Wake Up! Waukesha
Jay, who has lived in the Waukesha area for nearly 20 years, is an active volunteer who serves on numerous local boards and committees. He’s married to Colleen with three kids having gone through the Waukesha schools. He is the VP of a local distribution company and currently serves on several area Boards.
How local politicians "don't" get involved...
By Jay Walt
Monday, Apr 23 2007, 08:45 PM
I just can’t take the political “non-speak” coming from some of “our” local elected officials much more at this time…
State Representative Rich Zipperer comes to a Town of Brookfield Annual Meeting; addresses the attendees; extols his day of toils including “pushing” through legislation which is later found to have no chance of success in the Senate…Great – nice day’s work…And he seems like a nice guy. He then welcomes comments and questions.
When asked about the issue of education right here in Waukesha, he offers – “We’re perceived by the rest of the State as already getting more than our share…” When asked again for a direct answer on what he is doing for his Waukesha area, he replied “you needed everybody on board before the process could start!” HUH ?!? A consensus before you start?? That smacks of back-room deals at the State level! He never answered the question! …Period!
State Senator Mary Lazich recently produced a guest editorial in a local competing Waukesha paper which ran probably 800 words or so. She gave a compelling fact-filled recitation of how much money is given to education in Wisconsin and how much more funding schools get here than elsewhere.
And that was it!!! No plan of review; no desire to get further involved; no cognizance of the Waukesha District’s plight right now; not even a glimmer that other Districts are in trouble right behind Waukesha. I kid you not! Pull the article and you can almost hear her near-tears plight that the State is not responsible – “they give education a lot of money”!
Have some fun with this particular Senator – Go back a month or so ago when seniors were (ridiculously) barred from Bingo at Southridge…Follow her riding in on a white stallion to save her seniors while she pounced on the State Bureaucrats (her own…) to fix this ridiculous law!! And she was certainly not publicity-shy as she trumpeted her every move, effort, and comment to any and every available press outlet.
The results:
Bingo (a strong senior voting bloc) – She will move mountains to “right this misapplied miscarriage of common sense and justice”!
Education (students, our future, taxes) – She will adamantly hide behind “The State gives a ton of money to education – it’s not my problem…”
Enough – I will state my true beliefs: Taxes are high enough; there is a lot of money given to education funding; and there are other needs at both the local and State levels.” And I continue…”And our State leadership is desperately needed to revamp their own State mandates while getting together in a non-partisan effort to save the long-term quality of education!”
PSSSSTTT - Here’s a tip…Try getting all education shareholders together and start a dialogue towards problem-solving this issue right now.
…It’s really starting to resemble the Scott Jensen era of “non-involvement” for the Waukesha constituents again…
