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Response Needed – SAA Legislative Alert on SB 619
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 28, 2014
The SAA is issuing its second priority legislative alert on Senate Bill 619.
Senate Bill 619, a bill that would dramatically change the way educational standards are developed in Wisconsin, will have a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Education at 10:00am on Thursday, March 6th in Room 411 South, State Capitol.
The SAA is encouraging multiple efforts by its members in opposition to SB 619. First and foremost, if you can clear your calendar and join us in Madison on March 6th, either to testify or to support those testifying, please do so. It is extremely important that we have a strong presence at this hearing.
We also encourage members to please contact your legislators and the members of the Senate Committee on Education in opposition to SB 619. If you have already contacted your legislators, we encourage you to do it again.
Background Information on SB 619
Under SB 619, a new 15-member state board would begin replacing the Common Core State Standards within a year.
This board would be charged with writing new model academic standards starting with English, reading and math within a year of the bill’s enactment. It would have three years to create standards for social studies and science.
SB 619 calls for two members of that board to be appointed from private voucher schools (schools that accept taxpayer-funded vouchers), even though those private schools receiving taxpayer money are not required to follow statewide academic standards for public schools.
SB 619 could halt the implementation of more rigorous reading and math academic standards that local districts have already spent millions of dollars on, could inject an element of partisan politics into the setting of academic standards and could ultimately result in the state Legislature, not DPI, setting academic standards through a highly political process.
Under SB 619, after the board has submitted its proposed model academic standards to the state superintendent, the state superintendent must, taking into consideration the academic standards submitted by the board, submit its own proposed model academic standards first to the legislative council staff for review and comment and then to the Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR).
The bill provides that the JCRAR must either approve the proposed model academic standards or object to the proposed standards. If the JCRAR approves the model academic standards, the state superintendent must adopt the model academic standards. If the JCRAR objects to the proposed model academic standards, the JCRAR must prepare a new legislative bill that incorporates by reference the proposed model academic standards submitted by the board for introduction in both the senate and the assembly. However, it should be noted that once such a bill is before the Legislature, it could be amended fairly dramatically by lawmakers.
A legal memorandum, issued February 21st by the DPI, confirms that the Legislature would be able to modify a bill establishing model academic standards through any kind of amendment to such a bill. (Attorneys at the Wisconsin Legislative Council have agreed with this conclusion by DPI). Additionally, the DPI memo notes that SB 619 would impact all academic standards going forward, not just English language arts and mathematics.
Lawmakers may be poised to vote this proposal out of committee next week and send it to the full Legislature.
Testimony and Communications with Legislators
In your testimony and in your communications with legislators, it is important to express support for the Common Core State Standards. We have linked some talking points at the end that you can use. More importantly, tell the story of what your school district has done to implement CCSS and share the successes you have experienced.
Make sure to focus on your concerns that, if adopted, SB 619 would:
- Scrap all the staff time and money that districts have invested in Common Core implementation and set back district standards-based improvement efforts by 3-5 years.
- Set back state efforts to replace the WKCE exams. Scrapping the Common Core will require new state assessments that may or may not be online and adaptable. Also note that these state assessments will be the basis for much of the school report card as well as teacher and principal evaluations.
- Politicize the development of state educational standards. Implore legislators to take the politics out of this process. Please don’t make the development of educational standards for our children subject to the whim of the political party in power. We can’t hope to sustain long-term improvement in student achievement in Wisconsin if lawmakers require us to change course every couple of years.
Please use the information above as well as your knowledge and experience on this issue in an email or phone call to your legislators (and the members of the Senate Education Committee) as soon as possible. For your convenience in contacting your legislators, I have provided links to the Senate Directory, the Assembly Directory as well as Who Are My Legislators. Also, we are providing contact information for the members of the Senate Committee on Education as well.
If you are planning to come to Madison on March 6th for the public hearing, please email Beth (beth@wsaa.org) at the SAA so we can help coordinate your participation.
We will forward more information on this issue next week as the hearing date approaches.
Thanks for listening and, as always, thank you for everything you do on behalf of Wisconsin school children.
Talking Points:
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