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Progressive Dane commits itself to working for the initiatives, democratically suggested and agreed to by its members, that are included in this platform. We believe that public education is essential for a well-functioning democracy. Progressive Dane believes that every student has the right to quality education in public schools—no exceptions. We support whole and happy students throughout their education and affirm our respect for public school staff.

As members of Progressive Dane, we dedicate to ourselves to the following principles and areas of priority for Dane County schools:

1. Transparency, Participation, and Open Government
2. Public School Funding
3. Labor Rights
4. Facilities and Infrastructure
5. Charter Schools
6. Equity and Inclusion
7. Accountability
8. Social and Emotional Development of Students
9. Community Schools
10. Curriculum and Instruction

Democratic Process

1. Support an elected, rather than appointed, school board.

2. Push the administration to increase transparency, understandability, and accountability by adhering to principles of open government. For example, allowing public comment on any topic at all meetings; providing options for virtual participation; expanding opportunities to join committees; adopting a participatory budgeting process; making public videos of all meetings with transcripts; and making all meeting documents publicly accessible in a timely manner.

3. Recognize and value the separation of powers between the administration and the elected body, and the primacy of democratic governance.

4. Empower public committees including parents, teachers, and students, as well as other community members, to research and recommend policy.

Family Involvement

5. Involve parents more meaningfully, with particular effort to include parents and community in the process of developing new rules and policies.  Require posting of Board of Education members’ photos, names and contact information in a prominent location at every school to encourage public engagement and district accountability.

6. Require all district policies to be in writing and easily accessible online and at every school and district office.  Prohibit referring to practices as policies.  If a policy is referenced as a justification for a particular action, the policy should be promptly provided to the family impacted by the action.  Policies should be provided to an individual in their preferred language.

7.  Prohibit “zero tolerance” and “three strikes” policies.  Require the use of discretion and consideration of all relevant circumstances when pursuing discipline or other sanctions.

8. To the extent possible, involve families in emergency planning and when adjusting school schedules and teaching modalities in response to public health or other emergencies.

Public Input

9. Expand opportunities to offer informed and timely public input to all public officials. Enhance the ability of all residents to fully participate and/or provide input to the school board, district committees, and school administration.

10. Make budget information and processes more transparent, timely, accessible, and understandable for members of the public. Hold multiple budget forums to give the public a voice in the budget process. Pursue participatory budgeting practices to the greatest extent allowed by law. Record and make available public comments on the district website.   

12. Pursue ways to make all aspects of school government responsive and accessible to the public.  Require any governing bodies with authority from the district to assure that public input is encouraged in a timely and equitable basis in all public proceedings. Post detailed agendas of all meetings and all related materials online, and print copies conspicuously posted at all schools, at least 72 hours in advance of public meetings, including all district-related meetings in weekly electronic meeting schedules. Limit meetings held during daytime hours, and allow public testimony at all meetings. Ensure the public has at least two weeks to review and provide input into policy proposals before board action.

12. Ensure all school district decisions are made through an equity lens with an intentional effort to gather input from a diverse set of voices. Ensure an equity impact tool is adopted and used in all school district decisions.

13. Invest in the necessary equipment, maintenance costs, and staffing to ensure all school board meetings, including committee meetings, are video recorded and easily available to the public.

Adequate Funding

1. Ensure adequate public funding for public school systems by (a) advocating for increased funding from federal, state, and local sources; and (b) discouraging all attempts to divert public funds to private schools, for-profit charter schools, and contractors.

2. Fund all schools equitably, and distribute the effects of any necessary budget cuts equitably. Equitable funding requires that additional resources be targeted towards higher needs students and schools, specifically schools serving disproportionate numbers of students of color, English language learners, and students from families with low incomes.

3. Fully fund staff and supportive services to ensure students with disabilities have the support and services they need to thrive.  

4. Replace or supplement the residential education property tax system with an income-based tax and other progressive forms of taxation, such as a wealth tax.  Maintain property tax on industrial, commercial and vacation homes as a source of revenue for education and other public services.

5.  Promote local control by opposing state revenue limits.

Other Considerations

6. Oppose advertising in schools, including fast food and beverage contracts.

7. Prioritize local vendors and knowledge services in contracting.

8. Create and fund alternative school settings with public funds to provide non-traditional options for students to learn and thrive.

Workplace Democracy

1. Support the right of school employees to unionize. Non-union positions should not be substituted for union staff positions.

2. Support collective bargaining for all union-represented employees.

3. Empower staff to exercise more influence on the quality of education via shared school governance, full participation in curriculum design and implementation, and a meaningful voice in the creation, review, and evaluation of district policy and plans.

4. Ensure that the handbook negotiation process that replaced collective bargaining balances power between labor unions and the district and gives employees a strong voice in determining their compensation and working conditions.

Work Environment

5. Ensure working conditions are safe, up-to-date, and supportive for all employees at all times.

6. Expand high-quality staff professional development opportunities including foreign exchanges and sabbaticals in consultation with staff.

7. Maintain strong educator licensing requirements at both state and district levels. School districts should attract and retain qualified staff through competitive compensation packages and working conditions instead of relying on emergency licenses and long-term substitute positions.  

8. Balance the hiring of new staff with the retention of experienced staff members. Compensation plans and career ladders should address wage compression issues through pay increases and advancement opportunities for experienced staff.

9. Ensure that staff have accommodations, protective personal equipment, quality health insurance, and ample leave in order to safely carry out their work and contribute to a healthy learning environment for all.

Equitable Workplaces

9. Recruit and maintain a diverse staff in all roles that reflect the student population, including marginalized groups by race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexuality, and ability..

10. Maintain and advance staff through holistic evaluative methods over conventional methods.

11. Invest, promote to leadership roles, and empower people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, persons with disabilities, women, and other historically-and-currently marginalized groups to recognize and respond to the ways they have been underserved by the system in the past and to make them role models for the future.

12.  Provide full-time employment and quality employee benefits to food service workers.

13.  Encourage and support food service workers to prepare quality food, including local ingredients at school for students and staff.

14. Ensure quality employee benefits, including paid parental leave, sick and bereavement leave, personal time, quality affordable health insurance, and retirement benefits for all workers, including substitute teachers.

15. Value all district staff and support a living wage for all district employees to enable them to afford the cost of housing for a 2 bedroom rental unit according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition Out of Reach study (e.g. in 2020, NLIHC housing wage in Dane County is $22.81 for a two-bedroom).

1. Provide air conditioning in all district buildings.

2. Ensure ADA compliance and accessibility in all district buildings.

3. Make capital investments in sustainability to reduce carbon footprint and increase energy efficiency and costs.

4. Invest in our existing school buildings before, or alongside, investing in new schools.

5. Support integrated schools that provide all students with clean, safe, and welcoming facilities.

6. Monitor air and water quality and promptly remove toxic substances in school buildings.

7. Include gender-expansive/inclusive restrooms in all schools.

8. Provide free menstrual products in all district restrooms.

1. Oppose non-instrumentality charter schools, including 2x charter schools not authorized by the school district.

2. Ensure all charter schools are accessible to all students, with adequate facilities and resources to meet their needs.

3. Analyze the following factors when considering an authorization or renewal:

a. Financial and other impacts on all district schools, including students who are not in the charter school.

b. Whether the educational program has been successful in improving outcomes for students who have not been successful in traditional schools, with success clearly defined by multiple measures.

c. Community and staff support.

d. The capacity of the proposers or Governing Board.

e. Whether the school has served or can serve as a resource for expanding successful practices.

f. Whether the school will increase or has increased segregation by race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and socioeconomic status or other demographic or protected categories.

4. Do not renew existing charter schools that fail to meet evaluation benchmarks established in the terms of their charters.

5. Ensure that charter authorizations, renewals, and governance are fully transparent.

Inclusive Classrooms

1. Ensure equity in access to all programs and classrooms for students with disabilities, including remote instruction and after-school programs, with sufficient resources to ensure quality education.

2. Work to integrate every level of the school system by confronting disparate access to resources and opportunity.  

3. Apply scrutiny and make necessary changes to programs, policies, and practices to prevent segregation by race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and socioeconomic status to assure that benefits are greater than harm.

4. Fully support classrooms that integrate bilingual education.

Equitable Policies and Practices

5. Ensure civic education at multiple grade levels and integrate issues of equity and social justice into core curricula.

6. Train and support teachers, administrators, and students to promote equity.

7. Ensure we are prioritizing the recruitment and retention of local BIPOC teachers and support staff, including providing before and after school care 

8. Ensure that all students, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression have full access to district-sponsored, educational opportunities free of discrimination and harassment. Create transparency in instances of ethical and legal ambiguity regarding discrimination and harassment to keep the public informed.

9. Help all teachers and schools work effectively with culturally diverse students and families including marginalized groups by race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and socioeconomic status.

10. Integrate issues of diversity into core curricula. Present persons from minority backgrounds as role models, and amplify the voices of minority students without relying on them to teach others about their experiences.

11. Adopt an explicit anti-discrimination policy that includes people of all races, genders, socioeconomic statuses, languages, and levels of ability.

12. Eliminate segregation and stigma of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch.

13. Improve school services offered to bilingual students and English language learners.

14. Develop programs to stabilize homeless students and reduce movement between schools.

15. Involve the communities most affected in all efforts to eliminate the opportunity gaps and disparate academic outcomes for students who have not been equitably served by our community.

16. Create welcoming and inclusive schools for LGBTQ+ students by preventing bias-based bullying, supporting GSA programs and implementing gender-neutral bathrooms.

17. Expand T.E.E.M., Scholars, AVID/TOPS, and after-school programs.

18. Educate students and staff on issues of systemic racism and compel teachers and administrators to document their efforts to end racial inequalities in scales large and small.

19. Provide wrap-around services and uninterrupted, comprehensive care for students facing difficulties.

Disciplinary Practices

19. End exclusionary practices, zero-tolerance policies, and in-school arrests.

20. Support the development and enforcement of standards to ensure incarcerated students’ right to be outdoors, to access mental health care, and to receive the same academic credit and services as students living in the community.

21. Put a moratorium on all out-­of­-school suspensions.

6. End the practice of expelling students.

7. Fund legal services/right to counsel for students facing formal discipline, including suspension and expulsion.

22. Collect, reflect upon, and publicly report data on school disciplinary removal. Reports should include data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, poverty, and disability status in terms of numbers of each group disciplined. These reports should also include the percentage of each group that experiences suspension and expulsion, as well as disaggregated incidence data on the type of infraction and the number of days of missed instruction that results from such removals. Data on seclusion and restraint of students should be included in reports.

23. Fully enact the recommendations of the Safety and Security Ad Hoc Committee to ensure student and worker well-being in police-free schools, including by fully implementing holistic restorative justice processes, reducing class size, and involving families and community partners in a school safety advisory committee.

1. Emphasize meaningful teaching and learning as the key to closing achievement gaps while limiting high-stakes standardized testing that reinforces inequities and disparities.

2. Uphold the right of students and families to opt-out of standardized tests and the right of staff to freely inform families of their right to opt-out.

3. Oppose the ranking and grading of schools based on standardized test scores and participation rates. Oppose state takeover of schools and/or districts based on standardized test performance.

4. Give equal emphasis to all academic subjects. Ensure that schools dedicate adequate time and resources to subjects that are not measured by standardized testing, including science, social studies, fine arts, world languages, and physical education.

5. Value collaboration between teachers, between classrooms and students’ professional growth when evaluating staff performance. Respect the experience and professionalism of staff.  Do not take significant time away from the work of educating and building relationships with students, for example by adding low-value reporting, administrative tasks, or professional development requirements to staff duties.

6. Do not punish staff for student performance on standardized tests.

7. Ensure program and partnership evaluations are transparent and inclusive at every stage (from design through completion), thorough, employ multiple measures, and conducted by independent evaluators when appropriate.

8. Pursue student and peer-led evaluations of educators and administrators on racial inequities in policies, practices, and outcomes in classrooms and schools. Ensure consistent data, including discipline data, are collected across the district to enable fair evaluations. Standardized tests should not be the primary measure of accountability.

9. Provide free legal support and improve the processes and available forums for families filing discrimination complaints to increase access, prevent trauma, and increase accountability. Consider restorative justice practices to address discrimination.  

10. School administrators and staff must be accountable to and serve all students and be held responsible for exclusionary and discriminatory practices and outcomes.

11. Educators should have regular access to rigorous cultural competency training for social justice that encourages deep reflection on how their positionality impacts curriculum design, pedagogy, and outcomes for students.

12. Scrutinize the impacts of private funding on school policy, procedure, budgeting, and equity measures to ensure sustainability and adherence to policies, procedures, and priorities established by the district and community.

1. Encourage opportunities for student leadership and organizing.

2. Serve students’ mental, physical, and emotional health in conjunction with academic advancement. Student services staff--including social workers, school counselors, nurses, and psychologists--should focus on caring for students. Their duties should not be diverted into roles like standardized testing.

3. Vigorously protect students’ and teachers’ rights to free speech. Question dress codes that limit the free expression of students and teachers.

4. Ensure discipline policies are enforced equitably among the student population.

5. Keep educational resource officers and other police  out of schools, except when called for emergencies.  

6. Recognize that incarceration of youth inflicts significant harm on their emotional and social development.  Strongly oppose the incarceration of students and other youth.

7 Oppose military recruitment of minors in schools. Increase awareness of and access to opt-outs for military recruitment on school campuses.

School Services

1. Support a holistic approach to education that recognizes the importance of public schools as centers of the community—open all day, every day, to everyone—that house and coordinate access to a host of wraparound support for students and their families, including child care, food access, academic and vocational mentoring, language classes, family support, physical and mental health services, public benefits, and legal services.

2. Within each school campus, create clinics that are open to students, families, and the community that provide access to pediatricians, dentists, psychologists, nurses, legal advocates, and social workers through partnerships and volunteer programs. Ensure services are free and that individuals with or without insurance can enroll.

3. Support and expand tuition-free after-school and out-of-school time offerings through interagency collaborations and partnerships with city and county governments, local businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations.  

4. Support youth-centered and age-appropriate opportunities for service learning, leadership development, internships, and skill-building.

5. Support after-school programming that is inclusive, developmentally appropriate, and student-centered.

6. Support parent and family-focused programs including family nights, volunteer opportunities, employment, training opportunities, and parenting support groups.

Food and Health

7. Support school gardens that provide hands-on experience of how things grow, what plants need to thrive, and healthy local food.

8. Prohibit the use of food as a reward or incentive for learning and testing.

9. Provide fresh, primarily plant-based snacks, breakfasts, and lunches sourced from local farms and producers to students free-of-charge regardless of income level. Link nutrition and health education to school meal and snack programs.

10. Support ample recess time, including the option for indoor free time (i.e. library), of at least 90 minutes per day. Recess should never be reduced to accommodate additional time for academic subjects or testing, nor withdrawn for punitive reasons.

11. Expand and support tuition-free early childhood education, including all-day 4k and universal 3k.

12. Limit in-class screen time at the elementary level and ensure that digital learning supplements, but does not replace, classroom teaching at all grade levels, outside of public health emergencies.

13. Support educational opportunities regarding agricultural and environmental sustainability for all students, at all grade levels.  This could include outdoor education, school gardens, composting, and recycling.  Protect and enhance outdoor resources owned by the district including school woods, prairies,  and the Madison School Forest.

Housing and Other Basic Needs

14. Provide access to showers, laundry, and weather-appropriate and comfortable clothing.

15. Support housing stability, rent assistance, and case management through partnerships with funders and service providers.

16. Recognize that housing and education are significant social determinants of health with lifelong impacts.  Explore ways to provide affordable housing, rent subsidies, case management, eviction prevention services, funding to stabilize homeless, housing insecure families, and unaccompanied youth.

17.  Document and analyze the needs of homeless and housing insecure students, including doubled-up families and unaccompanied youth.

18. Increase staffing and resources for the Transitional Education Program.

19. Site an MMSD Transition Education Program office in an MMSD purchased office condominium at the expanded Salvation Army Shelter.

20.  Ensure that every student has access to free annual bus passes, working with the city and county.

Evaluation

1. Support teaching that focuses on authentic problem solving and alternative forms of assessment, as opposed to simply preparing students to perform on standardized tests.

2. Oppose all forms of high-stakes testing that systematically result in falsely labeling students of color, students with disabilities, and English language learners as failing.

Education for Social Justice

3. Support broad, honest, and robust health education that includes mental, emotional, and social well being.  Support comprehensive and LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education in a safe and supportive environment that empowers youth to care for their sexual health. Support a robust, consent-based sex education that acknowledges the intersections of race, sexuality, orientation, expression, ability, and how these and other facets of identity inform diverse understandings of intra- and interpersonal health. Reject abstinence-centered paradigms.

4. Ground curricula in the lived experiences of students and their families, especially those most impacted by educational injustice, to make education engaging, challenging, culturally relevant, and integrated with the world outside school. Teaching environments, methods, and materials should reflect and inspire an appreciation for the diversity of cultures, languages, identities, and experiences that students bring to the classroom and/or will encounter in larger society.

5. Emphasize the approachable and facilitative role of teachers, rather than authoritative.

6. Ensure that the language of all teaching materials reflects scientifically up to date, culturally competent, and socially progressive understandings of untold histories, gender, sex, race, religion, economy, science, and current events.

7. Support curricula and instruction that fosters respectful decision-making and communication skills, reinforces boundaries, cultivates empathy, and promotes the students’ sense of autonomy and self-confidence. Include curricular time for social and emotional support and community-building activities that help students feel safe and at peace in school among peers and staff.

8. Recognize the importance of building perseverance, resilience, ingenuity by doing. Teach students how to accept perceived failure as a natural and productive part of the learning process.

9. Support regular out-of-school learning opportunities such as field trips to community centers and nonprofits, art/science/historical museums, and other sites of cultural production that thoughtfully and intentionally extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom.

10. Support an urgent and intentional curricular payback of the education debt owed to Black, brown, southeast Asian, and indigenous communities, as well as LGBTQ+ and femme folk, those with disabilities, and other historically and currently marginalized groups.

11. When teaching about indigenous cultures, address the complexity and fluidity of indigenous identities—acknowledging and unpacking historical inaccuracies and stereotypical representations while sharing stories that indigenous people want to tell about their own self-determination, sovereignty, health and wellness, recovery from trauma, resilience, and revitalization.

Arts

12. Integrate the arts into core curricula.

13. Support minimum budget requirements for arts funding—either as a percentage of the overall school budget or allocating an amount per pupil or per art form.

14. Support expanding the high school graduation expectation so that students complete at least one art course in high school.

Technology

15. Ensure that students and families have access to computers, Internet, and other resources necessary for quality remote instruction, self-directed projects, and other learning activities.

16. Thoughtfully integrate technologies to enhance educational content. Help students develop visual and technical fluencies to navigate our information-based society. Encourage creative exploration of interests and connect with new, foreign ideas. Learning mediated by technologies should not stand in for richer educational experiences.

17. Take into account the socio-economic realities that limit access to digital means of production for low-income students and provide all youth with a level field for learning and play, both inside and outside of school.

Diverse Teaching and Learning Approaches

18. Support greater access to experiential opportunities, including collaborative, kinetic, experimental, community-based, and service-learning, and integrate these diverse methods into curricula.

19. Support expanded opportunities to learn from nature—to explore and further appreciation for the natural world. Support school-wide, cross-curricular focuses on themes of sustainability and climate justice to highlight our planet’s state of emergency and to emphasize the critical importance of civic participation and social responsibility in defending a livable future for all.

20. Support community control of school policy and curricula—by parents, caregivers, students, and community members—free of interference from political and corporate interests. We believe curricula should be improved and reinvented with urgency by professional educators in consideration of both the community’s needs and national and global realities to ensure all students are thriving.

21. Support curricula and instructional methods that invite students to play an active role in their education. Students should be given opportunities to control some aspects of a lesson and exercise leadership in ways that are meaningful to them.

22. Partner with families and community members to help students continue their education at home and extend services and supports when families are limited in their ability to help.

23. Uplift students from the lowest common denominator of their understanding; discourage teachers from seeing students as to blame for their difficulties, and provide advancement opportunities to faster learners without detracting from other students. Support flexible curricula that meets students where they are, building off of existing interests, strengths, and prior experiences.

24. Support teachers to provide equitable access and time for cognitive and hands-on aspects of assignments to accommodate students at different stages of learning.

25. Ensure that learning occurs in a diverse, integrated setting when beneficial for students from marginalized backgrounds.

Passed by General Membership 12/23/2020