Proving that politics makes strange bedfellows, former superintendent of public instruction Herbert Grover writes something nice about a proposal by a Republican, Rep. John Nygren (R–Marinette):

No elected official has any authority over the decisions of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association in spite of the fact that the organization dictates a substantial portion of the program offered by our public schools. The Department of Public Instruction has a nonvoting liaison to the WIAA board.

WIAA has absolute control of sports activities in our public elementary and secondary educational institutions. The — impossible — alternative of a local school board would be to drop sports activities if they disagreed with the WIAA.

The WIAA budget comes from membership fees and money generated by tournament activity performed in public facilities plus some advertising revenue captured largely during the tournaments. There is no elected public oversight of the money raised or how it is spent. …

For all practical purposes WIAA is a private organization that dictates activities of public schools. WIAA should be required to submit to the Wisconsin open meeting law. The public is entitled to know the salaries and fringe benefits of all WIAA employees. The public should know if all the board members, including WIAA employees, are members of the state retirement system, and if not what other retirement program is provided. …

The public should know how many meetings are held, where they are held and what expenses are picked up for board members by the WIAA, including entertainment expenses. The public should know what types of agreements WIAA board members have with local school boards when absent from the school district for WIAA activities. …

I find Rep. John Nygren’s voting record on children, public education, taxes, the environment and whole list of issues repugnant.

But! On this issue he is correct. It’s our money, our schools, and our open government.

Grover, by the way, is a former state Assemblyman. A Democrat, of course.

I would be curious about how Grover feels about my modest proposal to eliminate the WIAA and have his former department regulate high school athletics, since athletics is part of education.