Gov. Tony Evers vetoes Republican-authored bill that would end license requirements for Wisconsin school superintendents
MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers, a former state superintendent, has vetoed a bill that would allow Wisconsin school boards to hire superintendents who do not have a state license to perform the work.
The Democratic governor, who worked as a principal and school district superintendent before being elected state superintendent, said Friday he was vetoing the Republican-authored bill because of its lack of standards to be eligible to be hired to oversee a school district.
"As a governor who is a father and grandfather and former educator, principal, superintendent, and state superintendent, I cannot sign a bill that could have us entrust one of our most precious responsibilities to any given individual whose only qualification is a mere passing interest in education," Evers said in a statement.
Why did Reps. Duey Stroebel and Robert Wittke proposal this bill?
Bill authors Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Town of Cedarburg, and Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Racine, who are both former public school board members, introduced the bill as a way to address turnover among state superintendents across the state and to match a current exemption for the Milwaukee Public Schools district.
Stroebel criticized Evers' veto as a move to limit school boards' ability to exercise local control "by choosing the superintendent of their liking."
"As a result, we remain locked in with some of the strictest licensing requirements in the region, which exacerbates our workforce problems," Stroebel said. "Being superintendent is like being the CEO of a company. One does not need to have spent a lifetime in the field to effectively manage the professionals working for you. There are probably thousands of Wisconsinites who would do a great job serving their communities in this role who have not spent their entire careers licensed in a classroom. This veto maintains the absolute prohibition on locally elected officials considering anyone outside the box."
What are current requirements for school district administrators in Wisconsin?
Under current law, all school district administrators in Wisconsin, with the exception of Milwaukee Public Schools, are required to hold a license issued by the Department of Public Instruction. The bill would create a similar exemption for the other 420 public school districts in the state.
“(The bill) is just an attempt to help provide school districts the option of taking qualified people from candidate pools that they have available to them,” Wittke, a former member of the Racine Unified School District Board, told the Journal Sentinel in June.
Over the past few years, turnover in district administrators has nearly doubled. At the start of the 2022-23 school year, 107 of 421 Wisconsin public school districts had a different superintendent from the previous school year, with 65 of them in their first year, according to Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators executive director Jon Bales. This is in comparison to 66 employment changes of superintendents at the start of the 2021-22 school year.
Stroebel and Wittke said school boards often fill administrative shortages by hiring another district’s superintendent, leaving districts to compete for a limited number of qualified applicants in a thin talent pool.
“We just look at it as trying to do things that bring more talent into the K-12 education system and allow talented people to realize the full extent of the expertise that they have,” Wittke said. “(We want to) open up the talent pool and help districts out so they can choose the right person to run the district rather than someone who has a specific license.”
But Evers said Friday he wouldn't support allowing a person who isn't trained properly to oversee school operations.
“I object to allowing any individual who has no license, no education, no training, no experience, no specific skillsets, and virtually no qualifications whatsoever to not only become a school district administrator but to come into everyday contact with kids in our schools," he said.
Exempting superintendents from license requirements would no longer ensure such school officials have hundreds of hours of classroom experience or have received an advanced degree in education, according to state licensure requirements.
Republicans' legislation opposed by many school-backed lobbying groups
Stroebel and Wittke in a memo to colleagues seeking support for the bill said the legislation would give more control over hiring to local school boards.
“I feel that this is going to allow a larger pool of candidates for this job, and also probably more candidates with diverse skills that they aren’t always able to obtain than someone who came through the education ranks,” Stroebel said at the time.
The legislation was opposed by six organizations that lobby on behalf of school officials, including Bales' group.
Bales told the Journal Sentinel that Wisconsin saw an increase in district administrator turnover for several years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those numbers plateaued during the pandemic, Bales, said, as many superintendents wanted to provide stable leadership during the crisis. Since then, the turnover numbers have continued to rise.
Stroebel said the measure could be helpful to rural school districts that have a greater challenge attracting administrators.
Bales said he doesn't think the legislation would help with the recruitment of superintendents.
“It really is just built off of a limited understanding of the complexity of the problem and certainly a lack of understanding about the role of superintendents,” Bales said. “We have trouble recruiting doctors, for example, in rural Wisconsin up north. Well, nobody's proposing to take away a doctor's license in order to just let anybody do it. You know, it's a complex job, so it's not for lack of licenses, frankly.”
Molly Beck can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers vetoes bill to end license rule for Wisconsin superintendents
