RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU-WXPR) — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Evers campaigned in Rhinelander Friday. Evers is seeking a third term as the state’s school leader and is challenged Whitnall Administrator Lowell Holtz.
Evers says a teacher shortage arose out of the demonization of public employees resulting from the ACT 10 public bargaining changes and will have long time negative results in rural Wisconsin. He says at a recent teacher recruitment day at UW-Stevens Point, only 5 seniors came forward asking about teaching as a profession when in past years it was more than 40.
He said, “And that concerns me for the Northwoods point of view. UW-Madison did a study looking at all the potential teachers and where they want to live and work and be solid members of the community. And less than 5% wanted to work in rural Wisconsin.”
Evers says the notion of being able to support both a voucher school system and a public instruction system is not viable.
“Both sectors are competing for limited resources,” said Evers. “I think my bottom line is that we have to make sure that kids that are in our traditional public schools, we have a constitutional responsibility to them and we have to make sure they are taken care of first. We also have to make sure that we have a good accountability system in place so that both sectors are treated equally.”
Evers says he supports a change in school start dates, allowing local schools to pick when they want to begin classes. He says he was pleased to see Governor Walker take a recommendation he made about funding programs for students with mental health problems.
