Let’s Unseat Underly

The filing deadline for the April elections was yesterday and the races are set. Let’s see what we’ve got.

The headliner will be a nock down, drag out fight once again for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Conservative (Republican) Brad Schimel will take on liberal (Democrat) Susan Crawford in this nominally nonpartisan race. This thing will cast a shadow and a stench over everything else on the ballot as something like $80 million is expected to foul our airwaves with attack ads. It’ll be awful.

Right now, I think the race will come down to this: Can Crawford make it all about abortion or can Schimel make it all about Act 10? I give the edge to Crawford. That’s because it’s unlikely that the Court will rule on the abortion issue before April. There’s a caveat to that that most of the voting public probably won’t understand. The caveat is that there’s a four month lapse between the April election and August when the new justice will be sworn in. That means that the current liberal majority on the Court is likely to be in place when the issue is decided, regardless of who wins in April. It’s to the liberals’ advantage to keep the issue alive through the April election, but to decide it before August, should Schimel win.

Schimel’s best bet would probably be to talk a lot about his respect for precedent. Since the abortion issue will almost certainly be decided before he takes office, he can imply that he won’t vote to overturn the inevitable pro-choice decision. At the same time, respect for precedent and the prerogatives of the Legislature to make laws would imply that he would vote to uphold Act 10, which would likely be the more popular decision with voters. That issue could be boiled down to a question of taxes. Repeal Act 10 and your taxes will go up. Preserve it and they’ll be restrained.

An important race that will be obliterated by all the money spent on the Court contest is the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Incumbent Jill Underly has two challengers: Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright and education consultant Brittany Kinser. We here at YSDA are eager to support either on the theory that we can’t do worse then the incumbent .

Underly cynically rigged student test scores so that the same lousy scores are now described as “proficient.” Even Tony Evers has said that that was a mistake. And she cluelessly proposed spending another $4 billion — the entire state surplus — on more money for public schools. That’s just delusional and it shows that she’s interested only in a headline, not in seriously engaging on the real issues and challenges facing our schools.

Meanwhile, according to a Wisconsin State Journal story this morning, Wright described himself as a “nonpartisan problem solver” who wants to create a “common-sense of vision” at DPI that better serves students and educators. And Kinser, a former special education teacher and elementary school principal, said her goal is restoring academic standards and ensuring that students have the needed skills upon graduation. She also launched Wisconsin Reads, a nonprofit that supports evidence-based literacy practices and the phonics-based instructional method known as the science of reading.

The Journal also reports that the Wisconsin Education Association Council Political Action Committee has recommended supporting Wright, but the council’s board of directors has not yet made a final decision on endorsing a candidate. That’s curious and we’d like to learn more about that because Underly has had the support of the teachers union in the past.

Both Wright and Kinser have criticized Underly’s move to mess with the test scores, making both of them attractive candidates in our book.

It’s also likely that there will be yet another state constitutional amendment on the ballot. This one will enshrine the state’s longstanding voter ID law in the constitution. Legislative Republicans are rushing to approve that for a second time this month so that it can get on the April ballot. It’s fine and it’ll pass easily. Democrats are wasting their time opposing it and they are only underscoring how out of touch they are with the electorate on some issues.

Locally, the perplexing lack of concern among Madison voters about the awful state of their public schools continues. Incumbent School Board members Nichelle Nichols and Ali Muldrow will face no opposition while an open seat has two candidates, both of which look like just more of the same.

If you thought, with the presidential contest behind us, you’d be spared political ads, think again. Between now and April, Schimel and Crawford will clog the airwaves with often ludicrous spots attacking one another for real and imagined offenses. It’ll be all heat, no light. Meanwhile the important race for Superintendent will fly below the radar, which advantages the incumbent Underly, who doesn’t deserve another term.