Peter McKeever's Message to the MG School Board

Here is a message to the MG School Board, administration, voters, and students from Peter McKeever. The bold emphasis is mine. I endorse his views entirely and without reservation.

February 9, 2010



Open Letter to the Monona Grove School Board and Administration:


Not one of you was elected to the school board with the goal of reducing the quality of education the district provides. Not one of you ran for office or took the job you have now to cut classes, cut staff, cut programs. None of you is happy about what you believe you have to do. You are educators, not budget cutters.


As administrators and teachers, you got into this kind of work to educate young people well, not cut budgets, programs, and classes. You know as well as I do that we need more, not less, education. We need better and more innovative education, not worse cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all education. You are not in education to cut it down.


So don’t do it. Stop. Right now. Go in a different direction. You know you cannot do what needs to be done with less.


In this day and age, in this society and in this global economy, cutting back on the education of our young people is the single worst thing we can do. It is, literally, an issue of national security. To thrive and survive, this country needs well-educated citizens, able to compete in a global market with ideas, innovation, language, writing skills, mathematical competency, familiarity with history and current events, knowledge of science, literature, arts and music. We need healthy fit citizens who value good diets and physical fitness and who are ethical. We need citizens who can analyze and synthesize data and make good decisions.


Young people learn these things in school. Of course, they also learn about them in the family, in the market place, and from the media. However, these subjects and values come together in school. This is where the fruit ripens.


If you want kids to understand math, teach them music. If you want them to appreciate detail and discipline, teach them art. Give them AP classes, and provide needed special education. Expose them to diversity. Teach them history - in order to lead us in the future they need to know where we have been. And without doubt, teach them about government and the Constitution.


Do I like to pay my tax bill? No, but I realize that I get a hell of a lot of good services that I would not get in any other way, including an educated populace that is able to get good jobs, earn money, invent and buy products, own property, pay taxes, and build a sustainable society which can compete in an increasingly complex world.


I object to cuts in any of the academic or extracurricular programs budget. Instead of showing the kind of leadership we need, you are placing the burden of bad public policy, foisted on you by the legislature and the governor, on the students. I am not going to speak in opposition to one cut or another. That is a divide and conquer tactic. It pits one interest group against another. I object to all of your proposed cuts.


I hope there are others in this community, parents and non-parents, who will organize themselves, stand up together and say, “We value education in Monona and Cottage Grove. We want well-educated children. Stop cutting education. Provide first-class, not second-class, educations.”


I expect the school board to take a lead role in educating the residents about the value of a well-educated community. I expect you to be going to the legislature and the governor and saying. “Enough is enough. Stop pandering to narrow-minded and short-sighted voters by killing public education. Give us the ability and the freedom and the necessary funds to do a good job of preparing our young people for the world we are leaving them.”


Your job is to educate the voters and taxpayers in our community of the value of passing referenda to exceed the revenue caps. You are not cutting fat – you are cutting bone. You are damn near lopping off limbs. This is not acceptable.


If not now, when? Next year you will be back here again, cutting still more. You have options. Your job is to improve education, not hurt it. Now is the time to stop.


Public education, funded by all, has made our community, and this country, what it is today. As education deteriorates, so does our place in the world, and so does the world we inhabit.


If by some stretch I have not been clear, let me try again. I say to you: ignore the politicians who lack the courage to do what is right for the society. Ignore the short-sighted, selfish, and ideological forces that reflexively fight government at every turn and oppose all taxes. Their greedy desire for more money in their own pockets reflects a failure to understand that we are all in this together and that we can thrive and build a future only if we all work together and carry our fair share of the burden.


I have two children, Brendan and Cailin, both of whom went through the Monona Grove School district and graduated. I have lived in the district since 1989, and of course, I have paid school taxes since that time. My kids were well educated by the taxes paid by those who came before our family moved to Monona. I have that same moral obligation to those young families moving on to my street today.


I hope I am not speaking alone when I say that want a school board that will stand up and fight for education, not be carried away by today’s ill-conceived winds. I want a community that values excellent education, and I believe we have one. We are all in this together. Let us cut the nonsense and have an open conversation about what the real problems with education are and what we can do to make sure we provide what is needed for the children of our community. The school board needs to lead that conversation, not bow before the forces of ignorance.


Thank you.



Peter McKeever