And lo, a campaign issue descended from on high,

and the Republicans were well pleased, and the SpongeJon did rejoice. And a voice cried out from the Wilderness, Oh, crap.

It's looking more and more like Wisconsin's Gubernatorial election next year will feature a perhaps-unprecedented confluence of issues guaranteed to bring national Republican attention and tens of millions of dollars in spending from national conservative groups. So far, we know it will be an anti-gay marriage amendment (most likely, anyway), concealed carry, voter ID, and TABOR/ tax-freeze nonsense. The latest is the voucher cap:

State officials ordered schools participating in Milwaukee's voucher program to stop enrolling new students through the choice program because it appears to have hit the state-imposed enrollment cap of about 14,750 students. [. . .]

In a letter sent to all choice schools on Tuesday, the Department of Public Instruction said that private schools are prohibited from accepting choice applications or enrolling students through the program through the remainder of the current school year.

"We absolutely had to say, 'Don't enroll anymore,' because we are very close to the cap," said Tony Evers, the deputy state superintendent.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program lets low-income families send their children to private schools using state-funded tuition vouchers. The cap is set at 15% of the enrollment of Milwaukee Public Schools, or 14,751 students for this school year. [. . .]

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, has vetoed bills to raise or eliminate the caps three times, saying at different times that it would prompt property tax increases or needed to be tied to a more comprehensive education package for Milwaukee. He has said he would be willing to increase the number of students who can participate in the program if it includes additional funding for smaller class sizes.

Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-[Sun Praire]) said Tuesday that the state couldn't afford the funding Doyle wanted for smaller class sizes.

Hitting the cap "changes the debate," Gard said. "It puts enormous pressure on the governor. It's a simple thing. It shouldn't come with a bunch of spending strings or pork for Milwaukee."

There's lots to say here, but let's look first at what Gard has to say, since he's got the party line that Mark (I ♥ Tom DeLay!) Green and Walker: Tosa Ranger will follow (give it a few hours and their press releases will be all over, if they aren't already). One, the state can't afford to reduce class sizes, the one educational reform that has near-unanimous consent among researchers of all stripes as to its effectiveness. But we do have the money, apparently, to throw at an unaccountable shadow system of private and religious schools. Two, money for Milwaukee's public schools is "pork," while an unecessary dock wall in your district isn't. Or all the building projects you shuffle to your road-building buddies. Three, demanding accountability from an unaccountable system that eats up $75,000,000 in taxpayer dollars is attaching "strings." How many other programs that have spent billions of taxpayer dollars over the last fifteen years ago have been allowed to escape even elementary scrutiny? Remember that it was only last week that any school in the program ever had been shut down for not meeting rudimentary requirements, and only last school year that any schools had ever been shut down period for violating the public's trust.

Fifteen years with no strings, no accountability, and a steadily declining sense of obligation to our public schools.

Last weekend's paper featured an editorial entitled "State failing black students," damningly criticizing the commitment of the state to the Milwaukee Public Schools:

How many clangs of the alarm bell have to be sounded before policy-makers start feeling the need to deal more urgently, differently and more creatively with what can properly and officially be termed a crisis?

The latest clang comes in the form of a Journal Sentinel analysis by reporter Sarah Carr of the latest national test scores that show a wide gap between Wisconsin's black and white students in reading and math. In fact, in eighth-grade reading and fourth-grade math, the gaps in this state are the largest in the country, this despite the overall good news that Wisconsin students generally scored above national averages.

But the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress - often called the nation's report card - show that black students here are not scoring even as high as black students nationally in all four of the test's categories, fourth-grade reading and math and eighth-grade reading and math. Latinos also are faring badly in comparison to white students but not by as wide of margins. [. . .]

We are not suggesting that those involved in teaching Wisconsin's black students are not serious about teaching or are not committed to their students. We are suggesting that "fixing" schools is only part of the solution, albeit a necessary one. Addressing the underlying problem of poverty, disproportionately affecting the state's black community, is the broader solution. And, to the extent schools can be "fixed," doing so is as much a matter of good-faith efforts in the state Legislature and in the governor's office as efforts in the schools.

"Fixing" the schools doesn't involve decrying solutions as "pork" and skimming money off to give to unaccountable private schools. "Fixing" the schools doesn't mean cutting $40 bmillion--the amount MPS would have lost under Gard's budget--needed to keep and train teachers, repair failing buildings, and provide textbooks and supplies to our most disadvantaged students. "Fixing" schools does not involve posturing for next November's Gubernatorial election.

The editorial concludes on a note I have sounded before--mark this day, my friends, as it may be the only day I ever agree with the eductaion editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel--by calling on the state to address poverty in Wisconsin's biggest city:

Yes, this means more resources for schools. And that's because of that underlying problem: poverty. Simply, when it comes to resources, the need is greater in schools that serve students who are disproportionately poor.

But overcoming poverty is the ultimate solution. That means growing jobs for workers across the socioeconomic scale.

The test scores come on the heels of other recent stories - Milwaukee ranking seventh nationally in poverty and ninth among cities with the highest concentration of poverty. In this regard, the performance of Wisconsin's black students on this test is hardly a surprise since the black community is hit hardest by poverty here.

I bet you a nickel--no, two nickels--that poverty will not be a theme in next year's election. Nor will health care, or true school-funding reform, or will anything else that could actually make a difference in the lives of the people who most need it. No, the election will center on this confluence of conservative issues: tax freezes, voter ID, guns, vouchers, and gay marriage. And the state will continue to fail its black students and fiddle as Rome burns.