I’ve contended previously that, whatever the trouble with the State of Wisconsin’s budget, municipal and school district declarations that cuts made were forced as a consequence of declining state aid masks the responsibility and accountability for choosing one cut over another.
(See, Inbox: Reader Mail — Budget Cuts, General and Specific, Inbox: Reader Mail — Options for School District Budget Savings, and Dr. Steinhaus vs. Student: Student Wins!)
One sees now, not so long after the District declared that layoffs were inevitable because of the Wisconsin budget impasse, that layoffs are rescinded, an administrative salary freeze is possible, and other budget options may yet be available.
Good for those involved and affected – one need not succumb to a false inevitability.
Contending that specific cuts in Whitewater’s public school district were inevitable because of Governor Doyle, the Democrats in Madison, etc., was false. That responsibility, for the result, was always a local responsibility.
I’m not a Democrat, but a libertarian. Yet, for that difference, I’ve not thought to blame Governor Doyle for choices we make here, as we do have choices before us.
It may come that local politicians and bureaucrats of the City of Whitewater will be tempted to take this same tacking, and blame Madison for choosing between alternatives in Whitewater.
It will be no more true for our small town than it was for our small district.