Mailbag: Rep Brett Davis Writes: Re: Introduces Legislation to remove statutory barrier for Wisconsin to Fed. Incentive Funds

80th Assembly District Update - July 31, 2009
Davis to Introduce Legislation Making
Wisconsin Eligible for up to $612 Million
in Federal Education Funds

MADISON...State Representative Brett Davis (R-Oregon) this week announced plans to introduce legislation making Wisconsin eligible for up to $612 million in funds tied to the new federal Race to the Top program.
"This legislation will remove the statutory barriers currently in place and allow Wisconsin to compete for these funds," Davis said. "The funds would allow Wisconsin public schools to seek innovative student achievement initiatives."

Davis is introducing the legislation with State Senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac). The bill will alter Chapter 118.30(2)(c) of Wisconsin State Statutes to eliminate the prohibition on the use of results from state testing in teacher evaluation.

Announced this week by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, The Race to the Top program was created as part of the Federal Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress earlier this year.

In fact, Secretary Duncan was quoted in the New York Times early this month as saying, "Believe it or not, several states, including New York, Wisconsin and California, have laws that create a firewall between students and teacher data. I think that's simply ridiculous. We need to know what is and is not working and why."

$297 million of the program's funding is set aside for a Teacher Incentive Fund for states and districts that "create or expand effective performance pay and teacher advancement models to reward teachers and principals for increases in student achievement and boost the number of effective educators working with poor, minority, and disadvantaged students and teaching hard-to-staff subjects."

$315 million of the program's funding is set aside for a Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems program for states that "expand their data systems to track students' achievement from preschool through college and link their achievement to teachers and principals."

The statutory change is needed because the Race to the Top program requires "no statutory or regulatory barriers to linking data about student growth and achievement to teachers for the purposes of teacher and principal evaluation."