With less than a week to go before the election, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign launched a new television ad Wednesday focusing on the issue of education.
The ad notes that Doyle's gubernatorial challenger, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., voted with President George W. Bush to cut spending for education by $2.2 billion and raise the cost of student loans by $2,000 per family.
According to the ad, Green's plan will cut 4,700 teachers from Wisconsin schools and additionally notes that Doyle, in contrast, preserved $400 million in education funding in the last budget. The ad also noted that Doyle increased a tax deduction for college tuition costs and proposed a required third year of math and science for high school students.
Doyle's new ad will be running on Green Bay, Wausau, La Crosse and Madison television stations.
Anne Lupardus, spokesperson for the Doyle campaign, said education is an important issue that is likely to rally voters for the election next week.
"Education is at the forefront of voters' minds right now and has always been Gov. Doyle's top priority," Lupardus said.
Considering that Doyle is both the son and the husband of educators, Lupardus added, he feels it is important to invest in programs that actually work, like his proposed Wisconsin Covenant program.
But Green spokesperson Luke Punzenberger said Doyle is not as committed to education as he claims.
"Jim Doyle has had four years to show the state of Wisconsin that he's lowering the cost of tuition for our students, and he has four years of failure to show for it," Punzenberger said. "Tuition for in-state students has gone up by over 50 percent, and at the same time, he cut it for out-of-state kids."
Punzenberger added Green has repeatedly said that education funding will be increased when he is governor and has never said anything about cuts to education funding.
Both Doyle and Green have been promoting their education plans out on the campaign trail for the last couple of months in hope of securing votes.
Doyle's plans include proposing that Wisconsin families be able to deduct the full cost of tuition at any UW System campus on their tax forms. Additionally, he has proposed two other plans for Wisconsin students.
The Wisconsin Covenant guarantees that kids who do well and play by the rules be enabled with the resources they need to go to college, Lupardus said. She added the governor's plan to require a third year of math and science for all high school graduates ensures Wisconsin students remain competitive with their peers across the globe.
Punzenberger, though, said Green has proposed that Wisconsin students be given priority over out-of-state students with comparable academic credentials when applying to UW schools.
In addition, Punzenberger said Green plans to cap tuition increases at the rate of inflation and link those increases with financial aid awards.
Green also aims to make academic achievement his top priority at UW, rather than diversity, and to reward teachers based on their performances, not the number of years they've been teaching.
