Wisconsin State Journal Editorial:
Wisconsin voters have a clear choice in the April 7 race for state superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction.
The race features a consummate and careful insider, Tony Evers, versus a spirited and straightforward outsider, Rose Fernandez.
The State Journal endorses Fernandez.
The pediatric nurse and mother of five will be a strong advocate for change — someone who will use the mostly symbolic post of state schools superintendent as a bully pulpit to press for reforms, many of which President Barack Obama favors.
With so many high school students failing to graduate in Milwaukee, with so much at stake for Wisconsin in the changing, knowledge-based economy, Fernandez is the best candidate to invigorate DPI.
Fernandez, of Mukwonogo, drew public attention last year for her advocacy of public online charter schools. She helped push for a bipartisan legislative compromise that allowed virtual schools to continue serving thousands of students online with more accountability.
I have yet to hear any substantive reasons for supporting Fernandez. The support for virtual schools is a strange recommendation for improving education in general in the state of Wisconsin. it is not at lal clear to me how being a pediatric nurse and mother of five constitutes a qualification for being Superintendent of Schools, and it is not at all clear to me that the office is merely symbolic. We could end up with someone who undermines our entire system of education in favor of the internet for all I know. This is terrible journalism!