As a Milwaukee resident and taxpayer -- and the dad of an MPS student -- the stress I feel over the current budget battle in Madison is focused on how the decimation of public school funding will affect my child and his schoolmates, the children of my neighbors and co-workers and all of the kids in the city. But, communicating with Curt Rees -- a principal in Onalaska, out near LaCrosse -- is a good reminder that public schools across the state will feel the same pain.