The state superintendent – first Evers, until he was elected governor in 2018, then his successor, Carolyn Stanford Taylor – and the DPI argued the governor’s approval on scopes is unnecessary because no state officer can act as the state superintendent’s superior with regard to the supervision of public instruction.
In last week’s majority opinion, the Supreme Court wrote rulemaking is a legislative power that is delegated to the state superintendent, so the Legislature may limit or take that power away from the superintendent as it chooses.
“We conclude that the gubernatorial approval requirement for rulemaking is constitutional as applied to the (state superintendent) and DPI,” the majority opinion states.
Siding with WILL were the court’s conservative justices: Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler, Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly.
Dissenting were two liberal justices, Rebecca Dallet and Ann Bradley. The court’s third liberal justice, Shirley Abrahamson, withdrew from participation.
Notes and links on the Wisconsin DPI’s mulligans: waiving thousands of elementary reading teacher content knowledge requirements.