Quality Counts Report is Right About Education Inequity in Wisconsin

Education Week released its annual Quality Counts report Tuesday (January 7, 2003), focusing on the achievement gap between Wisconsin's poor and affluent communities.

"Education Week is right to call on the state to improve the working environment for educators in high-need communities. That is something WEAC has advocated and worked for throughout our existence as an organization," WEAC President Stan Johnson said. "We have great schools in Wisconsin because we have great teachers and staff working in our schools, and the way to improve schools in our state's neediest communities is to find ways to attract and retain the best and brightest to work there.

"WEAC looks forward to working with the new governor and the new Legislature on these and other important issues facing Wisconsin's children."

The report annually grades every state's education system on the basis of student achievement, standards and accountability, improving teacher quality and other criteria.

"Wisconsin's schools are among the best in the nation," Johnson said. "The evidence for this abounds. Our high school seniors have placed first or second in the nation on the ACT college entrance exam for the last 13 years. Wisconsin consistently ranks among the top few states in math, science and reading national assessment tests. Wisconsin's 8th grade science students scored second in the world on an international test comparison.

"I wish the report had addressed the issue of Wisconsin's current budget crisis and the threat that it and nine years of state-imposed revenue caps and the Qualified Economic Offer law pose to our great schools and our state's future. The report should have emphasized our need to maintain and enhance our investment in our schools as the surest way out of our fiscal mess and the only way to avoid repeating such an economic crisis in the future."

Posted January 10, 2003