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Hi, I’m Tony Evers, state superintendent of public instruction here in Wisconsin.
I have been absolutely pleased with the way our school districts and our teachers and
our kids have really worked hard to implement the Common Core State Standards in mathematics
and English language arts over the past few years.
However I’m just telling you that all this good work may go for naught.
Recently a piece of legislation was introduced into the legislative process thatessentially,
as the author has claimed, would end the Common Core State Standards and change the way we
test our kids in a real negative way.
Am I concerned about this bill? Absolutely. It’s going to politicize the process in
a real siginfiant way, we’re going to have people appointed from all over – from the
governor, to me, and legislative leaders -- and the bottom line is that the recommendations
that would come out of this so called commission that is being proposed will be … not the
Common Core State Standards - it would end up in the legislature and we will have legislators
writing standards for our kids in our schools across Wisconsin.
Now I don’t know how you feel about that as the parents out there, but as a grandfather,
I am losing lots of sleep over the idea that somehow legislators within -- on the floor
of the Assembly and the Senate will actually be crafting and creating standards for our
kids and our schools.
Do I think that’s a good idea? I think it’s a, just a horrible idea. We need to stay the
course, we need to implement these Common Core State Standards that our teachers and
others across the state and the country have worked on so very hard and are showing good
results.
Now, the other thing is, you know, in these difficult economic times, the last thing we
need to do is send a message in the state of Wisconsin, and frankly across the nation,
that Wisconsin is stepping backwards -- that we’re going to be a, a national embarrassment
for what we’re doing in public education.
We can’t afford that, our economy can’t afford that; we need our businesses to grow
and feel comfortable knowing that our students are doing the best they can to become part
of the state’s economy.
This is a significant step backwards.
So – it’s a legislative process and I really encourage all of you out there who
are listening to this to make sure you contact your state representatives – both the representatives
and the senators -- and tell them to stop politicizing our standards for our kids.
This is not good for our children.
Thank you so much -- and take action now.