Posted on 05/28/2015 9:52:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
What is the Wisconsin Legislature trying to do to public education in Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s state?
State Superintendent Tony Evers has gone on record accusing lawmakers of moving toward new legislation “that erodes the basic foundation of Wisconsin’s public school system.” How? By legislature efforts that include refusing to spend more money on public education for the first time in more than 20 years while while giving millions of dollars more to expand a private voucher program, slashing higher education funding, and weakening licensing rules for teachers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They have finally decided to STOP GIVING MONEY TO FAILED GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACIES
WP with it’s daily demonization of Walker.
They quake in fear of him.
The Wisconsin State Superintendent position is an elected office.
Feb 19, 2015: Walker and Evers have been battling it out.
May 27, 2015: Evers says teacher licensing change ‘breathtaking in its stupidity’ (AUDIO)
"Wisconsin’s top education official is offering up harsh criticism for a state budget provision that would relax state standards for obtaining a teaching license.
The measure, added to the budget last week by the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, would allow anyone with a bachelor’s degree to be licensed to teach math, social studies, science, or English in Wisconsin schools. Anyone with relevant experience, but not necessarily a degree, could teach other subjects. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers says it’s a terrible idea that is just “breathtaking in its stupidity.”...............
Sounds like Wisconsin is trying to get a grip on education....
YAY!!!
Evers, ever the tool of the teachers unions, would complain that Bill Gates was unqualified if offered a teaching post in introductory programming or in a business class simply because the most successful businessman in America in the last half century lacks a college degree. He also would carp if Walker taught a class in civics for the same reason. Even though Walker is a sitting governor and certainly understands government.
Those who can do. Those who can’t teach. Those who can’t teach teach teachers. Those who can do nothing run Departments of Education.
Everyone of these proposals are for the betterment of the children who should be the focus of education. Relieving them of the burden of a public education is in everyone’s best interest except for the teachers union and their corrupt cronies.
WaPo will get really frantic when the results start to come in and show that Wisconsin kids are scoring higher on real tests i.e. math, science, history. Those subjects are regarded by liberals as polluters of the mind and must be replaced with social attitudes and Revolution.
It would be even better if anyone with a history of union membership in the previous 2 years would be barred from teaching.
I hope the legislature and Walker have a plan to vocally make the case to the people on all these changes. Just quietly doing the right things will allow the Rats to frame the debate.
We at FR know why it is great that the trough pigs in public education are losing funding to vouchers but I think in order to be successful long term the general public must be brought to realize the truth as well.
If they have skills and can get the kids to learn, they should get in there and teach.
Walker wasn't against union members, he freed them from the bosses who had their hands in their pockets.
It’s getting out somehow (despite all the liberal news outlets in Wis, in neighboring states and on the national scene) because Walker and the R majority legislature keep moving the ball down the field.
I'm assuming they are talking about the Praxis exams, which I myself used to gain teaching credentials in another state.
Let me tell you, those Content Knowledge exams are not easy to pass. I did well on the math Praxis, but the national pass rate is well under 50%. I minored in math in college and I studied hard for a couple of months to prepare.
I don't know if Obama killed the program or not, but my entry into education was facilitated by the Troops to Teachers program, which helped veterans make a transition to the classroom.
My anecdotal evidence supports the idea that veterans make very good teachers. The ones I knew loved their jobs, and their administrations loved them.
In my case, I worked at a rural school with a substantial minority population and low math scores. My first year was tough, getting used to the shift in career, figuring things out. Second year, my kids crushed every other school in the surrounding area on standardized tests. The gains we earned carried forward into other math classes, too.
For the next seven years, we continued to rise, every year. I left for another gig. It wasn't an easy decision.
My BA is in Business. I have a masters in Human Resources.
One of the best teachers I ever had was my physiology teacher in high school.
A marine.
Washington Post is focusing on the education system in Wisconsin because the education system in Washington is in such tip-top shape.
The “highly qualified” standard was an offshoot of NCLB (no child left behind or NickleB) that said teachers must obtain masters level degrees to be “highly qualified”, a requirement for licensure. All this accomplished was to exclude some teachers and cost districts money by having to reimburse teachers for graduate work ( you don’t think those teachers earned those degrees on their dime do you?) and elevated teaching staff to higher tiers on contract pay schedules negotiated in union contracts. Seems like Walker is trying to correct some of these distortions.
bttt
Does “slashing funds” mean the rate of increase was reduced, or does it mean they actually get less money than last year?
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