Rep. Jonathan Brostoff
Press Release

Rep. Brostoff Reintroduces Public Education Reinvestment Act (PERA)

“Every Kid in Our State Deserves Access to High-Quality Public Education”

By - Jan 28th, 2020 04:04 pm

MADISON – This afternoon, State Representative Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee), State Representative Marisabel Cabrera (D-Milwaukee), and other legislative partners reintroduced the Public Education Reinvestment Act (PERA), legislation that would strengthen our state’s public schools and put Wisconsin on the path to ending the failed voucher school experiment that has undermined our state’s education system for too long. In support of this important proposal, Rep. Brostoff released the following statement:

“Public education in Wisconsin and the United States is under attack. Over the past few decades, school privatizers like Betsy DeVos have bought enough politicians to ram through school voucher programs across the country, often under the cover of darkness and without meaningful public input. These privatizers and their allies have shown a willingness to sell out our nation’s children for the sake of lining their own pockets. With PERA, Wisconsinites can be proud and say it loud: public dollars should remain in the hands of the public, and every kid in our state deserves access to high-quality public education.”

The Public Education Reinvestment Act (PERA) would reinstate and expand the former Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program while phasing out Wisconsin’s failed voucher school experiment, ensuring that Wisconsinites’ hard-earned tax dollars earmarked for education go towards providing a high-quality public education to every student in our state who wants one. Years of research have shown that voucher programs siphon significant amounts of money away from public school districts while performing at the same level or worse than traditional public schools, contrary to the promises made by school voucher advocates.

“These privatizers are so afraid of the truth that no less than the Vice President put my name in his mouth today when he spoke at the Wisconsin School Choice Showcase at the Capitol. Well, I have one message for Mike Pence: you work on not locking up any more innocent children; I’ll work on public education in Wisconsin… and keep my name out your mouth.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

Mentioned in This Press Release

One thought on “Rep. Brostoff Reintroduces Public Education Reinvestment Act (PERA)”

  1. Barbara Richards says:

    Thank you State Representative Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee), State Representative Marisabel Cabrera (D-Milwaukee), and others. Yes, making money off of children is not acceptable to me. Privatization is about the money not the children. I saw the decline of the religious schools when they depended on their faithful members who were getting older and had fewer children to send. I see now the refurbished buildings of the same schools enhanced by my tax dollars, philanthropy, and some parents who pay. Their funding stream is diverse. Meanwhile public schools receive less and less and are asked to do more. When you remove the students whose parents have means and dreams and leave behind those who have been left behind so many hundreds of years with dreams deferred, you have created a failing system.

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