LARSON Weekly Report - February 23, 2012

State Senator Chris Larson

Dear Friend,

This week we will examine how some elected officials have chosen to repeatedly place the agenda of special interests above the needs of our family, friends, and neighbors. An update on the various mining proposals is also included.

As usual, please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns or opinions you may have about our community or our state.

Sincerely,

Chris Larson
State Senator, District 7
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Governor Gets an Incomplete on Education Report Card
Cuts of $1.6 billion in Governor Walker's budget put the debate over education front and center in Wisconsin. The struggle for the future health of our public schools and the success of our children is continuing to intensify as school districts are being forced to contemplate a second round of severe budget cuts for the next school year. In startling new developments, we learned that the Governor and Republican lawmakers' repeatedly chose the interests of lobbyists, such as School Choice Wisconsin, ahead of the well-being of the communities and neighbors they swore to represent.

Shortly after Governor Walker signed his budget into law, he announced a partnership with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers to jointly craft a new school accountability system that would be submitted to the federal government and if accepted, would allow Wisconsin to replace the failed No Child Left Behind system currently in place. Additionally, Governor Walker and Superintendent Evers stated that this new accountability program would be applied to every school that accepts publicly funded students, which would include public schools, private schools in the state-funded voucher program, charter schools, and virtual schools.

Click here to view an article announcing this new partnership and accountability plan.

Three task forces--Read to Lead, Effective Educator Design Team, and School Accountability--were set up by Governor Walker and tasked with providing recommendations for legislation to create the new school accountability system. These recommendation were then supposed to be placed into one bill and brought before the Legislature this session.

Click here to view an article discussing the various task forces and their goal of producing legislation.

Governor Walker once again professed his intention of developing a unique accountability plan that would be required of all schools that receive public funding in his State of the State address where he said:

"Dr. Evers and I have been working with a diverse group of individuals to develop our plan to let parents, teachers, and communities know which schools are performing well, so that we can replicate their success. And we do need to know which schools are failing, so we can help them.

"Ultimately, educators, parents and even employers will be able to look at the scores of schools and school districts across the state. Every school that receives public funds--be it a traditional public school, a charter school, or a choice school--will be rated by a fair, objective, and transparent system. We are proud of the work done by this design team and I want to thank Dr. Evers and his staff for the great leadership and collaboration on this important project."

Click here to view Governor Walker's entire State of the State address.

Early in 2012, the recommendations of the three task forces were supported with a vote in each task force and then converted into bill provisions by Senator Luther Olsen and Representative Steve Kestell so they could be placed in one bill and circulated. Unfortunately, when the final bill draft was introduced as Senate Bill 461, it appeared that all of the recommendations proposed by the School Accountability Task Force had been omitted by the bill's authors. The exclusion of the accountability provisions was very surprising to everyone involved, given that Sen. Olsen and Rep. Kestell supported those very provisions as members of the School Accountability Task Force. What motivation could there possibly be to exclude such vital, common sense provisions from a bill aimed at increasing the accountability, transparency, and quality of our neighborhood schools?

Click here to view the recommendations that were agreed to by Governor Walker, legislators, and other School Accountability Task Force members.

Click here to view a copy of the bill created by the recommendations of the School Accountability Task Force.

That question was answered loud and clear after emails surfaced as a result of an open records request. The emails indicated that Republican legislators and the Governor decided to break their promise to bring greater accountability to Wisconsin schools after being approached by the powerful school choice lobbyists. Governor Walker and Republican legislators are no stranger to such groups as School Choice Wisconsin, as most have received substantial political contributions from this and similar special interests. The links below document how in the case of Senate Bill 461, financial ties to these special interest groups were enough to trump the concerns of Wisconsinites these elected officials are supposed to represent.

Click here to view campaign contributions to elected officials from school choice organizations.

Click here to view emails uncovered by the open records request.

In addition to broken promises and providing preference to special interest groups, Governor Walker, Sen. Olsen, and Rep. Kestell continued with their pattern of backroom politics by misleading the public in an attempt to cover-up their decision to reject a bipartisan effort to improve our schools.

On February 15, the Senate and Assembly Committees on Education held a joint public hearing on Senate Bill 461. Most community members that testified expressed concerns about the missing provisions suggested by the School Accountability Task Force and wanted to know why these bipartisan measures were not included in Senate Bill 461. After repeatedly shutting down such lines of questioning, Rep. Kestell finally addressed the excluded accountability provision saying they were not ready and still needed to be drafted. When an attendee presented Rep. Kestell with the draft he said did not exist and reminded him that the draft was based on the recommendations made unanimously by the School Accountability Task Force, Rep. Kestell refused to discuss the issue further. It is sadly ironic that the process used to bring about greater accountability and transparency in publicly funded schools has become such a controversial topic. It is a story of deceit, broken promises, and special interest influence.

Unfortunately for Wisconsinites, this is not the first time that School Choice Wisconsin and other special interests have had their agenda chosen over the well-being of the people of Wisconsin. Republicans inserted a provision into the budget that established four criteria for a school district that, if met, would allow private and religious schools to take up to $6,500 in tax dollars per student away from our public schools. Republican legislators indicated that their intention with this budget provision was to simply expand the voucher program to Racine alone, but created an unintended consequence with this measure.

In August, Senator Mike Ellis and Representative Robin Vos introduced Senate Bill 174 to amend the state budget and close the loophole by saying that only school districts that have already qualified as an eligible school district may qualify as an eligible school district once Senate Bill 174 is in effect. This bipartisan bill has since passed unanimously in the Senate and has simply been waiting for several months to be scheduled for a vote in the Assembly before it can be signed into law.

Click here to view a copy of a letter that was submitted urging the passage of Senate Bill 174.

Children, parents, and taxpayers deserve to have the necessary accountability measures in place on all schools receiving public funds. It is time that Governor Walker and Republican legislators uphold the promises they made to the people of Wisconsin and place all of us above the interests of a few lobbying groups.
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Senator Chris Larson 2011 - 2012 Committee Assignments
Senate Standing Committees:
-- Committee on Education
-- Committee on Insurance and Housing
-- Committee on Natural Resources and Environment

Joint Committees:
-- Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology
-- Special Task Force on UW Restructuring and Operational Flexibilities