Scott Walker, who rose to prominence attacking teachers unions, toppled by a former teacher
Tony Evers (D), Wisconsin’s state superintendent of public education and a former teacher, won the governor’s race against incumbent Scott Walker (R). Walker, who has undermined teachers unions and supported the underfunding of public education in the state throughout this career as governor, recently tried to recast himself as a champion for public schools. Voters didn’t buy it.
Walker became governor in 2010, survived a recall effort, and was re-elected in 2014 with 52 percent of the vote. For years, he was considered a rising Republican star.
Walker signed legislation that stripped the majority of Wisconsin’s public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights and made it harder for unions to collect dues and cut education by $1.2 billion during his first five years as governor. The former resulted in sweeping protests at the state capitol in 2011. Madison schools closed due to teacher sickouts in response to this proposal. He has only recently supported education funding increases, which Evers has approved of, but it still didn’t make up for those slashed education budgets.
After Walker’s actions maimed teachers unions, 10.5 percent of public school teachers in the state left the teaching profession after the 2010-2011 school year, according to a 2017 Center for American Progress report. That is an increase of 6.4 percent from the previous school year. Teachers in the 2015-2016 school year had less experience than teachers in 2010-2011 school year. Many teachers are also switching districts to receive better pay, hurting rural districts with less resources.
https://thinkprogress.org/scott-walker-loses-wisconsin-governor-race-former-teacher-tony-evers-bb503fabac1e/?fbclid=IwAR08kYzBBL6hOZjruwFU3lZWEhW4U4dO6LTckF6dgmrysPlo0Hdg3gEhlSM
The rural districts who just love Trump.
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