act 10. This
legislation, though an attempt to cut the admittedly considerable state deficit,
does arguably the most damage to our schools, which we cannot simply cut away
in hopes of improvement. This is the legislation that diminishes our school’s
already minimal funding. This is the legislation that takes from the unionized
workers in our state the right to bargain for their rights, to accumulate
tenure, and to gain those benefits that should be granted to every human. This
is the legislation that strips us of our rights. To strip us of these rights,
is to strip us of our very professionalism. To strip us of these rights, is to
strip us of our very autonomy. To strip us of these rights, is to strip us of
our very humanity.
We do not deserve this,
and our students do not deserve this. These children are our present as well as
our future. To give them anything less than the best is tantamount to failure
on our part, as well as on the part of every lawmaker who decides to deprive
them of those very resources that will help them to succeed. To stay silent
when we know this is wrong, is a failure to our students, and is a failure to ourselves,
who promised to dedicate our lives to the growth, development and fulfillment
of these students, every one of which has unlimited potential. We cannot stay
silent. We will not stay silent.
This is why, as a whole,
teachers need to unite in protest to this legislation, as well as all funding
cuts and all removals of our professional autonomy. We need to stand against
the onslaught of attacks against public education and education in general. We
need to stop the attempts to cut the way to better schools, and we need to gain
the ability to speak out against those policies that any right-minded law-maker
should so clearly be able to distinguish.
That is why we are
here, and that is why we stay.
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