On Tuesday, April 7, voters in Wisconsin have a chance to send areal message of hope and change, presuming those words haven’t been trashed in meaning, by electing Rose Fernandez as state superintendent of schools.
The state superintendent of schools has been a toady of the state teachers union forever. That would be WEAC, or the Wisconsin Extortion Association Council.
A side note on the origins of the reference to extortion: the late, great William F. Buckley once referred to the National Education Association as the “National Extortion Association.” The reference is appropriate; all they do is extort money out of taxpayers.
WEAC’s hack is Tony Evers, Fernandez’s opponent. He couldn’t even earn the endorsement of the liberal Wisconsin State Journal, which backed Fernandez.
Wisconsin voters have a clear choice in the April 7 race for state superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction.
The race features a consummate and careful insider, Tony Evers, versus a spirited and straightforward outsider, Rose Fernandez.
The State Journal endorses Fernandez.
The pediatric nurse and mother of five will be a strong advocate for change — someone who will use the mostly symbolic post of state schools superintendent as a bully pulpit to press for reforms, many of which President Barack Obama favors.
With so many high school students failing to graduate in Milwaukee, with so much at stake for Wisconsin in the changing, knowledge-based economy, Fernandez is the best candidate to invigorate DPI.
“Consummate and careful insider” is just a nice way of describing Evers as a political hack and toady for WEAC, which has dominated Wisconsin’s schools and resisted meaningful change for far too long.
Our schools are falling apart, not because of a lack of money — see your property tax bill for proof — but because WEAC strangles any real reform to what really counts — what goes on inside the classroom, namely teaching and learning.
Students leave Wisconsin schools knowing less and less but feeling better about themselves annually. It’s time that changes. It won’t happen overnight, but electing Rose Fernandez is the first step.
Patrick McIlheran also supports Fernandez here.
