Republican Rep. Sanfelippo wants Politically controlled education by party appointment of State Superintendent, and lied about Tony Evers qualifications.

Starting with the Republican Party narrative that Wisconsin schools are bad, isn't it time we stop and ask these snake oil salesmen how the hell we're still in 2nd place nationally on the ACT's? 

And if we're failing so bad under the guidance of (Democratic) State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, why did he just win reelection with 61% of the vote in our deep red state? 

Perhaps you'll want to believe hook-line-and-sinker for this twisted line of BS from Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo: 

“For too many years DPI has been able to deflect blame for its failures and rebuff desperately needed reforms by hiding behind the fact that its superintendent is an elected official. The state’s school system needs to be improved and the only way we can do that is by holding DPI more accountable, and with an appointed superintendent, we can do exactly that.”

Wait a minute, elections do hold public officials accountable, unless I'm missing something. Note to Sanfelippo, that's why we have elections? Oh, I forgot, Republicans now have gerrymandered safe seats, so who needs elections anymore.

In another example where absolute power corrupts:

After an appeals court overruled Republican attempts to weaken the powers of the state's elected schools superintendent, a GOP lawmaker wants to let the governor choose the superintendent rather than voters.

Even the Journal Sentinel's Jason Stein had to finally admit to the tactic:

It's one of several changes that Republicans have made to weaken the powers of state and local officials aligned with Democrats, moves that GOP lawmakers say are needed to make government work more smoothly.  

Uh oh, "More Smoothly" = Big Government Republicans! Under the false belief that centralized power makes everything run "more smoothly," Sanfelippo apparently wants to marginalize voters. 

In 2011 Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers attempted to give the governor the power to halt administrative rules issued by Evers. But in February 2015 a state appeals court upheld a lower court decision striking down that move as unconstitutional given that the state's charter says that "the supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a state superintendent" elected to four-year terms in officially non-partisan spring elections. That case is now before the state Supreme Court. 

Sanfelippo is proposing a constitutional amendment to stop electing superintendents ... "Wisconsin is one of only 12 states in the country that elects its state superintendent ... under the measure the Legislature could act to replace the governor's choice.

Complicated and "smoother," all at the same time.

I had to laugh at this unintentional argument against actually having any kind of elections at all from the right wing propagandists at The Wisconsin Watchdog:

As the lawmaker notes (Sanfelippo), elected superintendents like DPI chief Tony Evers are elected to four-year terms. They generally remain in the position even if their performance is considered inadequate.

Under that reasoning, who needs to keep in place our faulty elections process, because they rely so heavily on voter intent. And forget about those horrifying recalls. Funny too how this all coincides with the addition of more restrictive hurdles to vote. 

One more laughable quote from Sanfelippo: 

“The students of our state should not be held hostage just because special interest groups can get someone without the proper qualifications to win a popularity contest every four years. Our children and teachers deserve much better.”

"Someone without the proper qualifications?" Really? This is where the Journal Sentinel didn't set the record straight, leaving the reader with the impression Sanfelippo was telling the truth. Far from it. Wikipedia:

Evers received his bachelors (1974), masters (1978), and doctorate degrees (1986) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Evers began his professional career as a teacher and media coordinator in the Tomah school district. In 1979 to 1980 he was principal of the Tomah elementary school, and from 1980 to 1984 he was principal at the high school. From 1984-1988 he was superintendent of the Oakfield school district, and from 1988-1992 he was superintendent of the Verona school district. From 1992 to 2001 he was administrator of Cooperative Education Service Agency in Oshkosh.

To get an idea of who Republicans might have named superintendent, lets look at Evers last opponent, GOP State Rep. Don Pridemore. Be amazed. From WKOW: