Education expected to be a 'major issue' in Walker recall election

Matthew DeFour:

Education is shaping up to be a key, yet complicated, issue in the upcoming recall election of Gov. Scott Walker.

Democrats vying to oust the first-term Republican say his cuts to state education funding are a top issue in the campaign, and it's as important or even more so than the issue that sparked the recall effort -- the governor's rollback of public employee collective bargaining.

"It's the major issue in the campaign why we're recalling the governor," said Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, one of four Democrats in the May 8 primary. "It comes back to the issue of priorities."

But Walker is telling voters the cuts were necessary to balance the state budget, and that collective bargaining changes have allowed school districts to become more efficient.

In recent weeks he's taken the fight to the state's largest teachers union over how to interpret the impact of the cuts. In a recent campaign ad he highlighted that school property taxes declined 1 percent this year statewide.

2012's Act 166 is Wisconsin's most substantive K-12 change in decades. Learn more, here.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 23, 2012 1:04 AM
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