MUSKEGON — For a moment we thought Tony Evers actually had hurt feelings.

The Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction issued an email today, whining that EAGnews.org insulted him when he recently called for “renewed respect” for public school teachers, and somehow crossed the line when we approached him at a public event in Milwaukee last week to ask him a few questions.

“The out-of-state, right wing Education Action Group immediately began sharpening their knives, attacking me as a ‘suck up’ to teacher’s unions and educators,” Evers wrote regarding his call for respect for teachers.

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“You all know that I’m a pretty even tempered guy, but last week EAG was back at it again. At a parent forum about reinvesting state resources in public education, EAG staged a ‘gotcha ambush,’ asking me loaded questions that implied our students and teachers are radical left-wing pawns and worse.”

But then Evers tipped his hand. It turns out his email had nothing to do with the perceived mistreatment he received from EAGnews.org. It’s all a fundraising gimmick for his pending re-election campaign.

“These people have a clear anti-education agenda, and there is no doubt they are coming after me,” Evers wrote. “They don’t represent our values, and I need your help. We are asking 50 people across Wisconsin to give $5, $10 or $15 to help jump start my campaign. Can I count on your support?”

Just to set the record straight, we were disturbed a few weeks ago to hear a state superintendent with a record of attacking Act 10 talk about increased funding for public education, despite the state’s still precarious budget situation.

When liberal politicians talk about more money for schools, they usually mean higher salaries and more expensive benefits for the union teachers who fund their campaigns. Those are things Wisconsin schools can’t afford at the moment.

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The fact is that Wisconsin schools are more stable financially, at least compared to districts in other states, due to the provisions of Act 10. The law allowed local school boards to gain control over runaway labor costs and reapply the money to student needs. Evers is perfectly aware of that.

Union members may have lost some perks, but schools gained a lot of operational money that would have otherwise been wasted on things like overpriced health insurance coverage through union-affiliated WEA Trust.

As for the “gotcha ambush” Evers described, no such thing ever occurred. An EAGnews.org reporter politely approached Evers last week following his speech in Milwaukee to ask him a few questions. Evers is a politician (albeit a pretty thin-skinned one), and reporters sometimes are known to ask them questions.

It was Evers who blew his cool during the interview, telling our reporter to “Listen, Jack” (his name is Jeremy) and angrily grabbing his microphone. Our reporter never lost control but Evers made a complete fool of himself, probably because the questions he was asked weren’t friendly enough.

Our reporter was particularly concerned because Evers gave a “shout out” during his speech to a group of students from Milwaukee and/or Racine who supposedly authored a “Student Bill of Rights.” That document curiously called for the reinstatement of full collective bargaining privileges for union teachers. How is that a student right?

Critics have accused teachers in the two school districts of assisting (or manipulating) the students in the “Bill of Rights” project, and slipping in a few items from their own political wish list. In short, many people believe these students were blatantly used by radical union teachers, and there are several of them in both school districts.

We were also concerned about reports from Racine that some students were excused from classes on the day of the gubernatorial recall election to help get out the anti-Walker vote.

By giving a shout-out to these kids, we wondered if Evers was signaling his approval for the questionable political activities. Children go to school to learn, not to be used by a bunch of hyper-political teachers.

There was no reason for Evers to become angry or belligerent about our reporters’ questions. They were not posed in an angry or challenging way. Anyone who needs proof can watch the  video of the entire interview.

It was Evers who lost his temper and created a tense situation. And now he’s trying to parlay the episode into a fundraising gimmick.

How typical of a typical politician.