"There are 250 vouchers this year, 500 next year, and then it's unlimited," Hazen said. "That's when we're looking at extreme distress on the system."
Not So Easy
When Walker ran for governor in 2010, he argued that public employees should pay more for benefits, saying they are the haves "and the taxpayers who foot the bills are the have- nots."
A Jan. 25 poll by Marquette University Law School reported 74 percent of respondents favor requiring state workers to pay more for pension and health benefits; 48 percent support limits on collective bargaining, while 47 percent oppose; and 65 percent are against reductions in aid to public schools.
Patrick Meyer, a social-studies teacher in the Kaukauna Area School District, near Appleton, now has six classes instead of five and one planning period instead of two. Since retirements and dismissals last year, class sizes "have bumped up," he said.
"I don't think the public has a lot of sympathy for us, and I don't expect it," Meyer, 38, said in a telephone interview. "But the essential question is, 'What do they want? If this job is so great and such cake, why isn't John Q. Public banging down the doors to do it? The reason why? It is hard."
No Cure-All
Campaign ads supporting Walker ahead of the possible recall election have called Kaukauna schools beneficiaries of the new law.
"We are in a better place financially as a result of this legislation," District Administrator Mary Weber said in an e- mail, saying that she expects no dismissals in the coming school year. While the law worked for the Kaukauna district, "it is not necessarily a panacea for all," Weber said.
It has undermined the ability of Monona Grove schools, near Madison, to recruit teachers, said superintendent Craig Gerlach.
"It's not working for us," Gerlach said in a telephone interview. "There's a level of unfairness here, and we can't continue to balance the budget on the backs of our employees."