Frederica Freyberg:

There was already a shortage of teachers in Wisconsin before COVID-19. But the pandemic only made it worse. The state Department of Public Instruction says schools are facing historic teacher shortages with fewer students pursuing education degrees. Democrats at the Capitol this week proposed a package of eight bills to address the critical need. One bill would set the minimum salary for Wisconsin teachers as the equivalent of what state legislators make. Now at just over $56,000. Another would create a recurring $7,000 bonus teachers would receive for every 5 years of service and another measure would set a $15 an hour minimum wage for student teachers. Milwaukee Senator LaTonya Johnson is among Democrats pursuing the bills. She joins us now. Thanks for being here.

LaTonya Johnson:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So people have been sounding the alarm over Wisconsin’s teacher shortage for years. How do you think these proposals will work to attract people to the profession and keep them there?

LaTonya Johnson:

I think that we have to do everything humanly possible to make sure that we are recruiting the best and the brightest minds to educate our children, and we know that even before the pandemic that was a hard obstacle to overcome. And now with the pandemic it has just exasperated the teacher shortage. So we have to do more in terms of providing loan payoff, and paying an equivalent starting wage to attract those individuals into our classroom.

Frederica Freyberg:

So is it mostly about pay? Or is it more that teachers or would be teachers need?

LaTonya Johnson:

It’s about pay but mostly about so much more. It’s about bringing the professionalism back to it status quo, and being professional. My Republican colleagues have scapegoated teachers and villainized teachers for so long that you have younger individuals not wanting to pursue a degree in teaching because they don’t see the profession as being appreciated or highly regarded. And we have to do more to attract those individuals into the profession, but also to bring it back to that professional status that it used to be long before Act 10.

Frederica Freyberg:

Where would the money come from to pay for the package?

LaTonya Johnson:

We have more than enough money to pay for the package. We have $1.7 billion sitting in our rainy-day fund. And we are anticipating $3.8 billion to come in GPR. So that’s a total of over $5 billion that we should invest back into our classrooms, and back into those individuals who are educating our children.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, Republicans in legislature are passing bills to expand school choice and parents’ rights around curriculum, for example, allowing parents to sue. What is your expectation that your proposals, your Democratic proposals will ever even get a vote?

LaTonya Johnson:

You know it’s going to be an uphill battle. And in most cases this legislation probably will never reach the floor to get a vote this session as it’s going to quickly come to an end in March. But we wanted to make sure that people knew that there are individuals out there, especially on the Democratic side, that are — we understand the need to have well-qualified teachers in the classroom teaching our most vulnerable and our most valuable. We have seen our — my Republican colleagues on the other side not show any care or concern, especially for public education. And I have to be honest about it. I am not against choice and charter schools. My daughter graduated from a private high school on choice. So I do understand the need. But I don’t understand the bias. In my Republican colleagues choosing to want to pit school systems against each other rather than adequately funding and making sure all school systems across the board have what they need, and the resources they need to provide a quality education to our children.

Frederica Freyberg:

Another Republican bill passed in the Assembly would break up Milwaukee Public Schools into smaller districts. We know it’s not the first time this has come around. As a senator who represents Milwaukee, what do you think of that proposal?

LaTonya Johnson:

It’s demeaning. Because we have failing schools that exist in our choice and charter systems too, and we aren’t doing anything to try and hold those schools accountable. We — Milwaukee Public Schools educates over 78,000 students. And out of that 78,000 students, over 62,000 of those students are impoverished and economically disadvantaged. Another 20% of those students are special needs and require special education funding which is exceptionally expensive. Rather than my colleagues doing what they need to do, to make sure that Milwaukee Public Schools has the resources that they need to adequately fund the schools, they choose to want to break it up. Milwaukee Public Schools in the past had something called a Milwaukee map partnership. That was a partnership with UW-M and the technical colleges in Milwaukee public schools. And we saw those math gaps close. We saw math improve in our public schools. And my Republican colleagues chose to not fund the program anymore, and it was cut out, and now we’re seeing those gaps come back again at a much larger rate. If they want to do things to improve and help Milwaukee Public Schools, they would fund those services that are most needed to close the gaps and stop trying to penalize a school system that is bigger than some of our counties.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Senator Johnson. Thanks very much.

LaTonya Johnson:

Thank you.