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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Dr. Jill Underly is a terrible choice to be Wisconsin’s top education official.
How bad?
She dumbed down the state achievement tests – giving the appearance that Wisconsin students are doing better in school. They aren’t. All she’s succeeded in doing is making it impossible to compare the old tests results with the new ones; and since her tests aren’t the same as national standards, we can’t compare how our students are doing with other states. So embarrassing is the testing change that she ran without follow liberal Tony Evers’ endorsement.
You’d think that she would be voted out of office. But she narrowly won another four year term.
But Dr. Jill knows that one bad decision is enough. She waited until this week – after the election – to reject Donald Trump’s executive order to shelve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. She knew that putting $841-million in federal aid at risk would be more than the voters could stand.
She would have bled votes on two fronts. Voters who mind their wallets would do the math; they’d see massive school tax increases if federal aid was shut off. And many other voters, who find DEI unacceptable, would have turned away too. DEI – favoring one group over another – is unpopular.
DEI is particularly harmful in our schools. Classrooms bring together diverse groups of students. It sends exactly the wrong message that academic standards are at one level for one group of kids, and are something else – lower – for other groups. What we should be looing for, especially in the core academics – English, Math, Science – are teachers who hold students to high standards – the same standards – regardless if they’re white, black, brown, yellow or red. Anything else is racist; it sends the devistating message of ‘you can’t get this because you’re different’. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So Dr. Jill, under your leadership can we expect all students to do well? Are are the poor colored students doomed to failure?
Chris Conley
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