Challenges to Evers taking shape6/13/2016
Tony Evers' first announced opponent is calling the incumbent "politically impotent" thanks to what he says are two public stances the state superintendent took in the past six years.
Germantown Superintendent Jeff Holmes, one of several candidates likely to run next spring, says Evers publicly backed the Democratic state senators who left Wisconsin during the Act 10 protests in 2010. Then Evers signed the petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker.
Those actions put Evers in a position in which "the folks that are currently in power felt like they couldn't trust him," Holmes said. And it's why he emphasized several times during the recent WisPolitics.com interview that he is "apolitical."
No matter who holds power in the Capitol, Holmes said, the head of the Department of Public Instruction has to work with others to benefit students and families. Evers, through his actions, hamstrung himself in that respect, Holmes said.
He said he thinks that lack of trust in Evers played a role in 2011 Act 21, which gave the governor and DOA secretary oversight of the DPI's administrative rules. The state Supreme Court last month nixed that oversight, a decision Holmes said he supports. But, he said, that has to be balanced with a state superintendent who stays out of the political arena.
"The way I view the state superintendent's role in Wisconsin is completely of a nonpartisan position," said Holmes, 52. "And it's one of the reasons why I did decide to throw my hat into the ring is because I believe I can be that true candidate who is nonpartisan in how I operate."
Evers, who told WisPolitics.com he plans to seek re-election this spring, acknowledged he opposed Act 10 and signed the guv's recall petition. Still, Evers said he doesn't believe he ever took a position on the Dem senators leaving Wisconsin during the debate over Act 10, adding he has a good working relationship with Walker despite their differences.
"We can walk and chew gum at the same time, both of us," Evers said.
"I look forward to talking about the successes that we've had across the state and the role I have, and we have as a department, in raising student achievement."
While Holmes believes he can be a nonpartisan candidate, that doesn't mean he's short on opinions about everything from school choice to the plan to save failing schools in Milwaukee. A Louisiana native, he said he has watched the erosion of local control, to the detriment of schools, since moving to Wisconsin in the early 1990s.
He took his first Wisconsin teaching job in 1993 in the Rosendale-Brandon School District before switching to Wautoma, where he taught history for six years. He was the principal of the Montello junior and senior high school for four years and then superintendent in that district for five years. He's been superintendent in Germantown for the past three years.
That background has informed his opinions on a wide range of topics as he mounts his 2017 spring election challenge to Evers, who was elected in 2009 and again in 2013.
Here are Holmes' stances on a variety of issues:
School choice
Holmes found fault with school choice, saying it's tapping into money that has been designated for a different set of students. In light of that, he could support school choice only if it was put to a statewide vote so people in the state could determine how the money is spent.
"My stance on it is: Yes, I believe that parents have a right to choice. I get it. I understand it," Holmes said. "But to create that system without properly funding it, I have a huge problem with. And I think it's one that the people of Wisconsin need to decide."
Turning around failing MPS schools
The Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program, a new state law written by Republican lawmakers, calls for some struggling schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system to fall under the oversight of the county executive and an appointed commissioner.
Holmes said he can appreciate the attempt to make schools better. But, he said, it's also an example of that "one-size-fits-all mentality" that takes effect with the erosion of local control.
"Everybody has their own unique set of problems, but yet we continue to try to apply these so-called best practices from one place to another that may not necessarily apply to the issues people have," Holmes said. "And the reason I think that occurs is because the decision-making that's being done is too far away from the kids."
He said if people at the local level are given the help they need, they will be far more equipped to find the right solutions than officials in Madison or Washington, D.C.
K-12, rural school districts funding
Holmes was hesitant to take an immediate stance on whether K-12 schools need an increase in funding. He said he first would want to do a "complete systems review" as state superintendent.
"I need to look at DPI and see if there are efficiencies to be found," he said. "I want to help districts review what they do and look for things where they might be dealing with unfunded mandates."
But he did question some elements of the school funding formula. He said, for instance, the Montello district was viewed by the state as rich based on property values.
On that measurement alone, Holmes said, the state was right because there are a lot of lake properties in that district. But the average person in the district, he said, was $12,000 below the state's average per capita income, at least when he checked three years ago.
That raises an equity problem within the formula, Holmes said.
"Nowhere in the funding formula," he said, "does it take into account the personal income levels within the school district."
He said rural districts face a host of problems, from transportation to declining enrollment. And those problems hit home for him, considering his background as a teacher and principal in those areas and growing up in rural Louisiana.
The approach to a solution, though, would be the same, he said, starting with a system review to find inefficiencies.
But every search for a solution as superintendent, whether in the district or if elected to the state post, starts with kids, he said.
"The last question I generally ask myself anytime a decision is being made is: Am I doing what's right for kids with the resources I have available to me?" Holmes said.
Endorsements
Holmes doesn't have endorsements in his state superintendent run, and he hasn't sought organizational support, he said.
It goes back to his repeated stance that he is both liberal and conservative.
"It's that southerner in me," Holmes said. "I don't want to be beholden to any group. I don't want anybody to ever perceive that I owe any group anything."
Others considering a bid include John Humphries, a former DPI employee; and Lowell Holtz, who is retiring as superintendent of the Whitnall School District.
Listen to the full interview: http://archive.wispolitics.com/1006/160602Holmes.mp3
