It’s a basic tenet of American political systems that there are checks and balances, with each branch of a government unit operating with powers that are not controlled by other branches.
Consider what is about to unfold in the Wisconsin Legislature a particularly vivid lesson in that.
Gov. Jim Doyle has called a special session of the Legislature for Wednesday to consider two proposals, one of them dealing with control of Milwaukee Public Schools, giving almost all of that control to the mayor of Milwaukee, and one dealing with what to do about chronically low performing schools in the state, giving broad power to the state superintendent of public instruction to take control of such schools and change them.
A month ago, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to Madison to make an appearance that had a strong subtext of urging that these proposals be supported. Doyle strongly backs them, as does Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
So you have the president, the secretary of education, the governor and the mayor of the state’s largest city, all of them Democrats, asking the Democratically-controlled Legislature to take up and approve these ideas.
And what’s most likely to happen? Nothing, at least for now.
Granted that there can be surprises once the legislative process gets rolling, but the leaders of the both the Senate and the Assembly have made it clear they are in no rush to do anything, they don’t look particularly favorably at these proposals, and they’d like to see agreement among Milwaukee legislators on what to do before they act. Those legislators are sharply divided. Even if selection of a new superintendent for MPS and tens of millions of dollars in possible federal aid to schools are on the line, the legislative leaders will deal with this if and when they choose.
These four power Democrats are very likely to be unable to get less prominent and nominally less powerful Democrats even to take up these matters when they want them to. Consider it a lesson in the limits of political clout.
Given the fact that the ongoing search for an MPS Superintendent has now officially been whittled to three candidates, it seems to me that whatever political clout exists would be best exercised soon. What a curious situation we’ll have in Milwaukee if the MPS Board names a new chief school executive before the legislature takes up the mayoral control proposal.