I lost my seat to the Koch brothers.

• Author: Taube, Jo Ann
• Position: Essay

After retiring from a fulfilling career teaching elementary music in the Kenosha Unified School District for forty years, I ran for school board in 2008 because I felt I could bring unique insights to the job, based upon my experiences. Our district is the third largest in Wisconsin, with approximately 22,500 students.

There is a strong correlation between poverty and achievement nationally and in Kenosha. More than half of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch. At some elementary schools, the number exceeds 90 percent. Poor families face many challenges, including unstable housing. Some parents and other caregivers are so dysfunctional that the basic needs of children--food, sleep, and hygiene--are neglected. There is a digital divide for children, as well as a huge literacy divide. Some children entering kindergarten have acquired conversational vocabulary comprehension of 30,000 words. Some have only 3,000 words. I ran an active local grassroots campaign and was grateful to receive the most votes in both my first and second term.

When I was deciding whether to run this spring for a third term on the Kenosha Unified School Board, I was forewarned that the opposition would be aggressive.

The changes Governor Scott Walker wrought on our schools adversely affected our district and polarized the community. Walker's Act 10 obliterated union contract protections for most public sector employees, including teachers. At the same time, tax dollars for public education were slashed.

Our district lost $58 million in funding the first two years. Expenditures averaged $1,000 less per student in 2014 compared with 2008.

The other incumbent in the school board race, who described himself as to the right of the Tea Party, suggested that he would not run for reelection if I agreed not to run. I had already made a decision, was circulating nomination papers, and was not willing to make a deal. As a school board member, he had refused to sign resolutions opposing vouchers and the expansion of privatization of public school funding. A majority of the students using vouchers in our district had never attended public school. The vouchers were a straight-up subsidy for their private-school tuition, drawn from tax dollars that used to fund public schools. Fortunately, this incumbent finished last in the primary.

I was part of the school board majority that negotiated and ratified collective bargaining agreements with school-district employee unions in...