WMC on Education: Investing in Public and Higher Education Should Not Be a Priority for State.

WMC Claim: "We need to pursue basic changes in the way we structure and deliver education in this state to include measuring outcomes, improving accountability, rewarding excellence, and encouraging innovation."

WMC Watch Reality Check: Wisconsin invests in having the best schools, students and teachers in the nation, while WMC fights against efforts to provide schools with the resources needed to remain competitive.

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WMC’s Harmful Agenda on Education

Legislation Supported WMC supported the “TABOR” gimmick which would have slashed funding available for local schools and caused teacher layoffs and devastated education programs for public school students. 2005 AB 58

Legislation Opposed WMC opposes providing parents with 16 hours of annual unpaid leave to attend school conference and functions for their children. 2009 AB 116 WMC opposes elimination of the punitive Qualified Economic Offer which punished teachers. 2007 SB 40 WMC opposes exempting schools districts from the gas tax when gas prices were at a record-setting $4 a gallon. 2007 AB 112

For more information about WMC's lobbying effort, click here to visit the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board's website about WMC.

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WMC's Education Agenda in the Media

Epic's good corporate citizenship
Capital Times, July 9, 2008

WMC, once a credible group, turned into a destructive entity years ago… Where it has succeeded, Wisconsin has suffered. To wit: 1. WMC has spent lavishly to aid candidates who have undermined public education by erecting barriers to adequate funding of local schools and strangling revenue streams essential to the state's university and technical college systems.

Wiley Blasts WMC's Influence
Wisconsin State Journal, August 22, 2008
By Mark Pitsch, Jason Stein and Deborah Ziff

In an incendiary parting shot, outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley reopened a feud with conservatives in and out of the Capitol by accusing the state's largest business lobby of undermining support for the school in the Legislature. Wiley's essay in the September 2008 issue of Madison Magazine criticized Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce for pursuing policies he said limited the flagship public school's growth and presented the biggest roadblock to the state's economic success.

A closer look at the school/finance puzzle - Tax burden shift is hurting our schools
Wisconsin State Journal, May 1, 2005
By Art Rainwater

Over the past several years, the tax burden in Wisconsin has shifted from a balance of tax revenues be-tween businesses and individuals to a more significant share of the taxation being placed on individuals. ... I fully understand the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce contention that lower taxes for busi-nesses means more jobs, but the Wisconsin that we all value so greatly has to include both a healthy and growing business community and a population that can afford to own a home and have a good quality of life.

TABOR a threat to UW
Capital Times, September 20, 2004
By Matt Pomer

Through a measure dubbed a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), conservatives are promising action when the new Legislature is sworn in early next year. Among those promoting the idea are Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and right-wing radio talk show figure Charles Sykes... "It would hurt us tremendously," says University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly. "We know what it did to Colorado. It has turned it into almost a private university."

Public education advocates call for end to tax loopholes in state
Wisconsin State Journal, April 10, 2003
By Doug Erickson

Wisconsin could avoid further cuts to K-12 education if it closed tax loopholes for certain businesses and reformed income tax regulations, advocates for public education charged Wednesday... Jim Pugh, spokesman for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, dismissed the schools group's proposal, saying the sales tax increases would result in thousands of lost jobs.