State Superintendent Tony Evers Visits Abbotsford
Wednesday, September 4th, 2013 -- 3:40 PM
-State Superintendent Tony Evers paid a visit to the Abbotsford Public Library on Thursday of last week.Mr. Evers was in the area to celebrate a couple events in Bloomer and Marathon and he said he always takes time to stop at small town libraries.
Erica Grunseth, librarian at Abbotsford, gave a tour to the State Superintendent and he was very impressed with the large and beautiful facility.
Mr. Evers talked about some of the problems many of our small town schools face.
"Most of the problems, I'd say, revolve around school finance. Clearly, we have good teachers in this part of the state and good administrators, but school funding tends to work against small town school districts and its been difficult the last couple budgets with the state to convince them the value of funding the system. Its been difficult and unfair for the smaller schools."
Mr. Evers also believes that more of a focus on technical degrees is something small town schools should do.
"We need to make sure that we don't send a message to our kids, 'if you don't go to a four year college and graduate you're a failure. That seems to be the national message of the last decade. What I'm encouraging districts to do, and I know they do it well in this part of the state and other areas, is to really work with the technical colleges and make sure that every student has an opportunity to take a duel enrollment course to get high school and technical school credits at the same time."
Mr. Evers also said he?s opposed to the voucher system.
"I've had a chance to watch the Milwaukee voucher program for twenty years. The achievement level of those children on the voucher program vs. Milwaukee; there's virtually know difference. In fact, in many cases, there's less achievement. I don't think there are any real rational, educational reason to expand the vouchers. I also oppose it because there's only so much money going to public schools and when it's not going to Abbotsford and it's going to the voucher school instead, that's a problem. Especially, when it's not a proven best practice."
Mr. Evers also mentioned his support for common core.
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