Representatives Craig and Vos Field Questions At School Board Forum

Republican state Representatives Dave Craig and Robin Vos fielded questions from School Board members on July 18th about school funding and the directions they’d like to see education take in the coming years.

Craig’s district covers the city of Muskego, while Vos’s covers the town of Norway.

Both are proponents of merit pay for educators and of expanding school choice, though both conceded that school choice may not always be needed or even prove successful in every district. “Probably, for a lot of districts, there’s no need,” Vos said.

On merit pay, Vos said, “We need a system that measures how students and teachers are doing, and reward based on that system.” He said Colorado has developed a good merit pay-based system.  

Both representatives would like to see more parental involvement, as well, arguing that schools often find themselves in the position of filling the void left by parents.

Regarding special needs students, Vos would like to see the state take a new funding direction. Currently, all special needs students are allotted the same blanket amount of money to be used for their educational needs each year, regardless of the severity of the individual student’s situation and needs. He suggested a system where special needs students are rated on a scale of severity, with the more severe cases seeing more funds available.

Vos also cited a system used in Florida in which all of that state’s school districts receive a grade. He suggested that such a system could help drive real estate sales and local economies because, “everyone wants great schools.”

An issue that could have more of a direct and immediate impact to the Muskego-Norway School District was raised by Board member Rick Petfalski to Craig.

Petfalski asked Craig the status of efforts to repeal a bill that would allow the State superintendent to ban Native American-influenced logos, mascots, and nicknames if someone comes forward with a complaint stating the mascot is offensive. The issue came to light when, last year, a Mukwonago High School student filed suit, arguing that the high school’s mascot offended him.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Craig said, speaking about the bill. “It’s basically gutting cultural history.” But Craig, whose district includes Mukwonago, also said that not only is it about cultural history, but also about dollars and cents. He said the Mukwonago school district is facing up to $50,000 in costs because of this. He said he is working to buy enough time in the Legislature to ultimately get the billed repealed.

If the bill is not repealed by October 8, the Mukwonago school district will be violating state law if the mascot has not changed by then.