Poorly performing public schools wouldn’t be converted to charter schools under a school-accountability bill introduced by Senate Republicans on Tuesday.
The bill would create two boards to oversee academic progress of schools: one for public and charter schools, and one for private schools receiving students using taxpayer-funded vouchers.
The Senate version of a school accountability bill sets the Senate far apart from legislation introduced last week by Assembly Republicans and appeases some critics of the Assembly bill.
It was unveiled just hours before Gov. Scott Walker’s State of the State address by key Republican Senate leaders, Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau and the chairmen of two Senate education committees, Luther Olsen of Ripon and Paul Farrow of Pewaukee.
Unlike the Assembly version, there are no letter grades for schools outlined in the Senate bill. Rather, it says schools would be placed in one of five performance categories based on student achievement and progress in reading and math, how well a school closes gaps between groups of students in academic achievement and in graduation rates, and on overall attendance and graduation rates.
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The Senate bill doesn’t address testing. Under the Assembly bill, schools would have the choice of several options.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Tuesday the Senate and Assembly could potentially pass their own versions of the bill, and then hold a conference committee to come to a compromise. He said he was open to changes, and wanted to hear “what the public has to say.”
But Fitzgerald dismissed the idea.
Olsen said one of the Senate’s major goals was crafting a bill that was constitutional.
The GOP senators stopped short of calling the Assembly version unconstitutional, but Farrow said he thinks “there are portions of AB 1 that would be challenged in court.”
State Superintendent Tony Evers said Tuesday night before Gov. Scott Walker’s state of the state address that the Senate version of the school accountability bill was “on the right trajectory” in dealing with the constitutional issues raised by the Assembly version.
Those issues include the creation of a board that would have control over the accountability system, he said. The state constitution vests power over the public education system in the state superintendent.
“It looks like we’re moving in the right direction,” Evers said. “There’s way too many moving parts to be excited one way or the other.”
The Senate bill creates two review boards: one for charter and public schools “attached” to DPI, and another board to review voucher schools’ performance administered by the state’s Department of Administration.
The boards would be tasked with reviewing annual progress reports and identifying a “chronically failing” school or school district, which is defined in the bill as one that is placed in the lowest performance category for three straight annual accountability reports. The schools would have 30 days to appeal such a designation.
Schools considered failing must submit improvement plans to the boards for review under the bill.
For public and charter schools that don’t make sufficient progress after three years, their board, with the approval of the state superintendent, may ask schools or districts to:
Implement or modify requirements in the school district’s improvement plan.
Implement a new “instructional design,” including a longer school day or additional services.
Add professional development for teachers.
Make personnel changes.
Adopt accountability measures to monitor the school district’s finances.
The bill authorizes DPI to withhold state funding from school districts that fail to comply with an improvement plan for a chronically failing school or school district or with a directive made by the public and charter review board.
The bill also says the contract for an independent charter school considered to be persistently low-performing in the next-to-last year of its contract may not be renewed.
A chronically failing voucher school may not accept new students using vouchers for three years after being identified and only after reapplying to participate.
If any troubled school appeals a chronically failing identification, the review boards are allowed to not identify a school as a chronically failing school for one year “if the board determines that exceptional circumstances justify” the school’s performance as sufficient.
The public and charter school board would consist of the state superintendent and eight of his or her appointees. The DOA board for voucher schools would consist of the state superintendent, four members appointed by the Governor and one each from the four Assembly and Senate leaders.
In the Assembly version, just one board would be created to oversee all schools and its rulings would be carried out by DPI. That drew criticism from some school choice advocates who said under that scenario DPI would have too much authority over private voucher schools.
Chronically low-performing public schools would be turned into independent or public charter schools under the Assembly bill. Public school advocates called the proposed legislation inadequate, saying it doesn’t provide resources to improve schools.
If the Assembly bill’s provisions become law, six Madison schools could potentially face sanctions if the schools’ performance continues, according to DPI data posted online by the School Administrators Alliance. The schools — Allis, Falk, Hawthorne and Mendota elementary schools, Wright Middle School and East High School — include four with the district’s highest rates of student poverty.
A hearing on the Assembly bill is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
State Journal reporters Mary Spicuzza and Matthew DeFour contributed to this report.
