From four to four-thirty, Ben Merens talks with Nelson Eisman, Green Party candidate for Wisconsin Governor. Guest: Nelson Eisman, Green Party candidate for Wisconsin Governor. www.voteeisman.org
Each year, seven hundred thousand Americans wind up in the emergency room due to a bad reaction from their medication. Ben Merens’ guest, after four-thirty, says the health system must do a better job of assisting patients with their drugs. Guest: Chris Decker, executive vice president and CEO, Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin www.pswi.org
From five to five-thirty, Ben Merens talks with Governor Jim Doyle about the major issues in his campaign for re-election. After five-thirty, Ben asks listeners for their top priortiy if they sat in the governor's chair. Guest (5:00-5:30) Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. www.doylelawton.com
posted by At Issue with Ben Merens @ 2:58 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
H Ben,
I am a first time user of your site, but I wanted to bring up an issue that I wanted to pose to Govenor Doyle this past hour...this past year, my husband ended his 33 years as a high school educator and Hall of Fame Coach. Although he was trained to teach vocational education classes, he always looked at ways to connect with other students and bring something new to enhance their lives. After building a great photojournalism program, he came up with an idea to start a business with special education students, whom he has also worked with for a long time as teacher and as a model railroad club advisor. Using our credit card to purchase the equipment for the business, he donated all of his prep periods to work with the "First Start" group to develop a successfull buisiness. One measure of their success was making a girl who had been habitually truant the manager of the business. She never missed one day of school after that...each student got to use their strengths to help build the business and make it a success. Despite that, he left education because on the next contract, educators are expected to vote away their rights to spousal and family health insurance coverage upon retirement. It hurts so much to see this person (the hardest working person I have ever known) who was usually the first person at school each day, the last to leave, the guy who went in on weekends and spent evenings and summers devoted to his craft, retire without doing it on his own terms. He not only lost the opportunity to continue to pay into his retirement for a longer period, but I feel he also lost the opportunity to enhance the lives of many more students. Now, because we need the income, he is working a full time job for less than $8.00 an hour (he's supposedly overqualified for many jobs). If I were Govenor, I would do something about keeping our valued educators. One idea would be: If an educator commits to teaching in one district for a 15 year minimum, then they automatically qualify for full spousal and/or family health insurance upon their retirement. This would give an incentive to young educators entering the system as well as enhancing the tax base and educational continuity of the community. I feel that an educator who still has great passion and is always looking for new things to bring to the classroom and enhance the lives of young people, should not have to retire because the system they have helped to build has betrayed them...especially in these times when district administrators get pay raises, or get to keep their jobs even after making huge bookkeeping errors. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to bring up this topic.
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