MADISON, Wis. — Kids Win Wisconsin Founder and CEO Brittany Kinser released the following statement following today’s State of Education Address:
“I walked into today’s State of Education Address hopeful. I walked out deeply disappointed. I expected to hear about the state of education in Wisconsin. What are our student academic outcomes? What are our goals? What is the plan to achieve them? And how will we measure progress?
Instead, we heard very little about student academic outcomes or a plan for Wisconsin to lead the country and compete with the best education systems in the world. Our children deserve more from the Department of Public Instruction.
According to the Nation’s Report Card, only 31% of Wisconsin fourth graders are reading at or above NAEP Proficient. Avoiding that reality will not help more children learn to read well and succeed.
We should not respond to a reading crisis by lowering the bar. We should restore high academic standards, set high expectations for every child, and give our students and teachers the support they need to reach them.
Accountability is not about blame. It means being honest about student academic outcomes, taking responsibility for results, measuring what is working, and changing course when children are not learning.
We agree that Wisconsin’s school funding formula needs to be modernized. We can fix the funding formula, and we should. But a new funding formula alone will not teach a child to read.
Improving outcomes for Wisconsin’s children requires leadership that brings people together around a shared commitment to student success. Our Department of Public Instruction should lead that effort.
Every child deserves a strong foundation in reading, writing, and math so they can pursue their dreams, discover possibilities they may not even know exist yet, and choose the future they want for themselves.
Wisconsin has a proud history of leading in education. Our kids deserve leaders who are brave enough to face the results honestly, bold enough to create solutions, and willing to be accountable for whether those solutions are working.
It is time for Wisconsin to lead again. Our children deserve an education that opens doors they may never have imagined possible.”
