More Than 100 Middle School Students Draft Response to Budget Bill

Shorewood students continue to speak out Thursday against Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, as 120 middle school pupils wrote and signed a letter opposing its controversial measures.

“Our belief is that, if the bill passes, less people will want to become teachers or public employees,” the students wrote.

The letter addressed to Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, is seven pages long, with six pages of signatures.

student Joe Flegel-Mishlove, who is also the president of student government, said the bill was something he felt very strongly about and asked his fellow students to help him write a response.

The letter asks Darling to reconsider her position on the bill. Students say it was written without any help or prompting from adults.

Students also say good teachers will go elsewhere if benefits are cut and collective bargaining rights taken away.

“We feel that these rights are essential for maintaining good education and unity within a community,” the letter says. "We would lose some of our best teachers because they are very intelligent, and they know they could take their intelligence elsewhere if and when their benefits are taken away.

"For the first time in a long time students have been utilizing their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble, which shows that it is something we feel strongly about."

Teachers and students in the village rallied nearly every day last week, including teachers , and and .