Wisconsin Governor Proposes Education Reform
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin revealed some controversial new education reform plans in mid-November, mere days after his party regained control of the state senate. With complete control of the legislature and governor’s office now in the hands of republicans, Walker has an opportunity to remake the state’s education funding system.
Walker’s new policy initiative involves creating benchmarks for schools, technical colleges and universities and tying funding to these metrics. K-12 schools are already evaluated by a report card system in the state, although higher education institutions aren’t involved in that system. Walker presented his plan at a press conference at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation in Simi Valley, Calif. Walker was on a West Coast visit to attend the Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas, where he was elected vice chairman.
Walker said the changes he proposed came from “tremendous concerns” he heard from employers in various fields, including health care, where shortages of skilled workers are anticipated. As baby boomers retire and become frequent customers of healthcare services, many experts predict there will be a shortage of providers, because the next generation is much smaller in population size.
“They have jobs but they just don’t have enough skilled workers to meet those jobs,” Walker explained.
The governor said the crux of his proposal was to shift funding parameters away from how many students attend an institution and replace that with a focus on student outcomes.
“We’re going to tie our funding in our technical colleges and our University of Wisconsin system into performance and say if you want money, we need you to perform, and particularly in higher education, we need you to perform not just in how many people you have in the classroom,” Walker emphasized.
The governor said another point of emphasis was to have schools focus on degrees that will lead them into industries that are experiencing a shortage of skilled workers.
“In higher education, that means not only degrees, but are young people getting degrees in jobs that are open and needed today, not just the jobs that the universities want to give us, or degrees that people want to give us.”
Walker also discussed plans to push for lower property taxes, which represent the primary revenue source for funding schools in the state. The governor indicated he was interested in helping charter schools and online education systems in his state, but did not elaborate further on what he had in mind.