Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Tony Evers delivers first State of Education address
Wisconsin’s new public school superintendent delivers his first “State of Education” address in the Capitol Rotunda.
In his speech, Superintendent Tony Evers commends educators, saying they expect — and deserve — everyone’s support for their commitment in educating the students. Evers is trying to send the message that he’s ready to move forward on initiatives to improve education in our state.
“We can’t be risk averse anymore. We really have to move forward. We have to move forward to change our testing system and our accountability system, the way our standards are developed to make sure that they’re nationally and internationally bench marked.”
Evers says he’s working with Governor Jim Doyle and others to begin the process of writing a grant proposal for the purpose of getting federal stimulus dollars for public schools. He won’t make any assumptions about the money until the new regulations are finalized.
“I believe the issues that kind of legally prohibit us from being competitive will be dealt with this fall.”
Evers is seeking a portion of the $4-billion available from President Obama’s “Race to the Top” program. But eligibility requires changing the state’s long-time policy against using test scores to evaluate teachers. State lawmakers are expected to take that up this fall.