The Milwaukee Post

March 17, 2017 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 OPINION By OWEN B. ROBINSON For years, the teachers unions and the rest of the liberal education establish- ment have considered the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction to be their exclusive domain and rightfully so. Almost all previous superintendents in the past several decades have been put into office by the money and power of the teachers unions and each superintendent has returned the support by pushing the union agenda. The current superintendent is no excep- tion. Fortunately, Wisconsin has a real opportunity to make a change April 4 and elect a superintendent whose values and priorities are more in line with modern educational thought. The DPI is a somewhat unusual depart- ment in Wisconsin. Although part of the executive branch headed by the governor, the superintendent of the department is a constitutional nonpartisan office that is elected every four years. The state Constitution simply says that the state superintendent is responsible for the supervision of public instruction and that their "qualifications, powers, duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law." In the 169 years since the office was cre- ated, the Legislature has granted more and less power to the office and shifted the respon- sibilities with the needs and wants of the time. The DPI is responsible for a wide swath of responsibilities includ- ing distributing state money to local districts, administering federal programs and money, providing operational and technical serv- ices to local school districts, crafting cur- riculum, compiling state education data and many other things. With a budget of over $6 billion per year, it is one of the largest state agencies. The incumbent superintendent, Tony Evers, is asking for a third term in office. Evers' agenda for the previous eight years has been to advance the liberal and union education agenda. He has passionately and aggressively fought back against the expansion of school choice in the state. Evers has been in step with the Obama administration's federal intrusion into education including pushing Common Core. After eight years of Evers' leader- ship, the state's education infrastructure is still languishing in mediocrity and he has fought every innovation coming from the Legislature to try to improve it. Thankfully, Wisconsin has an excellent alternative to just doing the same tired thing and getting the same disappointing results. Lowell Holtz, a self-styled "kidser- vative," plans a new path for Wisconsin education. Holtz has a broad and varied résumé. He was a teacher in both private and public schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He was once Wisconsin's Principal of the Year and was recognized as a National Distinguished Principal. Holtz has been the superintendent or dis- trict administrator of three Wisconsin public school districts in Palmyra-Eagle, Beloit and Whitnall. What is interesting about these districts is that they cover a range from rural to urban, small to big and homogeneous to diverse. In every leadership position, Holtz can point to a strong record of making a positive change. More importantly, Holtz has a vastly dif- ferent vision than Evers for improving education for Wisconsin's kids. In fact, Holtz's vision for education is much more in alignment with what the voters have been supporting, as reflected in their choices for state and local leaders in the past several years. Holtz breaks down his vision into three basic categories. First, Holtz wants to push more control back to the local districts and pull back state and federal mandates, including Common Core. Second, he wants to improve the gradu- ation rate and close the achievement gap. He proposes to do this by providing resources and collaboration to the school districts who need it. Third, Holtz wants to empower teachers by pulling back bur- densome administrative hurdles and improving classroom discipline. Perhaps most importantly, Holtz sup- ports innovation in educational choices including choice, charter, and online school options. Instead of trying to main- tain the education establishment of the 1950s, Holtz welcomes a 21st-century edu- cational infrastructure to serve 21st -cen- tury kids. April 4 is a chance for Wisconsin to force the Department of Public Instruction to look to the future instead of protecting the past. Vote for Holtz. (Owen B. Robinson is a West Bend resi- dent whose column appears occasionally in The Milwaukee County Post. He can be reached at owen@bootsandsabers.com.) Teacher unions drafted DPI superintendent into power Speeding is out of control in Milwaukee By MARK A. BORKOWSKI Speed kills when it comes to driving. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reported that speed was a contributing fac- tor in 18 percent of all vehicle crashes, and 30 percent of crash fatalities in 2013. Senseless tragedies unfold nearly daily in our commu- nity, like the 60-year-old man walking along South 44th Street, minding his own business, who was recently struck and killed by a hit- and-run driver. WisDOT reports one person died or was injured in a speed-related vehicle crash every single hour on Wisconsin road- ways in 2013. The worst part is, we could put a stop to this senseless carnage if we just took the bull by the horns and committed ourselves to enforcing the speed limit laws that are already on the books. Posted speed limit signs on our streets, as well as signs warning drivers to slow down and watch out for chil- dren, seem to have become mere suggestions to far too many motorists. It's got to stop, now, before summer when traffic really picks up. Driving in Milwaukee, both in the city and the suburbs, has become like venturing out onto the Formula 1 race track during State Fair. For one thing, we are not issuing enough citations. WisDOT data indicate the number of citations for excessive speed issued in Milwaukee County declined 42 percent between 2008 and 2013. That cannot be right. You can bet it's not the result of motorists driving more prudently. A 42 percent decline? That's nothing short of a crisis in enforcement of the law. Let's stop the "lip service" and the spo- radic enforcement efforts, and make putting a stop to speeding on our roadways a priori- ty. Let's set aside a significant block of time (not fewer than three months) when we real- ly enforce our speed limit laws, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Here are a few common-sense suggestions: ■ Put more police motorcycle units on the street to beef up enforcement of our traffic laws. ■ Mount video cameras atop stop-and-go lights, not for direct enforcement, but to gather real-time data so we can quickly iden- tify traffic hot spots to dispatch police offi- cers for targeted enforcement. ■ Station uniformed auxiliary police at problem-traffic locations. Granted, they can- not issue citations, but their visible presence is sure to have a calming effect. ■ Park empty, unused or unusable, police squad cars in high-visibility locations where speeding is a problem. Just seeing a "black and white" will slow drivers down. Move each squad after a few days when drivers catch on, or replace it with a manned unit, and write a few citations. These vehicles are not currently helping taxpayers and parking them on the street "magically" increases the number of traffic officers on the street to deter speeding. These suggestions are a start, but to have any hope of putting a stop to the out-of-con- trol speeding in the city of Milwaukee, we need a concerted effort. The city, the county sheriff, and the police departments of municipalities surrounding Milwaukee must cooperate and coordinate their appre- hension efforts with respect to drivers who speed without regard to the safety of others in and out of various jurisdictions. We are all in this together. The Municipal Court, too, must hold speeders who are cited accountable for their irresponsible behavior by meting out the full measure of justice. Drivers who speed should leave court with their heads hung low, chastened, with a visceral understand- ing for how their recklessness has endan- gered the lives of everyone else on the road, whether it's another driver, an older man innocently walking along or a child waiting at the crosswalk on his or her way home from school. Police Chief Ed Flynn, this is a start toward reducing the speeding that endan- gers the lives of all who venture onto the streets of Milwaukee. The next move is yours. (Milwaukee Alderman Mark A. Borkowski represents the 11th District.) The future of education in Wisconsin is on the ballot Robinson

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