I don’t think this would ever pass in Wisconsin, but it’s a good idea.
A Republican legislator has proposed changing the Wisconsin Constitution to allow the governor to pick the state schools superintendent rather than voters.
The constitution establishes a statewide election for superintendent every four years. The position is officially nonpartisan but current Superintendent Tony Evers has Democratic support. He also adopted the Common Core academic standards, which Republican have been pushing to scrap.
For the uninitiated, in Wisconsin the state school superintendent is a statewide constitutionally elected office. In most states, the department of education is just another executive agency, but in Wisconsin it’s a standalone organization. BUT, it is still funded as part of the executive branch, so we end up with this strange friction. The purpose for this was to set education policy above politics by removing it from the three branches of government. The result has been that education is just as subject to politics as it ever was, but it’s a standalone office.
As it stands, everyone in the state holds the governor responsible for the state of public education anyway, so why not put it in the executive branch where he or she actually controls the entire state public education apparatus?
One more step in the privatization of education. Politics, as we know, is controlled by money. Anytime we give complete control of anything to anyone the opportunity for corruption increases. “So why not put it in the executive branch where he or she actually controls the entire state public education apparatus?”… Because we have seen what happens using WEDA as an example. Furthermore, our current governor can barely handle the responsibilities he is now tasked with. Adding this task to the pile would surely result in further dysfunction and end up costing the taxpayers more to repair the inevitable damages. I am personally getting tired of watching bills be introduced disguised as something else. The question should be why, why introduce this bill and why do it now? What specifically is to be gained? Simply saying the governor gets all the blame for the state of public education in Wisconsin anyway is by no means grounds to give him absolute control. It would seem the opposite would be true. I adamantly opposed this measure.