Now, to be sure, I will happily vote for both of them because any change to this dismal board has to be a step in the right direction. Incumbents Blair Mosner Feltham and Nicki Vander Meulen have been part of a board that is leading the district to new depths each year.
Year after year, test scores continue to lag the state and nation, truancy rates remain high, fiscal management would be criminally negligent but for the fact that there is no fiscal management at all and the racial achievement gap hasn’t budged despite the fact that it is the main thing the district has focussed on for a couple of decades.
You’d think that a community that claims to value public education as much as this one does, would care. But we don’t. We hold no one to account for this performance. Incumbents get reelected or run unopposed and unjustified spending referendums get approved overwhelmingly. Nobody even bothers to take a hard look at the numbers.
Despite the fact the incumbents have opponents this time, this April will bring no change. Both Mosner Feltham and Vander Meulen will be reelected hands down. I’ll vote for their challengers just to send yet another weak, unheard message of protest.
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1998! Money and school performance.
A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.”
8,897 (!) Madison 4k to 3rd grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group during the 2024-2025 school year.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average (now > $26,000 per student) K-12 tax & spending practices. This, despite long term, disastrous reading results.
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?
Legislative Letter to Jill Underly on Wisconsin Literacy