Ah, yes, I hear the sound of an election approaching. I can tell because my phone’s ringing. Three times in the last 18 hours, Elizabeth Burmaster has called me (no let’s be fair, twice it was a recording of her, the third time it was a recording of Herb Kohl urging me to vote to re-elect her as Superintendent of the Department Of Public Instruction).

Don’t know if you follow school politics here, but this is another one of those races. The Dems and the teacher’s unions are lined up behind her. The Reps and the businessmen are behind Underheim.

Underheim says the DPI “has been a captive of WEAC for a quarter of a century,” and he will put an end to it. This is Republicanspeak for a Very Bad Thing, I guess. I don’t understand why this is necessarily a bad Thing, but then I don’t understand why the fact Wisconsin ranks last in spending on school breakfasts, something Burmaster pledges to end, is such a Bad Thing, either. I’ve never once confused a school with a restaurant.

Who do I support? Well, let’s see. Burmaster comes from madison, where they concentrate all the resources for supporting good students in one high school, then restrict access to it so other particularly gifted children in Madison are shut out. Underheim has some good points, such as the one about the DPI Super helping to spread the “best practices” from all around the state, but I can’t bring myself to back someone who wants to end 4-yr-old kindergarten and backs the state arrogating to itself the power to control how local governments pay for their operations. (Let me make this clear, I’m for a property tax freeze, I’m against a state-mandated property tax freeze. I say the state should keep its nose out of local governments. I know, there are a number of chuckleheads who say if you’re against the state mandating a local tax freeze, you’re against a tax freeze, but since they obviously don’t have very many functioning synapses — of course they don’t or they could understand simple sentences like the above — I don’t see a reason to worry about what they say about it. The entity that collects the taxes gets to set the rate; what gets me the most about those chuckleheads is that when the state mandates the local government should spend something, they howl in anguish. Please, get your story straight; if it’s not OK for the state to spend the local’s money — and I don’t think it is — then it’s not OK for the state to tell the locals how much money they can tax, either. Goose. Gander. Sauce.) Besides, can you really support someone for DPI Super whose name means “underworld?”

Meaning I’m leaning towards Todd Stetzel. Even though he comes from Black Earth, a horrible place whose football team beat mine back in the day, an event which comes to mind every time I see the Wisconsin Heights football field as I drive down Hwy 14. Why? He’s a teacher who realizes that the student’s needs also count, and who’s willing to look at trading some salaries and benefits for teaching programs that have worked, but are currently undergoing funding difficulties. You want fiscal restraint? He’s capped his campaign spending at $350. Considering all the PAC money flooding into the Burmaster/Underheim pockets, that’s excellent. And you gotta love anyone who says the current way money is distributed in the education system is “wacky.”