Building on Victory - Next for
CAST
Join
with CAST to raise school finance reform to top of the
agenda!
The referendum passed - thanks to all for your support and hard work!
Now it's time to turn our energy to school finance reform!
Without changes in the way Wisconsin finances schools, Madison and
other districts will face a future of continued budget cuts and divisive
referendum battles. Our local state legislators supported the referendum
and support fair funding for schools. We need them to put school finance
reform on the top of their agenda for the next state budget.
Please join CAST on Wednesday, Dec. 3rd 6:30pm at Hawthorne Library
and help plan an event at the State Capitol in early January to meet our
legislators and ask for their leadership.
Let's plan a creative and constructive action that involves
everybody-- kids, parents, educators, grandparents. Bring your ideas!
Hawthorne Library is located at 2707 E. Washington Ave., 246-4548,
See for this link
for directions.
If you have questions or cannot join us on Dec. 3rd, but have an idea
or want to be part of the event in January, please contact Jill Jacklitz
at madisoncast@sbcglobal.net
Community and Schools Together
"Landslide," -- Thank You and
Congratulations
The
voters of Madison turned out in overwhelming numbers to demonstrate
their support for quality public schools. We are a community that
values education!
The Capital Times declares "Madison
school referendum passes in landslide." The Wisconsin
State Journal reports "Madison schools referendum passes by wide
margin." Full election results can be found on the County
Clerk site.
Thank you to all who worked hard on the
campaign, supported the
referendum and voted to keep our schools and community
strong.
Passing this referendum was essential, but the work goes on. Continued engagement
with our schools and our district will make the
Partnership Plan a reality and help make our schools even
better.
The way Wisconsin funds education is still
broken. As a partner in the Wisconsin
Alliance for Excellent Schools, CAST will be working hard to fix this, to make sure that
the resources are there to provide every child in Wisconsin
the education they need and deserve.
New from
CAST
New on
the web site is an up-to-date Endorsement
Page, including a letter signed by 49 local elected
officials.
The
Press/Media Page has also been updated, with videos, a radio
interview, many editorials and opinion pieces, more do-it-yourself
Advocacy material, and all the latest news reports.
Check out the district referendum
pages also.
Referendum
ballot language can be found here; for voting information visit the
Dane County League of Women
Voters site .
More updates coming soon.
The Capital Times says "Vote 'yes'
for..Schools"
The lead editorial in the
October 23, 2008 issue of the Capital Times makes a strong case
for voting yes on the school referendum, supporting our schools as an
obligation to our children and their futures, and fixing the broken
state school finance system. Here is an excerpt:
The bottom line is always
the same: doing right by the coming generation.
But the reality is not as
simple as that.
This is not a moment at
which to be satisfied with schools that do well by American
standards.
That coming generation of
which we speak will have to compete in a global economy where it will
not matter whether schools in Wisconsin are superior to those in
Indiana. What will matter is that young people educated in Madison are
prepared to hold there own against young people educated in London,
Frankfurt, Delhi and Shanghai.
And the only way that
will happen is if the Madison Metropolitan School District has the
resources required not merely to maintain but to expand upon its current
strengths.
Thanks to great teachers,
engaged parents, serious students and generous local taxpayers, MMSD
ranks ahead of most urban school districts in the nation. Even in times
of painfully cutting, quality has, for the most part, been
maintained.
But there is no resting
on laurels in this contest.
Heading toward the
2009-2010 school year, MMSD faces the threat of an $8.1 million deficit.
Additional deficits of $4.4 million in 2010-2011 and $4.3 million in
2011-12 are projected.
The deficit is not the
fault of the school district's administrators. The state of Wisconsin
continues to impose dysfunctional structural controls on how districts
manage their finances, while at the same time failing to meet promises
to provide adequate funding for education of students with special needs
and other required programs...
The only vote that makes sense is
"yes."
It is essential for everyone who is heading to the
polls on Nov. 4 to decide the presidential race between two men who say
education is a priority -- as well as every voter who casts an early
ballot -- and to make the extra effort to find the referendum question
and mark that "yes" box.
Wisconsin
State Journal Says "Vote
Yes."
In a October 19, 2008
lead editorial, the Wisconsin State Journal urges
voters to approve the November 4 school referendum. Here
is an excerpt:
Making the Madison School District's job even
harder are state laws that essentially require districts to spend at a
faster rate than they are allowed to collect revenue. To balance its
books, the Madison district has to trim programs and personnel each
year. Or it can go to referendum to ask voters for more money.
For years, trimming fat in the school budget was a
good exercise for the Madison district. But after more than a decade of
dealing with a state-created budget gap, the district is nearing a
breaking point.
Without the Nov. 4 referendum, direct and core
services for school children will suffer.
Madison should vote "yes" on Nov.
4.
About Community and Schools Together,
CAST
Welcome to the
Community and Schools Together, or CAST, website. CAST is a grass roots
organization of parents, educators, and community members. We at CAST are
dedicated to educating the citizens of Madison about school funding referenda
in the Madison Metropolitan School District. We welcome your ideas and
involvement as we strive for the successful passage of school funding
referenda.
CAST urges you as a taxpayer to educate yourself on the
issues and challenges facing our public schools. We want to provide you with
information from sources throughout the community and state so that you can
better understand the needs of our schools.
If you believe in
quality public schools for all as an integral part of our democracy, join us
in working to assure our schools have adequate resources. We look forward to
sharing a positive message about the future of the MMSD.