From Jeff Morris

Belleville

To the Editor:

School spending is rising across southwestern Wisconsin, as it has been ever since a Democrat has been in charge of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and now sits in the Governor’s office. Enrollment is down. According to the Wisconsin DPI, between 52%- 62% of Monroe’s Elementary School third-grade students are unable to read at grade level. The taxpayers have blindly proven that spending more money hasn’t, isn’t, nor won’t improve results for students or their parents.

Yet New Glarus/Belleville’s School Board President is running for State Assembly on this record. Poor reading levels do not give our students the critical tools needed to prepare them to succeed in life. And when a third or more of students are continually graduated into the world with this kind of deficiency, society suffers from members who cannot perform.

Jon Aleckson’s school agenda is simple: more money for teachers and classrooms, less for bureaucracy. Review administrative staffing levels. Make budgets match the students actually being served. Apply savings to teacher pay and classroom resources. Give parents real transparency about spending, what is taught, and the real results. He even says administrators should teach at least one course a year so their mission becomes and stays “Teaching, not Managing”.

Jon is not guessing. He has a Ph.D. in educational leadership, taught at UW–Platteville, and spent decades building educational software. He knows the difference between dollars that reach a child and dollars that stay in a spreadsheet.

Teachers and students must be the priority. Taxpayers deserve to know what share of every education dollar actually reaches the classroom. That is accountability, not an attack on public schools.

I support public education, and I support teachers. I also support sending Jon Aleckson to the Assembly so District 50 has a voice for smarter schools instead of focused on growing administration.