Contact: Brian Schupper, 414.248.3072
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Candidate for State Superintendent calls status quo “immoral”
[Milwaukee, Wis.] – Today, candidate for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Humphries, discussed his plan to truly fix Wisconsin’s lowest performing schools.
For sixteen years, the Department of Public Instruction under Tony Evers has stood idly by utilizing ineffective accountability policies that have failed generation after generation of Wisconsin’s children, most notable those from low-income families.
“The status quo from DPI is not only unacceptable, it’s immoral, as State Superintendent, we will finally use the authority under federal law to help these schools meaningfully and measurably improve with true accountability for results,” said John Humphries, candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. “Parents deserve to know why, despite years of Evers following the same failed playbook, their children are now much older, but their schools are no better off.”
The Humphries Plan includes:
· Utilizing transparent report cards to identify and target for help the 5% lowest performing low-income schools, as required under federal Title I provisions.
· Engaging a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to accept applications from high-performing charter, voucher, and local public school teams that want to use new approaches to meet student needs in these targeted schools.
· Parents choosing the best option for that school, based on the available options.
· Funding would be maintained at current levels, or increased, enabling these schools to have the best chance for success.
· Holding accountability provisions in place, with the same testing and public reporting as all schools that receive public funds, including consequences for low-performing schools in this group.
· Providing a “pay-for-performance” component to reward success and attract the very best leadership teams from within the state and around the nation.
John Humphries is a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Over the past two decades, John has effectively served in public schools across the state, as well as in the Department of Public Instruction. In his nearly twenty years in Wisconsin education, he has worked in small rural school districts (La Farge and Dodgeville), one of the wealthiest (Middleton-Cross Plains), and the district with the highest poverty rate (Beloit).
