Assembly Candidates In La Crosse Area Both List Education As Top Priority

A state Assembly race in La Crosse County has pit a long-established Democratic attorney against a Republican school teacher.

Steve Doyle currently represents the 94th Assembly District, and has been involved in La Crosse-area Democratic politics for decades. He’s a lawyer who raises alpacas and serves on the La Crosse County Board.

This year, he’s being challenged by Republican Tracie Happel, a long-time public school teacher who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker to serve on the Education Commission of the States. She also publicly supported Act 10 — a stance that did not make her popular among teachers’ unions.

Both candidates live in Onalaska, a small city north of La Crosse, and both list education as a top priority. However, their stances differ on what exactly they want in terms of policy. Happel said she’d like to see the Common Core Standards repealed in the Wisconsin.

“We have standards from Massachusetts we could look at,” she said. “We have standards from California we could look at that are highly successful, and the students (and) the schools are doing wonderful under them. We don’t need the federal government to tell us what do. We need local schools, local community members, local educators telling us what is best for our kids.”

Doyle said that politicians should stay out of education.

“Give our local school boards the ability to make the decisions they need to,” he said. “Don’t say, ‘We have to get out of Common Core,’ even if we don’t want to. I’m saying that at the school district level — if La Crosse wants to be in Common Core, let them. We should not have the state Legislature stick its nose in and say, ‘We must have Common Core,’ or ‘We must not have Common Core.’”

Both candidates also differ in their stance on voucher schools, with Doyle opposing vouchers and Happel supporting them.