So President Obama is a power hungry statist who intends to euthanize disabled children and grandmothers. I’m aware.

And Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is proposing a “strongly anti-democratic” new initiative.  But I’m not worried about him euthanizing grandmothers.

No. Because he’s saving grandmothers from domestic violence, in the street, on the weekend, during his vacation, in person.

But he is planning a different, equally nefarious power grab. Barrett and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle are developing a plan for the mayor to appoint the school superintendent, the unelected position currently appointed by the school board.

If you need to catch your breath, please do so, and allow my Alderman, Tony Zielinski, to take over here for a moment:

“[T]aking away the right to vote, which is one of our most fundamental rights we have here as citizens is not something that should be on the table. There’s many people that lost their lives fighting for the rights that some people take for granted.”

That’s right. The mayor wants to take away the right our troops are fighting for in Afghanistan, the right for Milwaukee to have a 4.3% turnout in a School Board primary election.

Milwaukee Public Schools have the nation’s highest racial disparity in reading achievement. The system has declining enrollment and ongoing budget problems.

Mayors in other large cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia have taken roles in public school governance. Those cities have claimed improved student performance and “significantly” rising test scores.  No one seems to have an argument that mayoral control would make the school system worse, only that it will shut people out of the democratic process.

But taking away the right to vote for a school board will make the school system moreaccountable to voters.

This is why we don’t elect police officers, or teachers, or bailiffs. No, more elections don’t make everything better. As the number of offices to be filled increases, elections reach a point of diminishing returns, where the number of well-informed voters is so low that real accountability is removed from the job. So why not give responsibility for the school system to the most accountable local official?

If he wants to take responsibility for the success of Milwaukee Public Schools, that’s great. After all, the mayor is up for election every four years and that’s something most fascists don’t offer.