Adrian Northrup

Education is important to the students in Cynthia Gray’s Foundations of Education class.

They speak passionately of its power and their intentions to use it for the good of their future students and society at large.
Wednesday afternoon, they discussed their chosen careers with a guest who could have a lot to do with the future of education – Wisconsin First Lady Jessica Doyle.

Doyle’s visit at UW-Eau Claire was part of her campaign work for Gov. Jim Doyle’s gubernatorial bid this fall. Doyle will face U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay.

Jessica Doyle told the students she is collecting input from those who have a stake in education and reporting back to the governor what she has learned.

“We talk about the smart, well-trained workers that are going to fuel our economy,” Doyle said. “And who is going to create them? The teachers.”

Though much of the discussion remained focused on the students’ projects and their feelings on becoming educators, it did veer toward political topics, mainly at the prompting of the students.

A major concern for students in the class seemed to be the role of standardized testing in education, namely as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Some students expressed concern that testing under the act fails to account for disciplines like the arts, physical education and others – sentiments Doyle agreed with.

“We live in this reality where there will be standardized tests,” Doyle said. “There’s more to education than that.”

Senior Adam Sturgis, who is studying to teach physical education, was pleased with Doyle’s position that standardized tests fail to fully assess a school’s quality.

“I’m glad she addressed that,” he said. “It’s good to hear they are aware of it.”

Doyle also criticized the No Child Left
Behind Act for taking funding from schools that fail to meet federal standards, as opposed to providing them with more resources to catch up. Many students agreed.

In an interview with The Spectator, Doyle said schools have unfortunately had to do “more with less” and that funding would have been worse if the governor hadn’t vetoed many changes the Republican-controlled legislature had made to the tight budget.

Green could not be reached for comment. A spokesman offered press releases outlining several of Green’s plans for education:

In relation to K-12 educational funding, Green wants to ensure that 70 cents of every dollar spent on education is directed toward instruction-related activities.

He also wants to create a system that would reward teachers based on performance levels and hopes to expand the school choice program in Milwaukee, allowing more students to choose schools based on quality.
He also has a plan that would give preference to Wisconsin residents in the UW System.

Green campaign spokesman Luke Punzenberger said the No Child Left Behind Act, though mandated on the federal level, allows states to craft their own testing.

Such testing, Punzenberger said, increases school accountability and drives student achievement upward.