Go to a forgotten corner of your state and find a small town. Chances are you'll find an old school house there, a victim of the postwar consolidation craze. Look around you and see the old shuttered buildings and see for yourself what happens when schools close. You take away a school district and for many communities you take sources of jobs, sources of entertainment and community spirit. Such places are destroyed after you take away the gibbet of public education.

I'm not against homeschooling or priavte local schools if churches or community groups wish to pay for it, in fact I would make it easier. I give people the choice to opt out if they wish (just so long as they don't say, "Hey, I want to play for the sports team, I just don't want to go to school here.) But I think you'll find most people choosing to stay in, not because they are Marxists, but because it's where their grandpa, grandma, mother, father, sister, brotherm cousin, uncle and aunt went to school as well. Youwould be amazed at the family ties that make a good part of the student body at schools in rural and small town America.

I should disclose in case nobody knows around that I was appointed to the Pepin County (Wis.) Board of Supervisors this past summer, so I'm getting an intimate approach to local government.

I must say that I am lucky to live in Wisconsin. There are a lot of local political cultures that encourage cronyism, wastful spending and corruption or at least turn a blind eye to it and I feel sorry for those who have to suffer through it because in many cases it's local government that has more of a direct impact on your qualifty of life than anything the Feds do and if you have a bad government, as citzens in Detroit or New Orleans will tell you, it can make life miserable.

Here in Pepin County we have a culture of frugality in local government because we are acutly aware we are the smallest and one of the non-wealthiest in the state. We can only do so much and we do the best we can with what little we have. Actually, only 32 percent of our budget comes from local taxes, the biggest chunk comes from grants: state, federal and private. We've just finished a merger of several departments related to health and human services and we're looking at contracting out for providing meals at the county jail.

Heck, our county government building is located in an old Catholic hospital. How's that for making due?

If I'm ever lucky enough to find a constructive conversation or debate with friends about government, it invariably is aimed at the federal level. Broaching the topic of local government or politics usually runs the conversation down the drain, simply not enough is known (by me). I have begun to find this trend counterproductive if not hypocritical.

Topics such as education, taxes, border control, and land conservation are very interesting, though, and very much the concern of state governments and conservatives.

I'm including links to a speech given by former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, at the recent Rally for the Republic. Just trying to get the word out for relatively conservative approaches to state issues. It may be difficult to interest readers in issues of Wisconsin, but I hope we can learn from generalizations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2EhAVQS2V8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcu8jWD2Qs0&feature=related

p.s. As a student in the twin cities, a large number of my good friends come from small towns in Wisconsin. I have been around the state a great deal, and it is a beautiful place.

Most of my experience is in local government. While there are bad people even at that level, the normal amount of scrutiny by the public tends to limit much of the excess. I think that Jefferson was correct when he advocated his ward republics. Much of the problem at the local level comes from elected officials not understanding how incredibly easy it is to drive a government into insolvency. People get elected by making promises, but often do not understand the costs and dangers involved in many of those. The professional managers are normally Progressives who are ill prepared for any downturns in their local economies. After all, Progress is Inevitable! When reality appears and kicks them in the shins, many are shocked. I can relate to Sean's situation there in Wisconsin, as I administered a western Illinois city in similar straits. The libertarian dogma that all government is illegitimate is hooey, to put it politely. The Free Market Fundies, firmly believe in social Darwinism, even those who claim to believe in Christianity. Yet, they never seem to apply that Darwinism to their own beloved free market. If it is the best way to organize a society why is it not in place anywhere, much less everywhere? If government is so inefficient and ineffective in comparison, why is it that governments are ubiquitous? Local governments would seem to be so common because they do provide needed services at a reasonable cost. Of course,local government needs to be closely watched and constrained, and they do some really stupid things on occasion, especially public school districts, but they are closer to the people and far more accountable to them than is any other level of governance or large private sector corporation. There is a need for poor relief. Some people fall through the cracks. There are others who game the system, but these can be minimized with some effort. After all, the federal government just bailed out a bunch of corrupt banksters world wide to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars. comparing that nearly incomprehensible amount to the modest costs of poor relief of townships and counties shows that the latter is a real bargain.

Wisconsin local government tends to be much less corrupt and far more functional than what we have here on the other side of the Cheddar Curtain. This is one of the main reasons I am planning to retire Up North.

As a right-wing, extremist, ultraconservative neaderthal (someone who's not a liberal statist), I have no problem with government, after all, the holy apostle Peter says government exists that we may lead peaceable and orderly lives. My local police come when I call, and the water and sewers work just fine. My gripe is with elected officials who squander unprinted money in the guise of doing "something," even if it's both short-sighted and wrong.

My son joined the army to work out some personal things which remain unexplained. He could have done better, but I would have been wrong to stop him. However, I don't want him to cash his chips in whilst making the world safe for Halliburton, KBR, Exxon, CACI, Titan, L3, or the Mossad.

@3 Andrew

I once met a bureaucratic munchkin (GOP) who boasted the he managed a $2 billion budget. He also owned a timeshare, so how smart could he be? And what the hell could he spend that much money on? It had to be unnecesary at best or crooked at the worst.