School district bosses must be educrats!
One does not have to be a Cardinal — or even a priest — to be elected Pope in Rome. (Do gotta be Catholic.)
Wisconsin, on the other hand, demands the leaders of its 386 school districts be selected from the education establishment’s equivalent of the college of cardinals. School district administrators must first be given the zucchetto, biretta, and ring from academia’s schools of education, catechised as they are in critical race theory. By statute, school superintendents must possess a doctorate in education administration or its equivalent. In other words, it’s a closed union shop.
Republicans in the state legislature — with no Democrat(ic) votes — tried to open up our failing public school classrooms to the fresh breezes of reform. To reverse the poor academic performance, absenteeism, and violence plaguing even suburban schools. The governor, a Democrat, vetoed Senate Bill 335, which would have eliminated the education doctorate requirement. (Plank #15 in Blaska’s creaky platform.) And why wouldn’t he?! Tony Evers is the papal nuncio of the education establishment, climbing the ladder to head of the WI Department of Public Instruction before being exalted to the governor’s mansion by the teachers union.
Madison, meanwhile, feels fortunate to have Joe Gothard coming in from St. Paul MN as its new school district superintendent. Grew up in town, taught here. Chosen the superintendent of the year by its national association (everyone has an association!). A certain former mayor noted that its criteria does not include any proof of actual academic or behavioral student progress. Gothard speaks Woke, wants to build “systemic equity.”
Tommy Thompson can be president of the University of Wisconsin system
but he is barred from running Madison’s public schools.
Small solace that he can’t be worse than Jennifer Cheatham, who presently is cloning herself over at depends-on-the-context Harvard U. Can anyone tell the Werkes why, say, a Tommy Thompson would not do a bang-up job as superintendent of Madison schools? Or a Scott McCallum, whose degree is economics? Who else could produce tangible results? Why not a Barry Alvarez, Judith Faulkner, Kevin Conroy, Zach Brandon, Kaleem Caire, Paul Soglin, Mike Gallagher, or Paul Ryan — all successful managers of complex institutions?
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Ernest Hemingway, Henry Ford, Harry Truman, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg never got college degrees. Never futzed up Madison’s public schools, either!
5 responses to “Tony Evers protects public schools from reform”
If I rememberr correctly, school ratings went down; so it’s a shame he has anything to say about the system at all.
Lefty’s abject uselessness has befouled local public INDOCTRICATION since time immemorial; even with their despicable ham-fists on the scale, the…um…results (such as they are) are nothing short of abysmal.
The Gotch
Happy “Transgender Day of Visibility”, everyone. So proclaims the White House. I’ll bet you thought this was Easter Sunday.🐰
New school superintendent, same old results. Terrible english and math scores and the cry for more money. With all the free covid money drying up and no better learning something else needs to change. Most sports teams start at the top. Maybe schools should start with changing the requirements.
Happy Transgender Day and Easter. Don’t get too excited because it won’t happen again for many years. Celebrate in any way you want. I think this is still America.
You have a balanced perspective, Bob. Yes, this still America. Let’s hope we can keep our Republic.