It's the schools, stupid.

I've been doing a little homework on what to go with my earlier commentary on bloated teach unions. I'm certain that it's an important issue, as it's one of the last 'hot topic' issues conservatives in Illinois have, simply based on the fact that you risk alienating very few average people in calling for school reform as opposed to the social conservative schtick which is demonstrably failing.

It's interesting that the further down the road you go reading up on who's who and what's what, the more you find that there's a 'bureaucratic onion' which needs peeling in order to find a proper frame of reference. There's professional organizations, supplier businesses, unions, and public servants all combined into this behemoth money spending machine with very little public visibility and accountability - probably mostly because, as I mentioned before, most tax payers are results oriented when it comes to schools. A slick Republican (or group of slick republicans) could easily brand the issue and generate a great deal of hype by exposing it in a convenient light, have long campaign talking points on how to deal with it, and have the advantage of being able to paint kids as victims while only aggressively combating a lifeless, faceless system.

What would the Dems do? Stand against 'school reform'? Stand up for an industry which will inevitably have significant demonstrable waste? Even left leaning middle class folks could be drawn to the cause if enough outrage could be generated and competent leadership to deal with the issue could be demonstrated.

Blogger, commenter, and IR Contributor Bruno Behrend, has dubbed this bureaucratic onion to which I refer as 'Big Ed'. The post linked makes a convincing enough argument enough for the dubious name and even shores up my idea that the school issue has almost limitless potential for use in Republican 'strategery' as we should, contrary to the weak objections, be getting away from "God, Gays and Guns" and moving on to more fertile political territory.

And if you're not with me yet on just how fertile this issue can be, you need only check your Tribune today:

The biggest advocates for Illinois' school boards and administrators have been making millions of dollars off school districts and taxpayers, court and financial records show.

The Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials and the Illinois Association of School Administrators set up a non-profit energy company in 1999 to help school districts get better deals on electricity and gas.

But to the surprise of many school officials, the Illinois Energy Consortium, as the company is called, has been charging the districts fees that have nothing to do with utility service. The financial details are disclosed in a Cook County Circuit Court lawsuit filed in June.

About $4.5 million in fees was collected from school districts in the last three years, with the bulk of it going to the consortium's creators.

Anybody have a problem with going on the record saying "I'm anti-consortium"? Hell just the word 'consortium' makes for a good frame up. Bruno's got additional dish at his joint. It looks like it's cross posted at the broken looking Illinois Review, perhaps broke by Karma due to a post doing an apology for the Coultergeist.