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Olsen: Accountability Bill May Not Happen This Session
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | January 29, 2014
Senate Education Committee Chairman Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) has pulled the revamped school accountability bill, Senate Bill 286, from the committee’s executive session for tomorrow, meaning the bill will not be voted on. Olsen also suggested to the media that the accountability bill may get stalled and not pass this legislative session.
You might recall that the SAA established two major conditions for its support of SB 286 during the September 12 public hearing on the original draft of the legislation: 1) all schools educating students with public funds are included, and 2) no preferential treatment for any type of school in the accountability system. We were disappointed that the revamped SB 286 fails on the second condition, allowing voucher schools to choose whatever assessment they want for their report card and count whichever students they desire. The bill also abandons the performance categories established by the Accountability Design Team and replaces them with politically-charged A-F letter grades. Finally, the timeline for sanctioning the lowest performing schools provides preferential treatment for voucher schools.
The bottom line is the private school voucher proponents do not want real accountability, they are very powerful politically, and so far they are getting their wish. It remains to be seen now if Senator Farrow will release an accountability bill he has been working on. If so, the SAA will update the membership on it as soon as possible. Stay tuned.
See the latest news article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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