Admit it.
Even though you are retired, you still think about the year in terms of
school terms—a new school year, first and second
semesters, Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas vacation, Presidents’ Day, spring
break, and summer!
It’s a new year for us, though
no longer back to school (though a number of us still frequent schools in a
variety of roles). And we have lots of
plans for RFArea REA for 2014-15.
The biggest change is that we are meeting on a new day—Thursdays—to make sure that as many of our members can
attend our meetings as possible. A number
of our members indicated that Wednesdays conflicted with too many other
obligations. So, we are going to meet the
second Thursday of every month at 11:00 a.m. during this year at the
West Wind Supper Club.
Ruth Wood, our Program Director,
has lined up an exciting calendar of events that promises to be interesting to
all of our members. Here is a tentative
schedule of dates and topics for the year. See below for an explanation of the
“monologue.”
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September 10, 2015
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Glenn Potts:
Investing and Managing Money in Retirement
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October 8, 2015
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Business and social meeting;
Get-to-know-you monologue
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November 12, 2015
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Minnesota historian Betty Bergland: Norwegian immigration to the upper Midwest
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December 10, 2015
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Business and social meeting—and
singing!
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January 14, 2016
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Travel Agent:
Opportunities and Adventures for Seniors
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February 11, 2016
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Business and social meeting;
Get-to-know-you monologue
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March 10, 2016
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Master Gardener:
Getting ready for spring
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April 14, 2016
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Business and social meeting;
Get-to-know-you monologue
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May 12, 2016
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Ruth Wood and Cheryl Maplethorpe: Interviews with Successful River Falls area
graduates
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June 9, 2016
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Winery
tour and wine tasting
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“MONOLOGUE” IDEAS FOR “SOCIAL” WREA MEETINGS
In the spirit of “getting to
know you,” we’re going to ask one or two members or guests at our bimonthly
“social” meetings to share some of their life learning and experiences with us.
With 10 minutes to speak and 4 for responding to listeners, you might talk on
one or more of the following subjects or one of your own choosing.
1. An
experience that changed your life for the better. What you were like before
that experience, how you became the great person you are since then.
2. A
funny story involving students, family, or friends
3. What
life has taught you about “nature vs. nurture.”
4. Observations
about a student, friend, family member you admire, what makes them
admirable—and maybe a little thrown in about what makes them as human as the
next person.
5. Something
that’s bothered you for a long time, the solutions you’ve pondered for its
resolution, and what you plan to do about it from here on out.
6. How
you conquered a shortcoming, such as getting your golf handicap down, accepting
the aging process, managing your messes . . . . This could involve both stories
and strategies.
7. A
self-assessment: what should we like/admire about you, what should we be leery
about.
8. A
goal you’ve aimed at that you haven’t quite reached, why you wanted it, how
you’re dealing with the incomplete process.
SCHOOL HAS STARTED, BUT WHERE ARE THE
TEACHERS?
By Laura Zlogar
The county fairs have come
and gone. The dog days of summer have
settled in. Target has been offering
back-to-school specials for months now.
Parents and children are anticipating the start of a new school
year. But where are the teachers?
The New York
Times (Aug. 9, 2015) reports a nationwide teacher shortage, especially in
places such as California and in the urban school districts of Louisville,
Nashville, Oklahoma City, Providence, R.I., and Charlotte, N.C. The Times
observes that at the height of the recession, from 2008-2012, California lost
82,000 jobs in schools and now needs more than 21,000 new teachers. Charlotte was still trying to fill 200
teaching positions within days of the start of school. In Wisconsin, districts across the state—from
Middleton to Whitewater to Fond du Lac to La Crosse—are reporting teacher
shortages. Schools across the state are facing similar, but perhaps smaller
scale, challenges.
Finding good teachers for
America’s children is not just a temporary problem. College students simply aren’t interested in
becoming teachers. According to the NY Times, students entering teacher
education programs in California dropped by more than 55% from 2008 to
2012. Nationally, teacher preparation
programs found a 30% drop in enrollment from 2010-2014. UW-Milwaukee’s School of Education reports (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 17 Aug. 2015)
that its enrollment has dropped from 2,135 in 2010 to 1,516 in 2014, a 29%
reduction. The supply of newly trained
teachers is rapidly declining, which is especially worrisome as more teachers
reach retirement age.
Districts are already finding
that the pool of qualified candidates is not deep. The Journal
Sentinel article cites the Portage school district as an example: whereas a job posting for an elementary teacher
used to draw more than 150 applicants, now it attracts perhaps 50. For more specialized positions, such as TESOL
(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) or Technology, there are no
applicants at all. The newspaper quotes
Marquette Dean of the College of Education Bill Henk: “Some principals have reported that they
couldn’t find the English and social studies teacher they sought . . . , and
normally that pool has an abundant supply of candidates.”
In a very unscientific survey
of my former students who are teaching around the area, it is clear that
Wisconsin school districts are facing real challenges. District-hopping is an increasingly common
occurrence. A teacher in northern
Wisconsin sees teachers from his district leaving for the larger Superior
school district because Superior’s teachers are moving across the state line to
Duluth—where they find better working conditions and pay supported by its
teachers union
Teachers are now “free
agents,” able to move wherever they can get the best compensation and
benefits. The Journal Sentinel also reports that such quick moves from one
district to another used to be prohibited or at least limited by union
contracts but “when the Legislature passed Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 law
curtailing public-sector union bargaining, those restrictions went away.”
A Hudson teacher has seen a
few of her colleagues move from Hudson to Minnesota, but not as many as in
smaller districts. As she notes, because
of Hudson’s rich tax base, it can afford to pay its teachers a competitive wage
whereas smaller districts cannot.
A teacher from St. Croix
Central school district reports stability in her school at the present time but
in a much smaller district in nearby Granton, finding well-qualified teachers
is increasingly difficult.
Some exploitive trends in
local hiring are disturbing. Several area
districts are offering student teachers “internships” paying $3500-$4000 to
teach full time without a mentor teacher, with all the responsibilities of a
full-time teacher but without the benefits.
The second is using long-term substitutes rather than hiring full-time
teachers. Certainly, schools often need
to replace a teacher temporarily, but districts are hiring young teachers,
assigning them full-time responsibilities without commensurate compensation.
One new teacher reports that
he was hired as a long-term sub at an 85% position only to be informed during
his second week that he would need to stay an additional hour every day to meet
the needs of his ESL students, bringing his job to the equivalent of 100%
(without the pay). He was also assigned
duties as the Gifted and Talented Coordinator mid-term without any increase in
pay. During this time, this teacher
received no health care or retirement benefits.
While the accelerated rate of
retirements certainly accounts for some of the shortages reported by my former
students, many factors contribute to the decline in the number of teachers in our
area and around the country. Certainly,
the governor’s prohibition of public-sector unions undermined any sense of job
security that teachers had. But other
causes are at work here also.
What young person would want to enter teaching at this
point? With the increase in standardized
testing and teachers’ job security and compensation being based upon their
students’ performance on math and reading scores, teachers no longer have the
freedom to function as the professionals they are but are forced to teach to
the test. (An interesting lawsuit is
underway right now regarding this matter, calling into question the whole
notion of “value-added measurement.” See
“Master Teacher Suing New York State over ‘Ineffective’ Rating Is Going to
Court,” Washington Post, 9 Aug.
2015.)
Why would someone want to
become a teacher when teachers are now the scapegoat for every social ill in
this country? Diana Hess, professor curriculum and instruction at UW-Madison,
remarks: “Teachers are getting a lot of
criticism—not just in Wisconsin, but across the nation. And there’s been a lot of rhetoric against
teachers and teaching. I think that for
a lot of young people, they think, ‘Well, why would I want to do that?’” Dan Rosmiller, director of government
relations for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards states, “There’s
agreement that interest in teaching has been declining for a decade or so, but
has dropped more in the past three years” (Erin Richards, “School Districts
Scramble to Find Teachers for Open Positions,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 Aug. 2015).
Those teachers who have jobs
and are sticking with them—at least for now—are finding a revolving door of
administrators (all intent on using a current job as a step to the next one),
classroom budgets cut drastically (which often translates to teachers using
their own diminished paychecks to supplement materials no longer supplied by
the districts), prep periods eliminated, responsibilities increased, and stress
intensifying. Is it any wonder that 40%
of those who do enter teaching leave the profession within five years?
For those of us who spent our
professional lives in the classroom, we are sad to see what has happened to our
profession, to our colleagues, and to the children and young people subject to
these changes.
EDITORIAL: WHO NEEDS EDUCATION?
By Bernie Brohaugh, President
Some adults never have
never grown up. They’d rather waste
their money on fun and games than invest it in institutions and programs like
public schools and universities that would do them and future generations more
good. Like the majority of legislators
in Madison who recently voted to squander more than $250 million taxpayer
dollars on a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Stadium
backers were mostly Republicans, including, predictably, our own Sheila
Harsdorf, though a Surprisingly, a small handful of Republicans
voted against the appropriations bill.
This group included Dean Knudson, who must be commended for his stand,
though it may well be the only issue he has ever defied his party on, despite a
host of wrong-headed proposals he has voted on since he got to Madison.
The
official appropriation is $250 million, but “hidden subsidies,” including twenty years
of interest payments, will bump up the figure another $250 million. Still, Governor Walker thinks it’s a
bargain. Supposedly, taxes on businesses
benefitting from the Bucks and income taxes paid by Bucks owners, players, and
other employees in the franchise will more than offset whatever the cost to
taxpayers may be.
Yet, professional
economists are not so sure. 85% of them
oppose subsidizing professional sports teams.
They say the return on the investment, if any, is substantially less
than could have been earned from other enterprises. Economists generally agree
that a subsidy to a professional sports franchise is largely money down the
drain-- that the only ones to benefit significantly are the franchise
owners. If our legislators have done
their homework, they know this. But they also know something else—something the
rest of us don’t know: “Real
estate mogul Jon Hammes, who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Republican candidates and causes, is a prominent member of the investor group that owns Milwaukee’s NBA team. Last
week CNN reported that he also will
serve as the Walker campaign’s national finance co-chairman. Days after that
appointment, Walker’s Republican allies in the Wisconsin state Senate backed the governor’s
proposal to spend public funds on a new arena for the Bucks” (Neil deMause, Field
of Schemes post, 16 July 2015).
So the Bucks get the bucks regardless of a poor winning
percentage and an even poorer attendance record. And the UW System budget is cut once again.
I have long maintained that anyone who runs for any elective
office should be required to prove that he or she can read, write, and reason objectively. It now appears that proof of maturity is also
in order.
THE WISCONSIN RETIREMENT SYSTEM REMAINS
HEALTHY, BUT THREATS CONTINUE
By Jane Harred, Legislative Chair
As you know if you’ve read
the latest issue of WREA’s “Red Apple Express,” the numbers for the Wisconsin
Retirement System still look good. WRS’s
preliminary returns as of 31 July were 2.8% for the Core Fund, meeting its
benchmark, and 3.7% for the Variable Trust Fund, coming very close to its
benchmark of 3.8%.
But this is no time to be complacent. Threats to the health of WRS continue, some
of them highlighted in stories to which the recent “Red Apple Express” provides
links. These threats include ever smaller
numbers of people in the retirement system as well as the governor’s attempt
two years ago to offer new state employees 401ks instead of contributions to
WRS, undermining the financial support of the trust fund, as do the smaller
numbers.
Another recent threat came in
a motion, attached by the Joint Finance Committee to the recently passed state
budget, to change the composition of the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement
Systems (JSCRS), the board that oversees the WRS. While an outcry from constituents got the
motion’s language removed from the budget, that doesn’t mean these attempts to
weaken and privatize WRS won’t continue.
The motion proposed changes
in JSCRS’s board that would have eliminated
the requirement that the minority party be represented among the members of
JSCRS. It would also have eliminated the
requirement that a citizen not enrolled in WRS be a member of JSCRS, eliminated
the requirement that an experienced actuary be on JSCRS, and eliminated the
requirement that the secretary of ETF or his/her designee be on JSCRS,
replacing these members with partisan legislators. The motion was introduced late at night with
no public hearing or debate.
I had an interesting exchange
with a member of Dean Knudson’s staff when I sent an email objecting to the
motion’s proposed changes.
In response to my concerns,
the staffer assured me that the proposed changes would essentially change
nothing because the motion’s language “does not reflect a change in policy or a
change in the way WRS is run” and that “the committee has no power regarding
the management of WRS.” I wrote back,
asking why, if nothing essentially would change, the motion was introduced by
the JFC at all.
The staffer responded, saying
that the rationale for the change was that “having elected officials that are
accountable to voters on the committee was better than having appointed
bureaucrats approving bills.” This
response did nothing to allay my concerns and raised new ones, which I
expressed in another email to the staffer.
If the JFC was concerned with accountability, I wondered first of all,
why introduce the motion late at night with no public announcement and no
public hearing?
I also asked how, if the
members of JSCRS can “approve bills,” we could be assured that those bills
would not substantially change the management or character of WRS, particularly
if the committee was made up entirely of legislators from a single political
party.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME
It’s that time of year again—time to renew your membership to RFArea REA
and to WREA. Annual local dues are $10 per year. Annual state dues are $50. The membership year
runs from October 1st to June 30th.
You can mail both your local
and state dues to Treasurer Laura Zlogar at 729 River Ridge Ct., River Falls,
WI 54022. If you would prefer to renew
your state membership online, you can do so at www.wrea.net. Or you can
bring your dues to our first unit meeting on Sept. 10th.
As Jane Harred points out
above, the Wisconsin Retirement System is currently healthy and is considered one
of the most admired public retirement funds in the country. However, this is no time to be complacent,
especially in light of the recent midnight-hour maneuvers that some politicians
have tried to make that would, no doubt, undermine the system and our pensions.
WREA keeps watch on
legislation that might harm WRS. WREA
alerts its members to threats to the system so that we can raise our voices and
let legislators know exactly what we think about their actions and impending legislation.
WREA also offers us a number
of benefits such as access to low-cost health, dental, and vision insurance;
free hearing screenings; and discounts on hotels, restaurants, rental cars, and
travel. The full list can be found at https://www.wrea.net/benefits/index.asp.
Our local unit supports the
efforts of WREA, provides scholarships to local high school students
headed to college, offers a
variety of programs on topics of interest to all of us, and provides us with a
social network for former teachers, administrators, and support staff.
JUNE 2015 PICNIC—AND
NEW PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR
Our
plan for an afternoon picnic followed by a Fighting Fish baseball game didn’t
quite go as planned. After a morning
rain, the cool afternoon made us glad that we were inside the Hoffman Park
shelter. A few diehard members did show
up for a nice time spent sharing food and conversation—Bernie and Karen
Brohaugh, Jane and Larry Harred, Doug Johnson, Jean Loudon (who brought a
friend), Margarita Hendrickson, and Laura Zlogar.
Although the rain had stopped,
the bleachers were wet, the sun was not shining, so all of us opted not to
attend the game. So much for what seemed
like a good idea.
After some discussion, the
Executive Board decided that the picnic is just not a draw for our membership
despite its appeal for other WREA units.
We are going to give one more
idea a try. Next June, we have planned a
WINERY TOUR AND TASTING! We haven’t yet chosen the specific winery we
are going to visit, so if you have a favorite in the vicinity, please let Ruth
Wood know. Here is a list of some of the
wineries close by.
Northern Vineyards Winery,
223 Main St. N, Stillwater, MN
St. Croix Vineyards, 6428
Manning Avenue, Stillwater, MN
Belle Vinez Vineyard and Winery, W10887 875th
Avenue, River Falls, WI
Sixty-Five Vines Winery, 1105
Coulee Trail, Roberts, WI
Cracked Barrel Winery, 570
Coulee Trail, Hudson, WI
Vino in the Valley Winery,
W3816 450th Ave., Maiden Rock, WI
Cottage Winery and Vineyard,
N7391 County Road F, Menomonie, WI
Chateau St. Croix Winery,
1998 Highway 87, St. Croix Falls, WI
Falconer Vineyards, Red Wing,
MN
Maiden Rock Winery and
Cidery, Stockholm, WI
Danzinger Vineyards, Alma, WI
Seven Hawks Vineyards,
Fountain Valley, WI
Villa Bellezza, 1420 3rd
St., Pepin, WI
We haven’t yet chosen the
specific winery we are going to visit, so if you have a favorite in the
vicinity, please let Ruth Wood know.
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