Proposed budget cuts threaten future of School for Workers

SINCE 1957, THE Boilermakers have partnered with the University of Wisconsin in sponsoring the Summer Training Institutes. Just a week before our 50th annual program, Steve Nass, a Republican lawmaker in the Wisconsin state assembly, proposed eliminating all government funding for the School for Workers, saying the program has “too narrow of an agenda.”

The school will not go down without a fight, and SFW faculty are hopeful that it won’t go down at all. Some believe the budget move is just a ploy to undermine a universal health care plan that is also being considered by the state assembly. But the proposed budget cuts to this program — and numerous other education programs in Wisconsin — are so drastic and severe that they cannot be ignored.

The School for Workers has offered education to adult workers for over 80 years. It is the oldest, continuously-operating, university-based labor education program in the United States. David Nack, an assistant professor at the University, asked for class participants’ help in keeping the program alive.

Wisconsin Boilermakers are planning to contact their state legislators about the proposed budget cuts and rally members from other trades in the area to speak out as well. Out-of-state Boilermakers were asked to contact the Wisconsin legislature as well, reminding them that participants of this program bring a lot of tourism dollars to their state every year.

“Our hope is that after a hard fight all budgets (Wisconsin Public Television and Radio, Wisconsin Humanities Council, UW Madison Law School, Havens Center, UW, Madison Sociology Department, School for Workers, UW System, K-12 education, Wisconsin Technical Colleges, etc.) are restored in full,” Nack said.

The School for Workers is the oldest, continuously-operating, university-based labor education program in the United States.