Evers announces state education plan

Wisconsin would boost its four-year high school graduation rates and cut the achievement gaps among students in half over the next six years under the state’s plan, made public Friday, to comply with the new federal education law known as the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers is expected to submit the plan to the U.S. Department of Education in September, after hearings around the state.

The conservative public interest law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty has threatened to sue Evers over its implementation, saying its provisions are in effect state rules, which must go through the Legislature.

WILL and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce have objected for months that Evers was unilaterally driving the plan and that it was likely to include none of the provisions sought by school choice advocates to address low-performing schools, including financial incentives for charter school operators and cutting the strings attached to federal funds.

They have pushed for more oversight from the Republican-dominated Legislature, where many members have been supportive of school choice.

“Our biggest concern is that the state plan is full of major policy decisions that will dictate the state of K-12 education for years to come ... and the legislative body should decide what educational policies should be in the plan,” WILL deputy counsel C.J. Szafir said Thursday before seeing the plan.

Evers has said throughout the process that he has consulted regularly with a broad swath of stakeholders that include Republican lawmakers, school choice advocates, educators and others.

“By bringing together a diverse set of stakeholders, we were able to advance a draft plan that met those goals, while respecting the landscape of our state,” Evers said in a statement.