We, the students and communities of rural public Wisconsin schools, petition the state legislature to repeal certain points of Act 10 (2011) as they relate to schools, but especially as they relate to rural schools.

This includes referendums and worker’s rights & compensation:

• Referendums: Allow public schools to negotiate with teacher groups to increase salaries and benefits unlimitedly without a referendum as long as starting teacher compensation remains below or equal to a standard deviation in median salary above the local (municipal) living wage; allow public schools to increase budgets to keep up with inflation without a referendum.
• Worker organization and speech: Allow public school teachers to unionize without special limitations; allow public school staff the right of government and administration dissent inside and outside work contexts.
• Retirement: Reinstate a minimal government-provided retirement fund to encourage teachers to stay in the profession, to become experienced, and to aid the teacher shortage.

In addition, since Act 10, even though inflation continues, government provisions per student have remained mostly stagnant; not even enough to keep up with would-be-healthy inflation, even though inflation is higher than that level. Also, rural schools get shortchanged in per-student financial allotment due to economies of scale. We petition the state legislature to make the following changes in regards to:

• Annual funding: Increase per-student financial allotment in public schools annually, in accordance with healthy inflation rates when inflation is above or at that rate, as determined by a pre-designated quotient; increase per-student allotment in public schools annually insomuch as the value of the currency matches inflation if the inflation rate is below the aforementioned quotient; keep per-student compensation constant in the case of deflation.
• Small schools: Provide public schools with an enrollment of <1,000 students per building with a higher per-student financial allotment by 10% and public schools with an enrollment of <5,000 students per building with a higher per-student financial allotment by 5% to make up for the lack of comparative budget due to lower enrollment.