New Poll Confirms Guv Race is Tight
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | September 18, 2014
From WisPolitics.com …
Gov. Scott Walker and rival Mary Burke were still close in the latest Marquette University Law School Poll, though the latest survey found a shift as Republicans were more excited to vote than their Dem counterparts.
The poll found Walker and Burke tied at 46 percent apiece among registered voters. Among likely voters, Walker had the edge 49-46.
In last month’s poll, 47.5 percent of registered voters backed Walker, while 44.1 percent favored Burke, while among likely voters it was 48.6 percent for Burke and 46.5 percent for Walker.
Poll director Charles Franklin said the shift in enthusiasm could be attributed to several possibilities.
Eighty percent of Republicans in the most recent poll said they are certain to vote in November, compared to 73 percent of Dems and 69 percent of independents. In August, 82 percent of Dems said the same, while 77 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of independents were certain to vote.
Franklin noted Walker and Republicans have been pushing the GOP base to get engaged in this election since the last results were released.
“Likely voters have seen a real blossoming of Republican excitement, and that has helped Walker among likely voters,” Franklin said.
The sample also was more Republican than the last one. Among registered voters, 29 percent said they were Republicans, 28 percent said they were Dems and 41 percent identified as independents. That is the first time in 24 Marquette Law School Polls that Republicans had an edge among registered voters.
Among likely voters, Republicans had a 32-28 advantage over Democrats, with 38 percent saying they were independents. It was the fourth time Republicans had an edge among likely voters in the poll.
In August, Dems had a 4-point advantage among registered voters and 6 points among likely voters.
Franklin said that could be attributed to either an outlier survey or to a true shift among the electorate. He noted a growth in GOP partisanship across all geographic regions and other factors that make it less likely the results were an outlier.
Franklin said the next poll will help demonstrate if the shift in enthusiasm was a fluke or real movement in the poll. He did not say how many more polls would be conducted between now and the election, but said the surveys would start to focus more on likely voters with Nov. 4 drawing near.
See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Coverage here.
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Back to School, and to Widening Inequality
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | September 18, 2014
Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, is a polarizing figure to some. However, I must admit that, even when I don’t agree with him, I find his analysis insightful and always worthy of consumption.
Recently, I stumbled across a blog post of his entitled, “Back to School, and to Widening Inequality”. In it he discusses how the nation’s achievement gap between rich and poor kids is, not surprisingly, a reflection of the widening gulf between rich and poor families in this country, as well as our political unwillingness to direct enough school funding where it is needed most.
Reich concludes his post with the following:
Money isn’t everything, obviously. But how can we pretend it doesn’t count? Money buys the most experienced teachers, less-crowded classrooms, high-quality teaching materials, and after-school programs.
Yet we seem to be doing everything except getting more money to the schools that most need it.
We’re requiring all schools meet high standards, requiring students to take more and more tests, and judging teachers by their students’ test scores.
But until we recognize we’re systematically hobbling schools serving disadvantaged kids, we’re unlikely to make much headway.
Amen. I’m sure many of you will agree that much of this column reads like a reference to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s standard created in the Vincent v. Voight (2000) decision regarding disadvantaged students.
We need to re-frame the conversation, in Wisconsin and the nation, to focus on creating good education policy based not on ideology but on what the evidence says is best for kids.
Thanks for listening. Keep up the good fight. The kids you serve deserve nothing less.
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DPI Submits Partial Budget Request
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | September 17, 2014
State Superintendent Tony Evers has submitted the first piece of his 2015-17 departmental budget request focusing on school safety and technology. He noted his request for school funding will come after Oct. 15, when new school aid numbers are released. He said it would propose making the school funding formula “fair, sustainable, and transparent” while accounting for meeting the needs of children with disabilities, English-language learners and those who are economically disadvantaged. It also will address the needs of rural schools.
See the Evers letter and partial DPI request here.
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School and School District Report Cards Released
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | September 16, 2014
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) announced today that report cards for Wisconsin schools and school districts show that the majority meet or exceed expectations for student achievement and academic engagement in the 2013-14 school year. Overall, 88.3 percent of schools and 98.1 percent of districts with accountability scores had ratings of meets expectations or better.
See the news release here. A listing of district Overall Accountability Scores and Ratings can be found here.
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AFC Launches State Chapter to Push Voucher Expansion
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | September 15, 2014
The American Federation for Children (AFC), the tax-exempt political arm of the Alliance for School Choice, is launching a Wisconsin chapter to push for the expansion of taxpayer-funded private school vouchers.
This Cap Times news article highlights former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen’s role as senior adviser, as well as the role of out-of-state billionaires in bankrolling AFC’s efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
The SAA believes that any Wisconsin expansion of taxpayer subsidized private education for the few, comes at the expense of the many. In other words, voucher expansion = diminished educational opportunities for Wisconsin public school children.
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