By Scott Bauer
Associated Press
MADISON - Republicans are moving quickly to pass a school accountability early next year, which would give Gov. Scott Walker an early example of how effectively he'll be able to push his agenda through the Legislature during his second term.
The measure sank last session due to concerns about how to sanction failing schools and test private school students who use taxpayer-funded vouchers so they can be compared to their public school peers. Republican leaders, who will return with larger majorities in January, have said the issue will be one of the first they tackle, and a draft is already circulating and could be made public next month.
Walker also has called for the replacement of the Common Core academic standards, and he wants to increase or even scrap the enrollment caps in the statewide private school voucher program. All of those education issues should face a smoother road through the Legislature given the departure of moderate Republican critics who won't be around this session to influence, or derail, the changes.
Republican Sen. Luther Olsen, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has helped block past school accountability bills, as well as efforts to undo the Common Core standards and expand the voucher program. But next year, Olsen doesn't think he'll be able to stop them.
"I think there's some people who would rather go around me than through me on this stuff," Olsen said. "I want to work with them, but I can read the tea leaves."
Sen. Paul Farrow, R-Village of Pewaukee, said he circulated a draft of a new school accountability bill to interested parties last week. It would not put sanctions in state law, but instead would create a council under the Department of Public Instruction that would determine the criteria for punishing lagging schools and rewarding high performers, Farrow said.
The bill also would allow for voucher school students to take a different test than those in public schools, with the scores then aligned so they could be compared on report cards, Farrow said.
"My goal is to give any school it wants an option of what test it would take," he said.
Private schools have long argued that they are not subject to state standards and should not be forced to take tests that are aligned to those standards.
The earliest the changes could be implemented would be the 2017 school year, Farrow said. He hopes to introduce the bill by the end of December.
Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have said they want to move quickly on the issue after the Jan. 5 inauguration.
The accountability bill involves powerful interests in the Capitol - including the deep-pocketed voucher school lobby, private schools and public schools. Former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen is a lobbyist for the American Federation for Children, and two other former speakers lobby for another pro-voucher group, School Choice Wisconsin.
American Federation for Children has been a major backer of Walker and pro-voucher members of the Legislature, spending $4.5 million since 2010 to help them, according to a tally by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. In the most recent election, the group spent about $850,000 on legislative races. That included nearly $111,000 to defeat vocal anti-voucher Democratic state Rep. Mandy Wright, who lost by 84 votes.
"I think the elections were a referendum in a number of those districts on school choice," Jensen said. "People who were supporters of school choice won and people who were opponents lost. That should give legislators some sense of where the public is."
The statewide voucher program is currently capped at 1,000 students, but Walker and Republican leaders have said they want to expand or even do away with that lid, as Jensen and other proponents are lobbying for.
Citing the money spent by Jensen's group in the election, "it's no coincidence" that GOP leaders are promising an expansion, said Scot Ross, director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, which tracks spending by the pro-voucher lobby.
Associated Press
MADISON - Republicans are moving quickly to pass a school accountability early next year, which would give Gov. Scott Walker an early example of how effectively he'll be able to push his agenda through the Legislature during his second term.
The measure sank last session due to concerns about how to sanction failing schools and test private school students who use taxpayer-funded vouchers so they can be compared to their public school peers. Republican leaders, who will return with larger majorities in January, have said the issue will be one of the first they tackle, and a draft is already circulating and could be made public next month.
Walker also has called for the replacement of the Common Core academic standards, and he wants to increase or even scrap the enrollment caps in the statewide private school voucher program. All of those education issues should face a smoother road through the Legislature given the departure of moderate Republican critics who won't be around this session to influence, or derail, the changes.
Republican Sen. Luther Olsen, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has helped block past school accountability bills, as well as efforts to undo the Common Core standards and expand the voucher program. But next year, Olsen doesn't think he'll be able to stop them.
"I think there's some people who would rather go around me than through me on this stuff," Olsen said. "I want to work with them, but I can read the tea leaves."
Sen. Paul Farrow, R-Village of Pewaukee, said he circulated a draft of a new school accountability bill to interested parties last week. It would not put sanctions in state law, but instead would create a council under the Department of Public Instruction that would determine the criteria for punishing lagging schools and rewarding high performers, Farrow said.
The bill also would allow for voucher school students to take a different test than those in public schools, with the scores then aligned so they could be compared on report cards, Farrow said.
"My goal is to give any school it wants an option of what test it would take," he said.
Private schools have long argued that they are not subject to state standards and should not be forced to take tests that are aligned to those standards.
The earliest the changes could be implemented would be the 2017 school year, Farrow said. He hopes to introduce the bill by the end of December.
Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have said they want to move quickly on the issue after the Jan. 5 inauguration.
The accountability bill involves powerful interests in the Capitol - including the deep-pocketed voucher school lobby, private schools and public schools. Former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen is a lobbyist for the American Federation for Children, and two other former speakers lobby for another pro-voucher group, School Choice Wisconsin.
American Federation for Children has been a major backer of Walker and pro-voucher members of the Legislature, spending $4.5 million since 2010 to help them, according to a tally by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. In the most recent election, the group spent about $850,000 on legislative races. That included nearly $111,000 to defeat vocal anti-voucher Democratic state Rep. Mandy Wright, who lost by 84 votes.
"I think the elections were a referendum in a number of those districts on school choice," Jensen said. "People who were supporters of school choice won and people who were opponents lost. That should give legislators some sense of where the public is."
The statewide voucher program is currently capped at 1,000 students, but Walker and Republican leaders have said they want to expand or even do away with that lid, as Jensen and other proponents are lobbying for.
Citing the money spent by Jensen's group in the election, "it's no coincidence" that GOP leaders are promising an expansion, said Scot Ross, director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, which tracks spending by the pro-voucher lobby.