An Analysis of Governor Scott Walker’s (R-WI) Education Reform Plan, Part 1

Several months ago, Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) unveiled his education reform plan entitled Education for the 21st Century (High Standards and Accountability). This plan, which on the surface appears to be an honest effort to reform education in the state of Wisconsin, is riddled with false assumptions, incorrect conclusions, lofty misunderstood goals, political shenanigans, and the misguided ideals of an arrogant governor. In short, it is everything ― except a thorough, well thought out group of final decisions, based on care considerations and important deliberations of the best arguments from all the important perspectives.


My objective in this article and the others that will follow is to offer an analysis of Governor Walker’s Plan in a way that will, hopefully, allow you to see the reasons I reached the conclusions that are stated above.

The goal of Governor Walker’s Plan is to return Wisconsin’s education system to the level of excellence that one made it “the model for the nation.”

According to the governor, there are five objectives that must be met, throughout Wisconsin, in order to achieve this goal. There are as follows:

1. Schools must focus on fundamentals. Or as it’s stated in the governor’s plan “Schools have to return their focus to the fundamental s of reading, writing, science, and math to ensure basic skills are mastered.”


2. Reform failing schools. Schools should be graded like students on a scale of A to F. Those who fail will be subjected to some type of reform based on the severity of their failure.


3. Recruit, retain and reward great teachers. Teachers will be evaluated based on planning and preparation, classroom environment, quality of instruction, professional responsibilities, and yearly student progress.


4. School districts should constantly look for ways to function more efficiently.


5. Provide parents with greater school choices. Or as it’s stated in the governor’s plan “Parents should have control over their child’s education, not the government.”


Glaring flaws in the governor’s plan:

• The governor’s plan suggests that the sole variable that determines student achievement is the quality of classroom instruction the child receives. Wrong! The quality of classroom instruction a child receives in one of numerous variables that contribute to the child’s academic achievement.

• The governor’s plan suggests that teachers are most responsible for a child’s academic achievement. Wrong! While it is true that the teacher is responsible for the quality of classroom instruction a child receives ―when the child is present to learn, all the other important variables, concerning the child’s academic achievement, are external to the control of the classroom teacher.


• The governor’s plan suggests that parents are essentially consumers, task with the responsibility of shopping around at various schools, trying to get the best deal for their children; then monitoring the school performance to determine if there are getting their money’s worth. Wrong! Parents and schools are partners in the business venture of educating, protecting, nurturing, developing ― and loving, the most important and precious commodities known to humankind ― CHILDREN!!


• Student at private schools, charter schools and internet schools will continue to out perform students at the public schools. Wrong! For a long time students at these schools out performed students in the public schools because private, charter, and internet schools were able to be very selective. However, as these schools begin to face the rising cost of remaining operational, they are going to lower their standards and loosen their restrictions, at which time they will face the same challenges that are present in the public schools. And their results will be the same or worst, because they are new at this. (Already we are seeing signs of this. The test scores for the Wisconsin Knowledge and Comprehension Exam for 2011 is one example.)

One thing the governor doesn’t want to hear, but he really needs to know: The socio-economic status of a community and the percentage of unemployment are two of the best indicators for determining successful schools: Communities with high socio-economic status and communities with low percentages of unemployment tend to have very good to excellent schools. They rarely have failing schools. Therefore, one of the best strategies that you can employ in you effort to improve student achievement is to encourage employers to pay the workers in the private sector more money, and give them less costly benefits. Additionally, refrain from making deep cuts in entitlements, and instead, create a luxury tax, then use the money to create jobs in Milwaukee, Beloit, Racine, and Green Bay.

Finally, please be mindful that more important than the governor’s right to implement education policies is the governor’s responsibility to implement the right policies in education.