MADISON (WKOW) -- A local teacher breaks ranks with his colleagues and supports Governor Scott Walker in a new television ad.
Teachers, for the most part, have been vocal opponents of Walker's education cuts and collective bargaining law. But a few are publicly speaking in his defense.
The governor's campaign against the recall effort against him has featured three people who work with schools: including one from Cottage Grove Elementary School.
Jeffrey Knutson is a fourth grade teacher at Cottage Grove Elementary. He's speaking up for what he believes in, in defense of Governor Walker.
Jeffrey says in the ad, "When the state budget passed in Madison, a lot of us thought we might lose our jobs. We figured if we didn't get laid off, our class sizes would become unmanageable. But that, didn't happen. I don't agree with Governor Walker all the time, but thanks to his budget reforms, hundreds of teachers like me, still have their jobs."
Cottage Grove Elementary School did not see any layoffs last year. But in the Monona Grove School District, there were cuts, retirements, and layoffs.
Kristine Wollermann is the president of the Monona Grove Education Association.
She said, "It's the largest cut we've seen to education since the Great Depression."
Wollermann added that some class sizes at the high school have 32 or 33 students. She said some science classes don't have enough Bunsen burners for students.
Wollermann added, "The resources aren't there; we've had to do more, with less."
Knutson isn't the only Wisconsin teacher supporting Walker in TV ads, but Wollermann says he doesn't speak for everyone in the Monona Grove district.
Wollermann said, "I'm glad for freedom of speech... but I don't see things as great as Walker is making them out to be."
A Kenosha teacher in another television ad for the governor has said she was harassed for publicly supporting the governor and his collective bargaining law.
27 News did reach out to Knutson, but he did not respond to phone calls or emails Wednesday.
Monona Grove School District employees are paying more toward their healthcare and pensions because of the governor's budget repair law, which saved the district $1.3 million dollars.
But Monona Grove's superintendent says the district is also dealing with a reduction in revenue from the state's biennial budget.
That created a loss of $600 dollars per student or $1.7 million dollars.
This year the district is working to plug a budget gap of about a million dollars.
