Fear for the Future

University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin students and faculty called for solidarity and the need for well-funded public education at a protest today in response to Scott Walker’s budget proposals.

Members of the Students for a Democratic Society and Milwaukee Graduate Students Association led the noon walkout, which was part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

Crowds marched through Spaights Plaza and the Union Concourse chanting, “Yes we can. Yes we will. We will fight to kill the bill!”

The hundreds of protesters remained peaceful, and many students on their way to classes briefly the march around campus.

Protestors seek education funding

UWM history professor Aims McGuinness stood alongside the hundreds of protestors on the Union Concourse’s main floor.

McGuinness said Walker’s bill is a direct attack on children like his nine-year-old daughter who attends La Escuela Fratney in Riverwest where he said 30 percent of the school’s faculty could be laid off.

“I really doubt her school could survive under this budget,” he said.

“So as a parent that means for me that my nine-year-old daughter is going to lose a year of education, as we scramble to find another school that certainly won’t be as good as the other school.”

If Walker’s cuts to public education pass, McGuinness said UWM’s history department would become more impersonal and result in less contact between students and faculty.

“It will inevitably lead to larger class sizes and significantly less contact between actual students and actual faculty,” he said.

UWM teaching assistant Lee Abbott is a member of the Milwaukee Graduate Students Association and acted as an emcee at the protest. Abbott said Walker’s bill is an attack on the middle class and educators.

He said the diversity and spontaneity of the protest proves that it’s not just an organizational protest, which was a criticism of past SDS protests at UWM.

“What we’re seeing is a mass movement developing where spontaneous actions are to be taken place by people who aren’t affiliated with organizations,” Abbott said.

All ages

Gloria McCoy, who was one of the oldest protesters in attendance, proudly displayed a button that read “Honor Labor.”

After 32 years of teaching in Milwaukee public schools, she said Walker’s bill hurts all the people who need to be hurt the least.

“It doesn’t have any compassion,” she said. “It’s going to affect everyone and when the shit hits the fan, they’ll realize it.”

Dion Peregoy, a junior at UWM and SDS member, agreed.

He came to the protest to support his two parents who are police officers in Madison. While Wisconsin police would still be able to utilize collective bargaining under Walker’s bill, Peregoy said his parents were frustrated by the initiative to cut public spending.

“Because of this bill, my mom that worked 30 years and was going to go another five, decided to retire early,” Peregoy said. “And my dad, who voted for Walker and is actually a Republican, is pissed off and will probably not vote republican in the next election because of this.”

Like many other students in attendance, Peregoy was worried that his tuition will rise if UWM splits from the UW system. “School should be something that is accessible to people, if not free.”