Senate passes education reform bills

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Wisconsin Senate passed a series of education reform bills Thursday designed to make the state compete for nearly $4.5 billion in federal stimulus money.

The action came the day after President Barack Obama came to Madison to tout the Race to the Top grant program.

The bills remove a prohibition in state law from using student test data to evaluate teachers.

Even with it removed, teachers could not be disciplined or removed based on student test scores. And the teacher evaluation process would have to be part of collective bargaining.

Republicans argued that means most schools won't even attempt to use the test data when evaluating teachers. Attempts by them to alter the bill were defeated by Democrats.

The Assembly was expected to pass the bills later Thursday.