Don't Let This Man Become State Superintendent !

With everyone's attention on the November elections, it is important to also maintain a longer range focus. Next April, Wisconsin will vote for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. This office is incredibly important in determining the direction and quality of our public schools.

One candidate has already announced. On May 17, current Germantown Superintendent Jeff Holmes stated that he will run for the post. Holmes made news in December 2013 when Germantown's Tea Party-dominated school board dropped adoption of Common Core State Standards. The board remains the only one in the state so foolish as to take this rash, politically-motivated action. "Germantown!" has become a rallying cry for the anti-Common Core crowd. 

What is motivating Holmes to run? His campaign announcement made clear that he wants to do to the entire state what he has done to Germantown. Many of his press quotes (as well as his Tweets) are fixated on abolishing common educational standards. It is clear that this will be his primary issue.

Holmes' campaign manager is Germantown Board member, Brian Medved. Holmes and Medved spoke at a 2014 anti-Common Core meeting in Ohio, sponsored by the John Birch Society, that wacky organization of foil-hat wearing nutters (see picture above, Holmes on left). The meeting was organized by a former school board president from suburban Dayton, Kelly Kohls. While in office, Kohls ignited a parental rebellion when she tried to require district science staff to teach creationism. So Holmes has associated himself with some very fringey groups.

But that is not all. In 2013, Wisconsin dodged a bullet by rejecting Tea Partier Don Pridemore's bid to become State School Superintendent. While in the Wisconsin Assembly, some of Pridemore's extremist bills included a "papers please" law similar to Arizona's. He tried to end stem cell research in the state. He wanted to ban discussion of contraceptives in school health classes. For more on his wacky career, see my blog, "Pridemore?Seriously?"

Despite his election loss, Pridemore has not lost his desire to influence state public education for the worse. He is President/CEO of an organization called Winner, Inc. One of the main purposes of the group is to find a DPI-Superintendent candidate who is kooky enough for ol' Tea Party Don. The Winner, Inc.'s Director of Operations is none other than Brian Medved. Yes, Jeff Holmes' campaign manager is a Director in this group. Looks like Pridemore has found his soul-mate DPI candidate in Jeff Holmes!

OK, it is clear that DPI-chief candidate Jeff Holmes is supported and influenced by far-right extremists. How effective will he be? In the two-and-a- half years since Germantown abandoned statewide standards, very little has been done toward developing replacement local ones. Holmes keeps talking about developing a vaunted "Germantown Way", but his sole visible accomplishment has been a Mission Statement full of buzzwords, edu-speak, and gobbledygook. Board member Medved suggests that developing local standards could be a "five to seven year project" ! 

However, buried in the 2015 Wisconsin state budget is a new legal requirement that school boards declare what academic standards will be used by their district for the coming school year. Since Germantown is years away (if ever) from developing their long-promised local standards, they had to do something to comply with the law.

At their August 10, 2015 meeting, the Germantown Board voted to adopt the old Wisconsin State English Language Arts and Mathematics standards. These standards, rolled-out statewide in 1998, are quite vague and very incomplete. For example, the Math portion only lists standards for 4th, 8th, and 12th grades. All other Wisconsin school districts have since moved-on from these mediocre standards to the far superior Common Core Standards.

A review of the 1998 Wisconsin standards embraced by Germantown was conducted by the well-respected Fordham Foundation. In comparison to other state academic standards, the Wisconsin standards received abysmal scores (see this link). The bottom line was quite damning: "With their grade of D, Wisconsin’s ELA standards are among the worst in the country..." and "With their grade of F, Wisconsin’s mathematics standards are among the worst in the country." By the same criteria, Common Core ELA was rated "B+" and Common Core Math was rated "A-". 

So two and a half years after halting Germantown Common Core implementation, district children are stuck with some of the worst academic standards in the US. With no relief in sight for years. With a record of accomplishment like that, Holmes cannot be allowed to do to the rest of Wisconsin schools what he has already done to Germantown. He cannot be elected as State Superintendent. Our public schools depend on it.