Saturday, July 19, 2025
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Saturday, July 19, 2025

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

Education Reformers Question Wisconsin Schools’ Expectations

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Despite test scores that show nearly 60% of students in Wisconsin schools cannot read or do math at grade level, more than 90% of school districts in the state meet the state’s expectations.

The Department of Public Instruction recently released its school and school district report cards.

“Statewide, achievement improved from 2021-22 to 2022-23, though for many schools and districts, 2022-23 achievement performance is lower than pre-pandemic levels,” DPI said in a statement. “Report card achievement scores, overall scores and ratings may have decreased despite upward trending achievement performance.”

Of the 378 public school districts in the state that received a report card this year, 357 met or exceeded expectations.

Quinton Klabon with the Institute for Reforming Government questioned that.

He told The Center Square some schools met expectations while having 12% of their students able to do math at grade level.

“What is a 3-star school district? It’s Green Bay, apparently, where hundreds fell below grade level since the pandemic and only one-quarter of students are college-ready. It’s Milwaukee, surprisingly, where a tiny recovery allowed it to be rated ‘meets expectations.’ Whose expectations are met with 16% and 12% reading and math proficiencies?” Klabon added.

Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty also questioned the expectations from DPI.

“Despite proficiency of 17% in reading and 11% in math, MPS is rated as ‘meets expectations’ on the state report card,” Flanders said. “The soft bigotry of low expectations has never been more true.”

Klabon said the school report cards look worse when you factor in Wisconsin’s worst-in-the-nation racial learning gap.

“Wisconsin has the most shameful racial achievement gap in the country,” Klabon said. “Even with grade inflation, 53% of predominantly Black schools are 1 or 2 stars. Thirty-one percent of predominantly Hispanic schools are, and rural schools serving Indigenous kids also struggle. We need to expect more from the adults in charge: go all in on this summer’s statewide reading reforms, fund choice schools fairly and hold higher expectations on the state report cards so parents can make good decisions for their family.”

Klabon did say the local report cards show the need for, and the success of, school choice – particularly in Milwaukee.

“Seventeen of the top 20 schools in Milwaukee are choice schools,” Klabon added. “Every student deserves a 5-star school. School choice is essential to making that happen.”

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“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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