MADISON, Wis. – Fresh off gaining substantial majorities in the November elections, Wisconsin legislative Republicans announced a bizarre first initiative: an “Academic Review Board.”

Effectively a death panel for school choice, Republicans are moving to give more power to the Department of Public Instruction.

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Previously, state Superintendent Tony Evers has denounced school choice, calling its expansion “morally wrong.”

Nevertheless, Republicans have decided growing the bureaucracy and giving Evers even more power is the way to go.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

The Assembly bill would create an “Academic Review Board” that would develop a new system for evaluating schools by looking at the math and reading skills of students, how much they learned about those subjects in the classroom and whether they graduate from high school.

The board would set incentives for exceptional schools and schools with large numbers of at-risk students. It would be made up of 12 members with staggered four-year terms:

* State schools superintendent Tony Evers and five members nominated by him — a public school principal, a charter school staffer, a private voucher school administrator, a voucher school teacher and a representative from the University of Wisconsin-System.

* One at-large member and one technical college representative nominated by Gov. Scott Walker.

* One nominee from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse).

By our count, DPI and its allies would pick 8 of the 12 seats on the new board – an overwhelming majority.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has made it a top priority – assigning it AB 1.

The lead sponsor is Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac).

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Proponents of school choice have denounced the idea.

“While accountability in education is a worthy goal, the proposed legislation strengthens the state Department of Public Instruction’s grip on school choice – expanding both its power and the discretion with which it can exercise that power.  By history and design, DPI has always been hostile to school choice.  You do not strengthen a program by placing it in the hands of its enemy,” the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty writes in a press release.

“At the end of the day, I don’t see how anyone who supports school choice could vote for this bill.  It needs to be fixed,” says WILL President Rick Esenberg.

WILL even likened the proposed school choice death panel to the Government Accountability Board – an election agency accused of partisan double standards and not following its own laws.

“The creation of the Government Accountability Board may have solved some problems, but it created other – and more serious – difficulties.  A careful and comprehensive debate about accountability and the structure of any accountability measures is in order,” according to WILL.

According to Madison.com, Republicans hope to fast track the bill and have it passed by the end of January.