Madison, WI: As legislators and other committee members met on Thursday, July 24, to discuss drastic centralization of power in the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), members of AFT-Wisconsin called on the committee to keep WTCS decision-making power in Wisconsin’s communities. AFT-Wisconsin President Kim Kohlhaas, a teacher in the Superior School District, urged the committee to protect a system that gives each technical college the ability to respond to local needs and provide high-quality practical education. “The structure of the WTCS gives our technical colleges the ability to meet with employers in their communities and provide classes and programs that meet their needs. Employment needs in a community change rapidly, and decisions about how to operate a WTCS college need to be made by people with strong ties to that community. If that power is taken away from our communities, our technical colleges will lose their ability to quickly adapt to local employment and educational needs.”
Michael Gradinjan, an electrical instructor at Moraine Park Technical College who is also the president of his local union and the AFT-Wisconsin WTCS Council Vice-President, said that the proposed centralization would take control of Wisconsin’s technical colleges away from the people who are best equipped to make decisions. “Taking decision-making power out of the hands of our local technical college boards and putting it into the hands of political appointees in Madison with no connection to our communities would be a disaster. The Wisconsin Technical College System is successful because each college is given the ability to make decisions about what is best for our students and our communities. How could it be a good idea to take that power away from people who live and work in the area and give it to people who may never set foot on my campus?”
