The executive session for tomorrow to vote on AB1 in committee has been cancelled. This may be because Thiesfeldt has not been able to raise enough support within the GOP for the revised bill. It may also be in part due to the response he has received from citizens. In any case at least for the time being this version of the bill is dead in the water.
The state GOP continues its parade of "bad ideas in legislation" as they work to pass yet another stealth bill. Changes to AB1 regarding punishment of school districts for not receiving good letter grades now removes all power from local school boards and hands it over to the superintendent. Foolish you, you probably thought that electing local officials actually meant something. This bill is being shoved through, and will possibly be voted on tomorrow in committee. I'm including the text from an email I received this morning. It's from Sondy Pope, and I hope you will consider taking action as outlined below:
Dear Public Education Supporter,
Thank you for your support during the initial debate on Assembly Bill 1 – the Republicans’ School Accountability Bill. I greatly appreciate your thoughts on this issue, and would like to keep you informed on the status of this controversial bill.
I am writing to you today because, as you may know, an amended version of AB1 has been introduced. This version of AB1 features even more harmful and regressive proposals for our public schools. Amendments to AB1 deal largely with implementing guidelines for sanctions against schools that do not meet grading criteria. As part of this, AB1 would eliminate all decision-making authority from locally-elected school boards, and instead give unilateral authority to an unelected school administrator. This unilateral decision-making authority would allow a superintendent to completely circumvent all policies and procedures established by a school board.
Despite the dramatic changes to AB1, Representative Thiesfeldt – the chair of the Assembly Committee on Education and author of AB1 – declined to call a public hearing and allow input on the bill. Rep. Thiesfeldt is quickly rushing AB1 to the floor, calling an executive session to vote on the bill tomorrow, Thursday, March 12 at 10:30 AM – just two days after the amended bill was released.
If you are concerned about the effect AB1 will have on our schools, I strongly urge you to contact Representative Thiesfeldt and request a public hearing. Rep. Thiesfeldt’s contact information is below:
Representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt
Room 16 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953
Madison, WI 53708