Hi Scott,
I just wanted to make you aware that the image that you and your people have painted of average university workers like myself has resulted in the dividing of neighbors and friends over gross and irresponsible misinformation about how "great" we've all had it. Here's what you didn't think about. The vast majority of us aren't making the 90k salaries of engineering professors with all our benefits paid. We're advisors, program assistants, custodians, maintenance personnel, secretaries, office managers, and so on. We make very modest salaries-well below our friends in the private sector who have paid more into their health care because a.) they make more and b.) those were the terms of the employment they agreed to. Our small salaries were cut by furlough days-I guess we all thought we'd made a real sacrifice and done our part. Now with what you propose, for me as a single mother this means no car, literally less food, certainly no newspaper or cable. Ha, what luxuries! Are your kids going to go without piano lessons and camp too, Scott? Are you going to ride your bike to work because you can't afford your car payment? Did you think about how this was going to be the very last nail in the coffin for scores of us who were literally just barely making it as it was, with our partners and spouses unemployed or underemployed, for years in some cases? Do you know there are people working full time in higher ed in Wisconsin who will now fall below the national poverty line?
Watch the talent fall away like rain. The brain drain from what was our state's crowning jewel, this once magificant state system of higher ed, now decimated by quick fixes and short sighted thinking. You've made it clear that you don't value higher education or what countless Wisconsinites worked so hard to build over the years. To have the governor turn his back on education and seek to destroy the backbone of what could ultimately refuel the economy-an educated populace-is an embarrasment. I am ashmaned and sickened by your lack of vision and leadership and resent your toying with my life and family's security and that of my remarkable colleagues who have devoted thier careers to helping people in the state of Wisconsin acheieve their dreams, indeed their highest potential. Higher education at its best is an incubator of hope. A taste of what's possible for students and their lives. Now that I can't participate in the economy other than to pay for watered down basics, I wonder what's really possible for the state under your direction? Good for you and your balanced budget. You can grow all the business in the state you want and I for one won't be able to buy a thing at your counter.
Watch the talent fall away like rain. The brain drain from what was our state's crowning jewel, this once magificant state system of higher ed, now decimated by quick fixes and short sighted thinking. You've made it clear that you don't value higher education or what countless Wisconsinites worked so hard to build over the years. To have the governor turn his back on education and seek to destroy the backbone of what could ultimately refuel the economy-an educated populace-is an embarrasment. I am ashmaned and sickened by your lack of vision and leadership and resent your toying with my life and family's security and that of my remarkable colleagues who have devoted thier careers to helping people in the state of Wisconsin acheieve their dreams, indeed their highest potential. Higher education at its best is an incubator of hope. A taste of what's possible for students and their lives. Now that I can't participate in the economy other than to pay for watered down basics, I wonder what's really possible for the state under your direction? Good for you and your balanced budget. You can grow all the business in the state you want and I for one won't be able to buy a thing at your counter.
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