If the proposal passes, are the schools left utterly adrift with respect to accreditation or would their next logical step be to affiliate with some national board? In engineering, for example, ABET is nationwide, not tied to a single state. Perhaps Walker is allergic to micromanagement here and the schools themselves a bit disingenuous.
Tony Evers: B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison MEd, University of Wisconsin-Madison PhD, Educational administration, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin's School Superintendent is an elected office.
Feb 2015: Court rules against measure letting Scott Walker halt school administrative rules "Madison — A unanimous state appeals court on Thursday deemed unconstitutional a portion of a 2011 law that gave Gov. Scott Walker the ability to halt administrative rules by state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, who is independently elected.
The ruling by the Madison-based District 4 Court of Appeals upholds a 2012 decision by Dane County Circuit Judge Amy Smith.
Walker signed the law in May 2011, which gave his administration a greater say in writing administrative rules, which are used to implement state laws. Administrative rules include more specifics than state statutes and carry the force of law.
The 2011 change required the governor to sign off on — or block — all administrative rules early in the process, even for agencies that are supposed to be independent. It also gave him a second chance to veto the rules before they were finalized.
Previously, the rules were written by state agencies and reviewed by the Legislature before they could take effect.
Parents of students and members of teachers unions sued Walker over the law as it applied to rules put together by the Department of Public Instruction, which is headed by Evers. Walker is a Republican and Evers is aligned with Democrats, though his post is officially nonpartisan.
The state constitution says "the supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a state superintendent and such other officers as the Legislature shall direct." In a 1996 case that the appeals court repeatedly cited, the state Supreme Court held that lawmakers and the governor cannot give "equal or superior authority" over public education to any other official.
The Supreme Court's ruling found that the state constitution prevented then-Gov. Tommy Thompson from transferring powers from the Department of Public Instruction to a new Department of Education overseen by the governor's administration.
"In sum, the Legislature has the authority to give, to not give, or to take away (the school superintendent's) supervisory powers, including rule-making power. What the Legislature may not do is give the (superintendent) a supervisory power relating to education and then fail to maintain the (superintendent's) supremacy with respect to that power," Appeals Judge Gary Sherman wrote for the court in Thursday's decision..................."
Six BILLION dollar yearly budget: Wisconsin Dept of Public Instruction - FY 2014 Budget: $5.94 billion
Superintendent of Schools "While the vast majority of the states that do have the statewide governmental position authorize the governor to appoint an individual to the office, there are at least 13 others who have opted to have public voters select the officeholders. These states include Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin and, until 2013, Wyoming*."
----------------
More on Walker and education [and battle with the state's School Superintendent, Tom Evers] :
Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin's Superintendent Responds To Walker's Teacher Licensing Proposal "Governor Walker wants to change teacher licensing requirements in Wisconsin to, according to the Governor, create “alternative pathways to allow a candidate with real life experience to pass a competency test to gain a teacher license.”
This announcement came yesterday as part of the Governor’s workforce readiness plan and will be included in the two year budget proposal expected in early February.
The measure has already been criticized by the Department of Public Instruction and comes after State Superintendent Tony Evers warned on Wednesday of this week that what he calls “divisive mandates” on public education were on their way."