Pulling the Curtain Back on Scott Walker
Written by Jeff Horn
The fight to Stop Common Core in Wisconsin has been a roller coaster ride. This article is meant primarily to document the ups and downs with links to all the pertinent details.
June 2, 2010
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Secretary Tony Evers adopts the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as Wisconsin’s Model Standards. He does this without asking forany legislative input or approval and with no public comment on the final draft of the Common Core Standards. In fact, Evers adopts the Common Core Standards mere hoursafter they are released.
May 2, 2013
Representatives of 29 grassroots groups signed An Open Letter to Republican State Officials on the Common Core State Standards outlining their concerns about Common Core and why the Legislature and the Governor should work to stop Common Core in Wisconsin.
May 22, 2013
People from across the state of Wisconsin packed a joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly Education Committees in a show of deep concern over this state’s decision to implement the CCSS.
June 2013
Rep. Dean Knudson works in the Joint Finance Committee to insert language in 2013-2015 biennial budget that would ensure three hearings be held by the Joint Education Committee and three hearings held by DPI around the state on Common Core State Standards
August 8, 2013
Senator Luther Olsen and Representative Joan Balweg fail to hold required hearings for over two months since the 2013-2015 biennial budget passes requiring them to do so. Representatives from 45 grassroots groups from across Wisconsin deliver an Open Letter to State Legislative and Executive Leadership : Common Core State Standards, Honor, and Senator Luther Olsen requesting that hearings be held without delay.
September 25, 2013
Governor Walker speaks for the very first time publicly about CCSS. When questioned by a reporter asking him about significant opposition to CCSS being mounted by conservative grassroots groups in Wisconsin, Walker replies: “I’d like to have Wisconsin have its own unique standards that I think can be higher than what’s been established and what’s been talked about at the national level.“
September 26, 2013
True to form. Walker talks and Republican leadership listens! Assembly Speaker Robin Vosnames Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt to chair an Assembly Special Select Committee on Common Core. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald names Senator Paul Farrow to chair the Senate Special Select Committee on Common Core.
October / November 2013
The two special select committees on Common Corel conduct a series of four statewide hearings on Common Core. The hearings are held in Madison, Fond du Lac, Eau Claire, and Wausau. Wisconsin citizens get their first significant opportunity to weigh in on Common Core. A variety of experts – including Sandra Stotsky, R. James Milgram, Ted Rebarber, Gary Thompson and Ze’ev Wurman – come to Wisconsin to testify, as well, exposing numerous deep problems with the controversial standards.
November 26, 2013
Representatives of over 50 Wisconsin grassroots groups send Open Letter to Governor Walker on Common Core telling him “You have the ability to be the hero in this story.”
December 12, 2013
The Assembly Select Committee on Common Core wraps up its work and approves a set ofrecommendations.
December 16, 2013
Rep. Thiesfeldt questions the failure of the Department of Public Instruction to hold even one of the three statewide hearings they were required to hold by the biennial budget.
January 2014
A form is submitted to the governor’s office requesting that he declare a “Stop Common Core in Wisconsin” day. A staffer in the governor’s office replies to the individual submitting the request to say that it has been “placed on hold by my boss.”
February 18, 2014
State Senator Leah Vukmir, a member of the ad hoc joint legislative committee tasked with investigating and making recommendations on Common Core, is known to be working on bill language for a full repeal of Common Core. When the pro-Common Core chair of the Senate Education Committee, Luther Olsen, makes it clear that he will only give the bill a hearing if he can be involved in shaping the language, Governor Walker’s office steps in. A deal is brokered, transforming the bill’s language from an outright repeal plan to a mere standards review process whereby Common Core might possibly be removed in the future. However, considering whom the bill empowers to appoint members to the proposed review board, the outcome at which the bill supposedly aims remains in serious question.
An open records request by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reveals that Governor Walker’s office supplied the language that transformed (and unquestionably watered down) Vukmir’s bill.
March 6, 2014
Despite Senator Luther Olsen’s involvement in crafting the SB619′s new language, the pro-Common Core committee chair attempts to deep-six the proposed legislation just hours before its scheduled public hearing. He announces to the press that the bill has little or no support among committee members, would not pass out of committee, and that he would thus be unlikely to present t to members for a vote. Rep. Steve Nass calls out Senator Luther Olsen on his duplicity.
April 23, 2014
Legislative Session ends with no action taken on Common Core – The legislature will not return until January 2015. Representatives from 45 Wisconsin grassroots groups put Governor Walker and the legislature on notice about their inaction on Common Core saying “Congratulations. You Own It.” in an open letter.
Four bills were offered by representatives on the Assembly Special Select Committee on Common Core. Only one of those bills – dealing with important aspects of the collection and mining of student data – ever makes it to the Assembly floor for a vote. However, it dies when the Senate fails to take it up.
July 17, 2014
In ramping up his re-election efforts, Governor Walker declares in a written statement: “Today, I call on the members of the state Legislature to pass a bill in early January to repeal Common Core and replace it with standards set by people in Wisconsin.”
July 18, 2014
Just one day after calling for a Common Core repeal bill, Governor Walker went on recordas suggesting that whatever standards Wisconsin would develop in place of Common Coremight not be significantly different from Common Core. In a spirit of true political-speak, Walker equivocates: “It’s just one of those where they’ll have to adjust some things, some of the things may very well parallel, other things will be different.”
November 2014
Both Governor Walker and Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature begin reciting remarkably similar talking points, demonstrating a deeply softened position on Common Core. The important thing, they say, is no longer to repeal Common Core but to ensure that local districts are able to retain control over the standards they adopt. Local districts have had this right since at least 1998.
December 2014
Governor Walker dials back his opposition to Common Core telling the Associated Press that his goal is to remove “any mandate that requires a school district to abide by Common Core standards” (Current Wisconsin law allows school districts to adopt their own standards, and most have maintained Common Core since the statewide tests are based on those standards.)
January 2015
In response to Governor Walker’s demand for an accountability bill, the Assembly and the Senate each fast-track measures. Strikingly, accountability bills AB 1 and SB 1 are the first bills introduced for the new legislative session in their respective chambers. Both plans contain numerous troubling components, including the use of Common Core aligned Smarter Balanced assessments as the primary accountability measure.
January 17, 2015
Only after grassroots on both the Right and the Left pour calls into the governor’s office over several days does Governor Walker make the following statement to the press:
“I also want [the legislature] to make it perfectly clear in the statutes that school districts do not have to use [C]ommon [C]ore, and that we take it a step further and we work with the legislature to make sure there aren’t things like the Smarter Balanced test going forward that require the schools to use the Common Core.”
February 3, 2015
Governor Walker submits his 2015-2017 biennial budget. It has the following Common Core-related language:
115.293 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium; Common Core State Standards Initiative; prohibition.
(1) Beginning on the effective date of this subsection …. [LRB inserts date], the state superintendent shall cease all participation in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
(2) The state superintendent may not give effect to any academic standard developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative and adopted and implemented in this state before the effective date of this subsection …. [LRB inserts date]. The state superintendent may not require any school board to give effect to any such academic standard.
(3) Beginning on the effective date of this subsection …. [LRB inserts date], the state superintendent may not take any action to adopt or implement any academic standard developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and may not direct any school board to adopt or implement any such standard.
This would essentially defund Common Core aligned Smarter Balanced assessments after the 2014-2015 academic year. The budget also embeds school accountability language that requires a state assessment, leaving the question as to what assessment will be used to hold schools accountable if the Smarter Balanced assessment is off the table.
April 20, 2015
Wisconsin Gov. Scot Walker says on the Glenn Beck radio show that he would “absolutely” sign a bill repealing Common Core in his state.
Beck said that Governor Walker was “seemingly a little noncommittal on Common Core. Will you sign, if it comes to your desk, a full repeal of Common Core in Wisconsin?”
Walker replied: “Absolutely. I proposed it in my budget. Years ago, before I was governor, the previous legislature, previous governor and the superintendent of public instruction, which is an independently elected commissioner, enacted this. It wasn’t something on our radar screen when we first ran in 2010. A few years ago when we heard from parents, we heard from conservative educators, many others like that, raised concerns, we drafted the education to repeal it in the state. Fortunately, at that time the state legislator did bring that up.”
April 23, 2015
The answer to the question “If not the Smarter Balanced assessment, which standardized tests will Wisconsin students take next year?” is answered. The Wisconsin Department of Administration issues a Bid Announcement for Badger Exam, English Language Arts, Math, and Science
However, the Proposal Document only refers to “Wisconsin Standards” leaving vendors uncertain as to exactly what standards the new Badger Exam would be written to.
May 19, 2015
The first round of vendor questions and answers about the new Badger Exam contains the following:
Question #53: Standards- Are the WI Standards mentioned in the RFP different from the WI Model Academic Standards?
Answer #53: These are the WI State Standards available in the DPI webpage. This is the same for Science as the Model Academic standards, but different for ELA and math.
The question indicates that the RFP has been written so vaguely as to make vendors uncertain of the standards around which new assessments are meant to be structured
May 20, 2015
Grassroots activists ask the Department of Administration representative Dan Wilson, who is managing the Badger Exam Bid process to ask specifically which standards the new proposed Badger Exam will be written to on the next round of vendor questions.
June 5, 2015
Second round of questions and answers about newly proposed Badger exam is released. It contains the following:
Question #1: Could you point to the actual place (a url) on the DPI website where the “WI State Standards” for ELA, Math, and Science are listed? Could you perhaps also show where the “Model Academic Standards” are listed so that we can determine the difference?
Answer #1:
ELA Standards http://ela.dpi.wi.gov/english-language-arts-standards.
Math Standards http://math.dpi.wi.gov/mathematics-standards-page.
Science Standards http://standards.dpi.wi.gov/stn_sciintro.
This response is very troubling because the ELA Standard page contains a link to the detailed ELA standards: http://dpi.wi.gov/ela/standards which contains the following text:
“To access a copy of the WI State Standards in English Language Arts, please view the attached document WI State Standards on ELA“
NOTE: The link DPI provides in this reply is to the Common Core standards for ELA.
Similarly, the Math Standards page contains a link to the detailed math standards:http://dpi.wi.gov/math/standards which contains the following text:
“The Wisconsin State Standards in Mathematics and additional resources on the standards are on the DPI Common Core homepage“
NOTE: The link DPI provides in this reply is to the Common Core standards for mathematics.
June 9, 2015
Governor Walker writes an Op-Ed in the Des Moines Register saying “Nationwide, we want high standards but we want them set by parents, educators and school board members at the local level. That is why I oppose Common Core.“
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