An Analysis of Governor Scott Walker’s (R-WI) Education Reform Plan, Part 3

The major difficulty I am having in trying to discuss Governor Walker’s Education Reform Plan (Education for the 21st Century High Standards and Accountability) is the fact that it is a bad plan that lacks the level of accuracy, thoughtfulness and specificity that a document of this importance should contain. Many of the ideas in the governor's plan appeared in better written, more comprehensive, earlier documents ― especially President Clinton’s Ten-Point Plan (Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century). Two other documents that presented thorough and thoughtful ideas, that has appeared much later in the governor’s plan are President Bush’s No Child Left Behind (The Elementary and Secondary Education Act ― 1st Revision), and President Obama’s The Race to the Top (The Elementary and Secondary Education Act ― 2nd Revision). A reading of any of these three documents ― especially President Clinton’s Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century, will help the reader to further understand the gross inadequacies of Governor Walker’s plan.

Moreover, there are a number of misconceptions and unaddressed problems in Walker’s plan that I will quickly mention here:

• At the beginning of the third paragraph, in the section entitled Focus on Fundamentals, the governor stated “school have to return their focus to the fundamentals of reading, writing, science and math to ensure basic skills are mastered.” The popular notion among some members of our society that “schools have moved away from the fundamentals” is false. If anything, schools are more focus on the fundamentals than ever before. (The mandates in No Child Left Behind were largely responsible for this.) What has changed is the emphasis in the tests. A few years ago, students could gain proficiency on tests by demonstrating their knowledge and comprehension skills or lower level thinking skills. Today, in order to show proficiency, students must demonstrate skills beyond knowledge and comprehension. Today’s standardized tests require students to demonstrate higher level thinking skills in math, science, language arts, reading, and social studies. The students’ abilities to recall, explain, describe, and name have been deemphasized. The emphases are on their abilities to design, compose, create, synthesize, evaluate, judge, formulate, etc. Most teachers have already made the shift from low level thinking skills to higher level thinking skills in their lessons; the others need to be reminded and helped ― if necessary, to do so.

• In the next section entitled Reform Failing Schools, the governor suggested that “Schools should be graded just like students on a scale of A to F. Grades awarded under this rating system will be based on objective criteria such as graduation rates, passing rates, enrollment in Advanced Placement courses, standardized test scores, and teacher and administrator evaluations.” Since failing schools are often located in failing neighborhoods, I believe that neighborhoods should be graded just like schools on a scale from A to F. Grades awarded under this rating system will be based on objective criteria such as employment opportunities in the neighborhoods, the percentage of its residence that are employed, local centers to help residence acquire their voter’s ID, public transportation, the upkeep of school buildings, residence access to well maintained parks and recreation areas, residence evaluations concerning the quality of service they are receiving, complains against police officers and the governor. If the same neighborhoods have the same dismal conditions for more than two years, the governor should resign, and a run-off election held to determine his replacement.

• In the section of the governor’s plan entitled More Choices for Parents, it states “School Choice, Charter schools and Virtual Charter schools are all serving students in innovative and effective ways. These options should be expanded.” This objective in Walker’s plan is going to create two major problems for public schools: First, it is going to take money and resources from public schools that are already under funded. (This is obvious.) Second, and more importantly, under this plan the rights of School Choice, Charter school and Virtual Charter schools to acquire more students are expanded. This means that their rights to dismiss students after acquiring them need to be address: These schools should not have the rights to simply expel their most difficult students, and return them to the public schools, after they have acquired them, and failed to raise their achievement levels. Instead, since they will be receiving government funds, they should be graded and evaluated like public schools.

It should be clear by now that Governor Walker’s plan lacks the level of accuracy, thoughtfulness and specificity that a document of this importance should contain. One of the challenges to all educators, going forward, is to do what many and I are doing: Anticipate the ramifications of Walker’s plan, and force the governor and his administration to construct meaningful strategies for meeting these challenging consequences.