Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo says every other state agency is headed by a political appointee, so he is circulating a proposed constitutional amendment that would charge the governor with appointing the state school superintendent. Currently, voters elect the superintendent every four years, in an officially nonpartisan election.
Current Sup. Tony Evers has had the backing of Democrat-leaning groups, and he gave his stamp of approval to the Common Core standards, academic benchmarks schools districts can follow, but that Republicans have urged Wisconsin to scrap.
In order to change the way Wisconsin selects its superintendent, two consecutive sessions of the Legislature would have to agree to amend the constitution, and then so would voters.