On July 30th and 31st, the Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN) will hold its annual conference in Madison. While the name of the Network sounds harmless, it belies an organization with a far-left agenda that is contrary to what most parents in the state want for their kids. The worst part? Wisconsin taxpayers are going to foot some of the bill. According to records obtained by WILL, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is contributing $5,000 towards the conference, while the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) is also contributing $1,000. DPI’s donation was enough to get them listed as a “Blue Ribbon”-level sponsor. Below, we catalogue just some of the questionable panels that are part of the conference agenda.
The Politics of Literacy and Its Impact on Wisconsin’s Public Education. Last year, Wisconsin’s Act 20 was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Evers. The notion that education should move away from so-called “three-cuing” in teaching reading back to more traditional methods of teaching reading like phonics is broadly supported in the educational literature. But this panel appears to be focused on undermining the notion that the science of reading is good for most every student and may somehow reduce “equity.” In a state where only 10.5% of African American students are proficient in reading, one questions how effective an equity-based approach has been.