NEW ORLEANS — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is best known for the controversial labor reforms he’s signed, but Walker chose to showcase the success of his education reforms on Monday at the American Federation for Children Policy Summit in New Orleans.
“Today in Wisconsin our graduation rates are higher, our third-grade reading scores are higher, our ACT scores are now second-best in the country,” Walker said. “That shows something we’ve all done not just when it comes to public schools, but with choice and charter and other great options out there.”
Since 2009-10, the statewide graduation rate in Wisconsin has risen three percentage points, up to nearly 90 percent. Low-income students in Wisconsin graduate at a higher rate than their counterparts in the rest of the country, and the rate has risen since Walker took office. The same is true for students with disabilities.
Walker also spoke about ending the state’s last-in, first-out policy on teacher layoffs. To demonstrate the absurdity of the policy, he told the story of an award-winning teacher who was laid off in her first year on the job, months before Walker become governor. “Now, in our state, seniority and tenure is gone,” Walker said. “That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms and keep them there.”
Many of Walker’s famous labor reforms will have long-term effects on education. The reduced lobbying power of teachers unions will have benefits for decades. With right-to-work, signed in March 2015, teachers are free to leave their unions and won’t be forced to contribute to union activities. Local school districts and cities are saving millions of dollars now that public sector union collective bargaining is strictly limited.
“We took the power away from the big government special interests … and we put it back into the hands of the hard-working taxpayers,” Walker said Monday.
With a powerful opponent to educational choice weakened, Walker is striving to provide Wisconsin families with even more school choice moving forward.
“Whether it’s a traditional public school … a choice school, a charter school, a private school, a home school, a virtual school environment, we need to provide as many options as possible,” Walker said.
Walker wasn’t just giving talking points to satisfy a room of school choice supporters; his record shows strong support for school choice. In 2013, Walker signed a law that gives a tax deduction to anyone who pays private school tuition. He also signed a budget that fully funds the Milwaukee school choice program.
Walker also signed a law that lets students take up to two courses from any non-profit school, including the University of Wisconsin and charter schools. If a Wisconsin student’s public school does not offer advanced placement biology or chemistry, he or she can take the course at another school or even at a university.
While most of Walker’s speech focused on Wisconsin, he wasn’t shy about discussing his federal education policy ambitions as well. He didn’t get into the weeds of the federal debate over how to reform No Child Left Behind, but Walker did provide a general idea of where he wants education power to flow. “I want people at the local level making decisions,” Walker said. “We should have a real debate in this nation about taking resources out of Washington and sending them back to our states, sending them back to our schools, sending them back to our parents.” He added that parents in Washington, D.C. should have the best possible choices in schools. D.C. has a school choice program that falls under federal jurisdiction, making it a political football in congressional budget debates.
