State Senate To Vote On School Accountability Bill Assembly GOP Calls ‘Small Ball’

The full state Senate could vote Tuesday on a scaled back school accountability bill, even as it’s being belittled by the speaker of the state Assembly.

The Senate bill would require private voucher and charter schools to report data on choice students to the state starting next year. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) calls it a good first step this session.

“And if we feel comfortable with what’s gathered — the measuring stick — then we can take a look at putting sanctions in place,” Fitzgerald said. “I think that’s probably the way that it should be approached.”

In addition to removing sanctions from this bill, senators also got rid of an earlier proposal to issue letter grades for schools.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) said the state Assembly would continue to pursue the sanctions against struggling schools.

“That’s the way we should go, not try to play small ball and pull ourselves back and say, ‘Let’s just do the minimal thing that we can.’ I want to do something that’s meaningful and substantial, not super small,” Vos said.

But Fitzgerald said there just aren’t the votes for that in the Senate this year.

“I don’t see the Assembly getting there, let alone the Senate,” Fitzgerald said. “Anything that has sanctions in it, I think was not going to happen this session.”

Gov. Scott Walker called for some kind of school accountability bill for the past two years, and a couple weeks ago he said he wanted to broker a compromise. But at least as of late last week, Vos said the governor was leaving negotiations to legislators.