Education Reform Bill Leaves Private Voucher School Teachers Alone, while Public Teachers get tested.

Bad news for education, helped along by a group of weak Democratic legislators that should be considered fodder for activist challengers the next time their seat is up.

jsonline: The Assembly approved on a bipartisan vote of 80-14 an education-reform bill aimed at improving reading achievement, implementing a consistent method for evaluating educators, and raising expectations for teacher-training programs. The bill would require public elementary schools to administer an early literacy assessment for kindergartners starting this fall. The proposal also requires a statewide educator evaluation system whereby a principal or teacher's score would be based 50% on student performance measures and 50% on their practice.

BUT: The bill to create a statewide school accountability system for public schools, left out publicly funded private voucher schools in the legislation put forth by Republican legislators.

This is huge black hole for taxpayer money, and it's not something voucher parents will be happy to see happen. It’s anything goes for voucher schools. It diverts attention away from failing voucher school teachers, by blasting public school teachers in the media. It’s a first step to deregulate all voucher schools from standardized state tests, like Scott Walker once proposed.   

It says public elementary schools aren’t as good as voucher schools, even though the opposite is true. Not even a free market loon could think that was true. On second thought, I could be wrong about that last point.