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The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:

Schools across the state open their doors for the new school year and a new score of challenges. Election officials want to bolster resources and one of the top health systems in the state girds itself for an impending nurses strike.

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” an English teacher’s take on a book not being allowed in classrooms. Election administrator Meagan Wolfe on a new office combating misinformation. A UW Health nurse on why there are imminent plans to strike. And just in time for Labor Day, the latest state jobs report. It’s “Here & Now” for September 2nd.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers this week announced he is giving $90 million more dollars of federal COVID-19 relief aid to Wisconsin K-12 schools. This additional boost comes as students across the state are back in schools. Many of which are struggling to put a licensed teacher at the front of the classroom. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz caught up with the leading candidates for governor and asked them what they think caused the staffing shortage and what the state can do to help.

Tim Michels:

And it all starts with education.

Zac Schultz:

Republican Tim Michels has a few lines in his stump speech that refer to education in Wisconsin. But the only reference to educators talks about empowering parents to shut down “woke teachers” who supposedly teach about critical race theory.

Tim Michels:

We are going to put parents back in charge of education and we are going to stop the CRT and get back to the ABC’s.

Zac Schultz:

When asked directly about the staffing shortage, Michels says it’s politics that are driving teachers out of the profession.

Tim Michels:

Teachers are frustrated. They don’t feel like the administration has their back and I hear that from teachers. That’s not my opinion. Everywhere I go, teachers are saying, “I love my students. I love working hard. I love teaching, but I feel like it has become so political and so bureaucratic.”

Zac Schultz:

Democrat Tony Evers agrees politics are driving teachers out but in a different way.

Tony Evers:

I think people have disrespected teachers, especially politicians, over the last several years. And they don’t get paid enough. So those are kind of two basic things. Those things aren’t going to be changed overnight. And so I do believe that at the end of the day, we have to continue to support our teachers and our schools and provide the resources they need.

Zac Schultz:

As for what to do about it, Michels says the solution isn’t in the state budget, meaning more funding for schools.

Tim Michels:

It starts with leadership at the very top. And it starts with the guidance we are giving those school administrators and it starts with DPI and all the other institutions that are out there.

Zac Schultz:

But Evers say the solution is actually quite simple.

Tony Evers:

I think increasing teachers’ wages and essentially start respecting what they do.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Wauwatosa, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:

As we just heard, Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels said he wants K-12 schools to stop teaching critical race theory, which they actually don’t. Just by way of definition according to experts, critical race theory is a high-level academic concept holding that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but historically embedded in legal systems and policies. In Wisconsin, recent local examples of the culture war within schools include the Muskego School Board excluding an award-winning book for tenth grade English titled “When the Emperor was Divine.” It’s a novel that follows a Japanese American family incarcerated by the American government during World War II. For more on this, we turn to Kabby Hong, Verona area high school English teacher, recently named teacher of the year and a member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition of Wisconsin for his reaction. Thanks for being here.

Kabby Hong:

It’s a pleasure being with you.

Frederica Freyberg:

As a new school year starts in Muskego, tenth graders there will not be assigned “When the Emperor was Divine.” You’ve said your organization must not stay silent on this. Why not?

Kabby Hong:

I think it’s important for all of our kids, not just our Asian American kids or our kids of color, that they see themselves in the curriculum and they see a truthful representation of our nation’s history. Asian American history is American history and so to exclude that is really denying our own past.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the school district there has said the decision was about the process of how the book was chosen, not its content. They have not responded to our request for comment. What is your understanding of why that book was pulled?

Kabby Hong:

Well, their explanations really defy logic. What you are finding across the country and it’s not just happening in Muskego, is that there is a double standard when it comes to authors of color. Especially when it comes to LGBTQ characters and books as well. That there is a separate standard of scrutiny that is used for those types of books than it is for the “classic books” that are oftentimes not written by people of color or members of marginalized groups. What they haven’t been able to explain is why they are using a double standard for “When the Emperor was Divine” they haven’t used for their other novels.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you or other teachers in your district there in Verona assign this book?

Kabby Hong:

We are considering teaching it this year for our freshmen English because it is a fantastic book. It’s an award-winning book. It has absolutely tremendous literary merit and it is taught throughout our country. Muskego’s logic in terms of why they wanted it rejected basically, because they were uncomfortable talking about the Japanese American internment. And they’re uncomfortable talking about our nation’s history. It had really nothing to do with the book itself.

Frederica Freyberg:

How does this local example in Muskego dove tail with calls to ban instruction of critical race theory?

Kabby Hong:

Well, if you look at what people define as critical race theory, sometimes it’s a list of 70 different terms, including terms like diversity. So really these critical race theory bans have nothing to do with critical race theory because, as you mentioned before, in K-12 education, critical race theory is really not taught. What the critical race theory bans really show is in discomfort some people have with people of color, with a truthful reflection about our nation’s history with banning books, especially books written by authors of color. And I think that is the opposite direction we need to go as a country.

Frederica Freyberg:

So are teachers on the edge about classroom instruction of historical facts?

Kabby Hong:

Well, the nice thing about being the Wisconsin teacher of the year is I’m able to converse with teachers of the year from across the country. And this is absolutely an issue that is impacting teachers, not just in Wisconsin, but across the country itself. There have been more than 300 anti-LGBTQ laws passed in this country in the last year alone. And so it’s incredibly problematic because the best part of our public education system is that we are able to have these conversations about our nation’s history, about identities of different people. And these laws take away from that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Has all of this contributed to teachers not wanting to enter the field or not staying?

Kabby Hong:

It is a major reason why a lot of teachers are leaving because what you are essentially asking teachers to do is to go against best practices. To go against their own training. And the sad reality of it is that, unfortunately in teaching, we are oftentimes having our professional judgment overruled by people that have zero experience actually teaching in a classroom. And that is the sad part about all of this is that you train and you ask these teachers to be college educated and highly trained. And yet when they give you their professional judgment, this judgment is often times overruled for no reason, other than a narrow political viewpoint.

Frederica Freyberg:

What should parents know about why such things as American history in these ways is being taught to their children?

Kabby Hong:

I think parents should teachers deeply care about their children. And that we are rooting our practices on best practices. But also, in terms of meeting the needs of a diverse array of kids. And ultimately these conversations strengthen us. Because the history is our current. If you look a lot of the issues we are dealing with in the past, we are still dealing with them today. It allows us to give a context for our kids in terms of why issues of racial injustice, for example, continue to plague us in our current day.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to live it there. Kabby Hong thanks very much. Have a good school year.

Kabby Hong:

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

In election news, a federal judge in Madison this week ruled Wisconsin voters with disabilities can get help returning their ballots citing the federal Voting Rights Act. That decision after the state Supreme Court ruled only the voter could return an absentee ballot to the mailbox or clerk’s office. Also this week, the Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously approved a proposal to seek $1.3 million to hire ten people and create an Elections Inspector General program. How will any of this square with Republican members of the state legislature who have had the commission in their sights for its guidance during the 2020 election? For more on this, administrator of the Wisconsin Election Commission Meagan Wolfe. Thank you for being here.

Meagan Wolfe:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

First, what is your response to the federal court ruling for voters with disabilities?

Meagan Wolfe:

The commission will formally respond at a special meeting to be conducted on September 6th at 6:00 p.m. Part of the judge’s ruling was to direct the commission to provide additional information and guidance to voters with disabilities about the exact mechanics of how they can choose an assister to help them mail or deliver their absentee ballot. So the commission will be meeting in public in open session on September 6th to have that conversation.

Frederica Freyberg:

The court also directed clerks to be notified by next Friday of the guidance. Does a voter have to somehow prove their disability to get this help?

Meagan Wolfe:

That will be part of the conversation that’s had at the commission meeting but it does not appear that that would be most likely appropriate or something that would be part of that process. But voters do have the opportunity to choose someone to be able to assist them under both state and federal law.

Frederica Freyberg:

As to the unanimous approval for more than $1 million and inspector general for the Elections Commission, why is that needed?

Meagan Wolfe:

So I really think it’s a result of needs. It’s a really needs-driven proposal. In the last few years, we’ve really seen that the election landscape has changed dramatically. The request and the demands upon our agency have shifted. We have seen such a tremendous increase in people asking for additional information. And the commission even, their desire to increase things like the audits that our agency conducts. And so this proposal, and now the commission’s unanimous approval of this proposal, really places before lawmakers and the governor in the 2023 budget-making process a couple of questions. The first is, do they want to see an increase in the number of voting equipment audits that are conducted? Do they want to see an expansion in programs like our accessibility audits? And do they want the commission to engage in additional checks, reviews, independent audits of voter data and voter rolls? And if the answer is yes to those questions, then we need to ask for funding for those programs through the state budget process.

Frederica Freyberg:

And is there something specific the inspector general would do?

Meagan Wolfe:

So the inspector general would be the head of that department. Under that department, they would have various staff that would be looking into — they might be data experts. They might be experts on accessibility audits. They might be experts on voting equipment and certification in other aspects of that program and the inspector general would be the one that is supervising that work as is directed by the commission and through the structure of the agency.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s what Representative Janel Brandtjen said about it. “This is clearly a page out of Robin Vos’ playbook… offering a purely cosmetic fix while pretending it will solve the problems of this rogue agency.” So given that kind of persuasion, what happens, in your mind, if this money isn’t approved?

Meagan Wolfe:

If this money isn’t approved then we won’t be able to expand into those additional areas. And I think that would be a real shame for Wisconsin voters and even for lawmakers because we want to be able to provide additional information, additional opportunities to engage with election information, additional transparency. But in order for us to take on these new additional tasks, we need to see additional funding. Sustainable funding through the state budget process.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of critic Brandtjen, she is holding a hearing next week on why the commission is reinstating 31,000 previously inactive voters to the voters’ registration list. Why are they being put back on the rolls?

Meagan Wolfe:

That is a great question. And it is actually a result of the state Supreme Court decision, the Zignego decision. After that decision was handed down, the commission had before it two questions. One was what to do with folks that were identified by ERIC as potentially moving and were sent a mailer. What to do with them moving forward? And the court said that is a municipal clerk responsibility. So the commission gave guidance to the municipal clerks to take action on those records. The second question that was before the commission is what to do with the voters that had already been deactivated and where the court said it was a municipal clerk responsibility, not a responsibility of the Elections Commission. And in that case, there was a follow up lawsuit and as part of that lawsuit, there was a stipulation that those voters would be reactivated.

Frederica Freyberg:

Complicated stuff. Meagan Wolfe thank you.

Meagan Wolfe:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

In related news, the state Justice Department Thursday criminally charged Harry Waite of Union Grove with felony election fraud in connection with his requesting absentee ballots for two other people. Charging papers say he could face more than 12 years in prison.

On the health care front, nurses at UW Health in Madison today delivered their official ten-day notice of intent to strike. The notice comes in response to the hospital’s refusal to recognize the nurses’ union. Hundreds of nurses voted in favor of a three-day walk out starting September 13. IN a statement, UW Health said, “The decision by Service Employees International Union to conduct a strike is disappointing. They will harm patients knowing that their actions will not gain them an answer to these legal questions.” We go now to one of the leaders in the effort to unionize, UW Health nurse Colin Gillis. Thank you for being here.

Colin Gillis:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

The strike would be staged to get the hospital to recognize this union. Why do nurses want the union?

Colin Gillis:

We have been facing cuts that have reduced our ability to take care of patients for almost three years since we lost our union four years ago. So we’re really — we’re demanding this union because we need a real voice at the table where the decisions about staffing and policy get made.

Frederica Freyberg:

Describe your working conditions that led to this decision for nurses.

Colin Gillis:

I work on an in-patient unit where we take care of COVID patients, among others. And we’re constantly working short staffed. And working short staffed as a nurse means you are just making an endless series of impossible decisions. Do I give this patient pain medications or do I stay at the bedside and monitor this patient who may be decompensating and in danger of getting even sicker than they already are? And it’s that kind of experience that causes burnout and exhaustion and moral injury that is causing nurses to leave not just bedside nursing, in-patient nursing, but to leave the profession.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you described a series of cuts over the years. Are these, kind of, deliberate cuts or does it have to do with the shortage of nurses overall?

Colin Gillis:

So we’ve been facing a chronic staffing crisis since the hospital implemented a system known as lean staffing back in 2018. So there is a national staffing shortage but the staffing crisis that we’re experiencing at UW is, in part, a known goal. It’s self-inflicted.

Frederica Freyberg:

Your fellow nurses have said having a union would help patient care. How specifically?

Colin Gillis:

Nurses are on the frontline, the very frontline of health care. So we see what’s happening to our patients as it’s happening. And we’re also, because we’re at the frontline and we’re at the bedside, we’re the experts. We really know what’s going on when we’re facing a pandemic or when we are facing increasing level of patients in need of health care in the county. And it’s us who are most qualified to make decisions about what policies will really work and protect patients. And we also know that we are operating in a crisis situation right now. Where we’re just so understaffed, we can’t take care of our patients the way we need to. And we know that the hospital may be able to hire new nurses all the time, but we can’t do our jobs if our hospital is a revolving door where patients — where nurses get hired and then they leave a year or two later. Go ahead.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m just wondering on the flip side if walking off the job for three days will hurt patient care?

Colin Gillis:

We’re going on strike to protect our patients. And we’re giving our — we already gave the hospital — we are giving them a ten-day notice so they can do what they need in order to keep patients safe during a work stoppage. But the responsibility for the strike is on the hospital. They can legally recognize our union and they refuse to do so.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you feel like you have new leverage now with this nurse shortage and how you were proclaimed health care heroes through the pandemic?

Colin Gillis:

Nurses are — we like to say in nursing that we are the most trusted profession and Gallop has been doing a poll that shows that for a very long time. I think, maybe, yes, we are even more trusted as a result of the pandemic. Because we were there when our country needed us. And by the way, the pandemic is not over. We do think that we are as popular as ever. And also, with the national census, it does make it — it does mean that it’s on the hospital to pay even more attention to us right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

Colin Gillis, thank you for joining us and thanks for your work.

Colin Gillis:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Every year for Labor Day, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy or COWS at UW Madison releases its state of working Wisconsin, pinpointing what is going on in the state labor market. Associate director of COWS, an economist, Laura Dresser is here with more on the report. Hi, Laura.

Laura Dresser:

Hi.

Frederica Freyberg:

New U.S. job numbers came out today showing job — slowing of job growth, would you expect that in Wisconsin as well? Even as one of your key findings is that the great resignation, at least in this state, is a myth?

Laura Dresser:

Yeah, I mean I think we have seen — 2022 has been defined, I think, by steady job growth at the national level. A little less robust job growth in Wisconsin. But even so, strong job growth each month. I think a lot of people are relieved to see that 300,000 national number, which is slower than the proceeding months but is still solid labor-market growth.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s go back to that myth you call the great resignation in Wisconsin. Why is it a myth?

Laura Dresser:

I think people have a sense — those stories from about a year ago, I think gave people a sense that there were a lot of people who were like, take this job and I’m going to go live on the van life and develop an Instagram following group or whatever. There was a lot of retreat from work. But what there was, actually, and is clear in the data, is that people really saw opportunity and they took it. They left jobs. And they’ve moved up and they’ve moved on. But we have more people working in the state today than we did — the percentage, the most that we’ve ever had of people working in the state in May this year, well over 3 million. And we have a higher labor force participation rate today than we did February 2020 coming into the pandemic. And so on these measures, people are working.

Frederica Freyberg:

But what explains then shortages of workers in places like restaurants or other service industry that you hear about all the time?

Laura Dresser:

We can see how tight the labor market is. How much demand there is for workers. And I think what we see is workers are able to see that opportunity and make something of that opportunity. Either by leaving and going to get a new job or staying on the job they have and improving it by asking for higher wages. But it means that the lower wage industries, really, especially, have evident job openings. And I think people found work other places and that means that restaurants are thinking about how they restructure that work to make it appealing.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you also show that wages are up in Wisconsin, up at historic levels. What’s that about?

Laura Dresser:

Yeah, I think we have seen pretty solid wage growth from 2018 to 2021. Our wage data is always inflation adjusted so expressed in current dollars. Next year I think the inflation this year will really change the picture substantially. But coming into 2021, which is the most recent available, we are up about $21.50 an hour as the median wage, which is $2 up from 2018 and $1.50 an hour. That kind of growth we haven’t seen since the late ’90s.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m not sure we have the time to talk about it here, but there are disparities in that.

Laura Dresser:

Absolutely. And always in this economy. Even when there is good news. Good news isn’t always broadly shared. And that is definitely, you can find that on that report.

Frederica Freyberg:

The National Labor Relations Board reports a 56% increase in petitions for union elections. How is the tight labor market changed worker organizing in Wisconsin? We just spoke with a member of the nurses — would-be member of the nurses’ union at UW Hospital. How is that changing?

Laura Dresser:

I think that what I think of the national labor relations data is the kind of most formal, most organized version of seeing what workers are doing with work. I think the wage data and the turnover data and the job openings really shows that workers see opportunity right now and in individual and collective ways, you know, and formal and informal ways, they are asking for more. And the most collective and formal way is to move to a NLRB process and that is what we see more of in the state as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Laura Dresser, thanks very much.

Laura Dresser:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news tab. That’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.