OPINION:
In Wisconsin, we took power out of the hands of big government special interests and returned it to the hardworking taxpayers and the people they elected to run their schools and local governments.
Schools in my state can now staff based on merit and pay based on performance. That means that they can put the best and the brightest in the classroom and keep them there.
On Feb. 11, 2011, I announced that we were introducing a budget repair bill to cover the deficit left by the prior administration and prepare for the $3.6 billion gap in the upcoming budget.
Having served in local government, I knew that massive cuts to schools and local governments would devastate them without new tools in place. We set out to change collective bargaining so they could manage those costs.
Our reforms allowed schools to bid out their health insurance costs. Before that, a health insurance company affiliated with the largest teachers union in the state, WEA Trust, had most of the business per union contracts. Once they were free to bid these out, school districts saved millions of dollars.
The reforms also improved the quality of the staff. Before, union contracts required the last hired to be the first fired during layoffs. The year before I took office, the state government cut aid to schools and local governments. Without tools to offset the cuts, Milwaukee Public Schools had to lay off teachers.
One of them had just been named Outstanding New English Teacher of the Year by the Wisconsin English Teachers Association. Soon after she learned of her award, she was given a pink slip. How could that be fair?
The old union contracts protected those with the most seniority. It had no provisions for the quality of the teachers. That meant last in was the first out. Our reforms got rid of those contracts.
On top of that, research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that students in classrooms where teachers were not part of the union in Wisconsin performed better than those in classrooms where teachers were in the union. This is further evidence that our reforms not only saved taxpayers money but also empowered local officials to make better decisions in our schools and other governments.
The MacIver Institute estimates that the savings from our Act 10 reforms exceed $31 million. Schools remained strong while property taxes went down during our tenure.
The union bosses and liberal thugs didn’t care much for our reforms. Originally, hundreds showed up to protest when I announced our plans. Within days, the numbers had jumped to thousands as protesters occupied the state Capitol. Eventually, more than 100,000 were in the Capitol Square.
Their goal was to intimidate us. Despite being in violation of the law, protesters occupied the Capitol. To block the legislation from moving forward, 14 state Senate Democrats fled to Illinois to block a quorum in that chamber. The numbers began to swell as agitators came in from around the country.
The Occupy movement did not start on Wall Street; it started on my street at the time in Madison, Wisconsin. The eyes of the nation were on our state Capitol. After a month, Republican state senators agreed to remove the savings from the bill, so a quorum was no longer required to pass it. I quickly signed it into law.
Then-Rep. Sean Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, gave me my favorite bumper sticker. It read, “One Walker Beats 14 Runners.” We did not back down, and we won.
Later, the same radicals tried to defeat me in a recall election. That election cost about $100 million, which was a far cry from the $15 million we spent in the original campaign. Near the end, the attack ads shifted away from our Act 10 reforms because they were working.
During the protests/riots, voters were told that the world was coming to an end and that schools would be devastated across the state. Instead, taxpayers could see with their own eyes that the school districts using our reforms were doing well. They could also see that their property taxes went down for the first time in a very long time.
We ended up winning the recall election with a higher percentage and more actual votes than in the first election. It turns out that voters like conservative reforms — because they work.
Radicals want to intimidate us so that our conservative reforms are never put into place. They know that once enacted, our ideas make our lives better.
Here are some lessons for the future. First, don’t be afraid to think big when tackling significant problems. Push real reform. Second, if you are doing the right thing, don’t back down. Third, never stop reforming.
Thankfully, our reforms are still saving the hardworking taxpayers millions of dollars and empowering local officials to do things better in their jurisdictions. Power to the people!
• Scott Walker is a columnist for The Washington Times. He was the 45th governor of Wisconsin and launched a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He lives in Milwaukee and is the proud owner of a 2003 Harley-Davidson Road King. He can be reached at swalker@washingtontimes.com.
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