Joe Sanfelippo wants to make elected schools superintendent a gubernatorially-appointed position

So apparently Republican State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo doesn’t want the people of Wisconsin to be able to choose the superintendent of the state’s public school system.

After an appeals court overruled Republican attempts to weaken the powers of the state’s elected schools superintendent, a GOP lawmaker wants to let the governor choose the superintendent rather than voters.

It’s one of several changes that Republicans have made to weaken the powers of state and local officials aligned with Democrats, moves that GOP lawmakers say are needed to make government work more smoothly. Democrats scoff at that, saying the legislation is nothing more than a naked power grab transferring authority from voters to Republican officials.

The current schools superintendent, Tony Evers, has ties to Democrats and in 2011 Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers attempted to give the governor the power to halt administrative rules issued by Evers. But in February 2015 a state appeals court upheld a lower court decision striking down that move as unconstitutional given that the state’s charter says that “the supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a state superintendent” elected to four-year terms in officially non-nonpartisan elections.

That case is now before the state Supreme Court, but Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-New Berlin) isn’t waiting on the high court to decide it. Instead Sanfelippo is proposing a constitutional amendment to stop electing superintendents, saying that Evers and the Department of Public Instruction haven’t done enough to improve schools that are struggling in some parts of the state.

I’m not entirely sure why anyone would think it would be a good idea to hand over control of our state’s public school system to a governor who doesn’t exactly have a track record of educational achievement or know-how, but apparently Joe Sanfelippo sees logic where others see nothing but failure.

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6 thoughts on “Joe Sanfelippo wants to make elected schools superintendent a gubernatorially-appointed position

  1. It will be interesting how the WI supreme court justifies their complete disregard of the state constitution when they make their decision. From where I stand, that decision is a foregone conclusion: Walker will be appointing the next superintendent, and Evers will likely be fired the minute the law is passed.

    And it isn’t logic Sanfelippo sees. It’s money, tax money flowing in ever greater amounts into the bank accounts of the school privatization/christianization assholes.

    We are so screwed.

    1. “We are so screwed.”

      Not so, Kent, for if Sanfillipo and his fellow abortionists of Article X of the Wisconsin Constitution as well as educational molesters of our children and or grandchildren, we must resort to all peaceful means be it legal, physical, and disruptive to express our rejection of their illegal and immoral acts or crimes against humanity, especially the young.

      We must shut down the state of Wisconsin as a functioning entity, political and whatever else is necessary to seek redress and reversal of Sanfillipo et al’s crime against humanity, especially to our children or grandchildren. What have we to lose?

      Sanfelippo is just a pimp serving the 1% for the educational molestation or retardation of our children or grandchildren.

      Sanfillipo is the one who should be “so screwed”

      “Oh the humanity.”

  2. Great idea; turn Ever’s job over to a dropout or was Walker thrown out?

    Don’t changes to the State Constitution reqiure approval by the people?

  3. State is in charge of schools. Some of the biggest schools are disasters and nothing is being done. Doyle/Barrett/Evers have done nothing in MPS where only 15% of 3rd graders can read about the same for tenth grade. Green Bay, Madison, Racine and others are same. Left in charge of all of those and all they do is make excuses. Grades
    talk, BS walks, my Dad said.

    1. WCD….Jim Doyle hasn’t been governor for five years, and Tom Barrett isn’t in charge of MPS – the superintendent of the district is.

      If you want to cast blame on elected officials for the failure of MPS, how about heaping some blame on Gov. Walker? After all, he’s been governor for five years, which is plenty of time for him to take some sort of meaningful action to improve MPS.

    2. WCD, please provide names of “Some of the biggest schools are disasters…” and the public or private authority who made that determination.

      Have you any educational degrees or education or studies to make that accusation?

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