k-12 Governance Diversity Notes
School Boards for Academic Excellence was created in 2023 as the “reform-minded alternative to the National School Board Association.”
The group now operates in 38 states with 45 partner organizations.
In Wisconsin, the group’s partner is the conservative law firm the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
SBAE Executive Director David Hoyt said the group doesn’t typically work directly with school districts, but is in talks with the Watertown Unified School District to audit its curriculum.
“The status quo is not working for students, and we’re going to need to do things differently in order to improve academic outcomes,” Hoyt said. “I don’t know every single thing that happens in the school district of Watertown, so I won’t pretend to be an expert on the local issues there. But the interactions I’ve had with their administration and their school board, I think those are people whose hearts are in the right place, and they’re trying to make things better.”
The Watertown School District is located about halfway between Milwaukee and Madison and has about 3,000 students. According to the latest state report card, about 48 percent of students are “advanced” or “meeting” expectations for reading and 47 percent of students are “advanced or “meeting expectations for math.
In a Sept. 4 email to Watertown Interim Superintendent James Feil, Hoyt proposed SBAE would conduct an audit of existing math and reading curriculum and provide a report to how it aligns with state standards; conduct off-site training with the Watertown School Board and in-person governance training.
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@SBAENetwork favors maintaining and even elevating academic standards. Oh, it also opposes racial discrimination.
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There are plenty of Grant Industrial Complex k-12 examples. Here’s one: Gates Foundation small learning communities.
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A deep dive into this topic is long overdue, particularly taxpayer funds moving through various NGO and higher education orifices.
