Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) named Howard Fuller, an author, civil rights activist, and education reform advocate, as someone he “listens to” on education matters at an education summit sponsored by education news site The Seventy-Four on Tuesday. Moderator Campbell Brown asked all of the Republican candidates who attended the event who they would appoint to their cabinet as president. Although Walker said it was illegal to explicitly name a secretary of education before elected, he pointed to Fuller as one education advocate he pays attention to.
Some education reporters and advocates balked at the statement, given the fact that Fuller disagrees with many of Walker’s positions. Fuller wrote an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opposing Walker’s proposal to change part of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program in 2011:
The governor’s plan would dramatically change the program’s social justice mission and destroy its trailblazing legacy as the first and still one of the few in the nation that uses public dollars to help equalize the academic options for children from low-income and working-class families. I did not join this movement to subsidize families like mine, which may not be rich but have resources and, thus, options.
Earlier in his career, Fuller fought school segregation in Cleveland in the 1960s, was a community organizer for the Congress for Racial Equality, and founded the Malcolm X Liberation University, which shut down in 1972 due to a lack of funding. He became a superintendent for Milwaukee Public Schools in the early 1990s and today he focuses on promoting school choice and started the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a national nonprofit in favor of parental school choice options for low-income black students. He also is the founder and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and wrote the book, No Struggle, No Progress: A Warrior’s Life From Black Power to Education Reform.
Fuller, who was on vacation, responded to Walker’s comments yesterday:
I am Chillin' on vacation as Beyoncé said how did this sh.. happen?Scott Walker &I have fought together for parent choice over the years,but
— Howard Fuller (@HowardLFuller) August 19, 2015
I do not support universal vouchers,I am against voter ID,I support raising minimum wage.I do not support drug testing for people on welfare
— Howard Fuller (@HowardLFuller) August 19, 2015
I support Obamacare, I support the common core, I support #BlackLivesMatter. I am neither a republican or democrat
— Howard Fuller (@HowardLFuller) August 19, 2015
I don't want any of my friends trying to stand up for me. I speak for myself. Always have and always will.
— Howard Fuller (@HowardLFuller) August 19, 2015
I have one more thing to say. I fight everyday for the empowerment of the poor and the powerless. #TheStruggleContinues
— Howard Fuller (@HowardLFuller) August 19, 2015
In an interview with Wisconsin State Journal, Fuller said he has not had a conversation with Walker in a couple of years and would not accept a position in Walker’s cabinet if he were elected president.