President Barack Obama's scheduled visit to Madison Wednesday will be a chance for the president and state officials to talk about how incentives in the federal stimulus bill are spurring education reforms in the state, Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday.
Doyle is pushing bills to allow schools to use student learning to help evaluate teachers and transfer control of the Milwaukee schools to the city's mayor rather than its school board. Doyle has said those reforms could improve the state's chances of winning a portion of $4.5 billion in "Race to the Top" stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Education.
At a Capitol news conference dealing with an insurance law change, Doyle said his office had "fully briefed" White House officials on the changes he was seeking.
"I think they see Wisconsin as a state that already has a good educational system but is taking up the challenge of Race to the Top to really take it up a significant level," Doyle said.
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Obama, secretary of education to visit Wright Middle SchoolThe middle school with the highest poverty level and the largest percentage of minority students in the Madison school district will get a visit Wednesday from President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the White House confirmed Friday.
Obama and Duncan will meet with students, teachers and school officials at Wright Middle School, a 12-year-old charter school at 1717 Fish Hatchery Road that emphasizes getting involved and creating positive change in the community. Principal Nancy Evans learned mid-week that her school had been chosen for the visit, but wasn't told why, or if the visit was related to Wright's charter mission of "social action," she said.
Madison police officers and several others scouted the school on Friday, which was nearly vacant; Madison students had no school Thursday and Friday so teachers could attend the Wisconsin Education Association Council convention. Named for the late Rev. James C. Wright, a prominent local African-American pastor and civil rights leader, the middle school had a contentious start but has thrived in recent years under the leadership of Evans and former Wright principal Ed Holmes, now principal at West High School, said sixth-grade language arts teacher Jon Hawkins.
For Wright students, "I can't really even comprehend the significance" of Obama's visit, Hawkins said. "I'm really looking forward to the conversations we'll be able to have with the kids. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see the president, period, much less this president at this time."
Wright's student body is roughly 38 percent African American, 37 percent Hispanic, 13 percent white, 12 percent Asian and 1 percent Native American. Nearly 85 percent of its students are from low-income families, compared with an average of 49 percent in middle schools across the district.
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