Evers’ flawed education plan.

State Superintendent Tony Evers’ recent submission of Wisconsin’s plan to the U.S. Department of Education sets the direction of education policy in the Badger State for years to come. Unfortunately, the state plan, a requirement under the new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), fails to take any serious action on low-performing schools and forgoes opportunities to improve K-12 schools in Wisconsin. It needs to be amended.

The 2015 passage by Congress of the Every Student Succeeds Act was a bipartisan effort to overhaul federal education law. Instead of dictating from Washington D.C., as No Child Left Behind did, ESSA allows states to decide the details of policies such as school report cards and intervening in low-performing schools. Lawmakers hoped states would use federal Title I dollars to innovate and enact bold reforms. Sadly those hopes have been dashed in Wisconsin.

The ESSA process in Wisconsin was a sham from the start. Evers and the Department of Public Instruction convened an “Equity in ESSA” council to give direction to the state plan. But the council was advisory only with no voting power. Evers made it clear that he would be making the decisions unilaterally.

Some in the state Legislature, such as Reps. Jeremy Thiesfeldt and Ron Tusler, pushed back against Evers, arguing that DPI should not be given the unchecked ability to write K-12 education policy. Un- fortunately, too many Republicans in the Legislature were willing to abdicate their law-making authority to a government agency.

The flawed process resulted in the flawed plan submitted last Monday. Unlike other states, Wisconsin’s plan takes a pass on opportunities to innovate with greater discretion over the use of federal Title funds. This ignores the wishes of over 300 Wisconsin school district superintendents and school board members who recently indicated a desire for greater control over how federal funds are spent, according to a new survey by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

In the plan, low-performing schools face no sanction or reform but are instead asked only to craft “improvement plans” and engage with families and the local community. With as many as 55 public schools, if not more, across Wisconsin possibly labeled low-performing under ESSA, students deserve more than mere engagement with the community.

Other states have taken a different route, using ESSA to enact significant reforms in K-12 education. Florida is incentivizing successful charter school operators to open schools in areas with low-performing public schools. New Mexico will be taking significant action on their bad schools including forced closure or charter school conversion. Indiana will explore replacing school leadership.

None of this should be surprising. Evers has a bureaucrat’s mindset, unable to make the difficult decisions that would rock the establishment boat. For example, Evers has refused to take any significant action on Wisconsin’s failing public schools. This is so even though state law and previously, No Child Left Behind, empowered him to do so.

So what could happen next? Gov. Scott Walker refused to sign the state plan, blasting it for doing “little to challenge the status quo.” Nonetheless, all signs indicate that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will approve Wisconsin’s state plan. After that, DPI will have to follow state law in implementing the plan which includes adhering to the rulemaking process. Failure to do so could result in litigation, which the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce previously warned Evers about.

The state Legislature still can have its say. Legislators should explore ways to amend and improve the state plan. The parts that require rule-making will go to legislative committees for approval, which ought to result in rigorous scrutiny.

With more than 50,000 students attending failing schools, a graduation rate hovering around 60% in Milwaukee, and one of the nation’s highest racial achievement gaps in Madison, Wisconsin cannot afford to settle for more of the same.