He said it was "erroneously reported." His take? It was a discussion, that's all. He said state law doesn't allow MPS to dissolve.

"In an attempt to bring attention to MPS' significant financial stress due to the state of Wisconsin's broken school finance formula, a question was raised regarding the state's obligations to Milwaukee's students, including a discussion of what obligations would remain and who would be financially responsible should the district be dissolved," he states in a release.

Since then, one board member has offered a more frugal spending plan which would end busing, cut staff and essentially freeze or cut most programs. A city alderman suggested this week that the city take over the school district altogether. The city already does some services for MPS, including legal issues and bonding.

Speaking of voucher schools, the state's most vociferous advocate for the program, School Choice Wisconsin, is refuting a recent Legislative Audit Bureau report that shows the schools in the program aren't exactly pounding out Mensa candidates and, in fact, are academically about the same as MPS schools.

School Choice Wisconsin objects to the testing methods. Instead of school-by-school test results-which would obviously help parents figure out the bad schools from the good schools-School Choice wants the state to measure individual student progress. A nebulous figure indeed.

"This report would use a common basis for reporting test scores at schools in the MPCP, the Milwaukee Public Schools, and at independent charter schools," states Susan Mitchell, executive director of the group.

And they want more publicity for their cause. "We also favor an aggressive information campaign to inform parents about their options," she says.

Strange Tale from the Trail: One of the more twisted turns on the political landscape this season is one man's attempt to raise money for Bristol Palin to get an abortion. Comedian and former "Man Show" host Doug Stanhope has started the site, www.savingbristol.com, offering the young Palin -- who is 17, pregnant and the daughter of GOP Veep candidate Sarah Palin -- $50,000 to have an abortion.

"Never in history has a woman been under more pressure to keep an unwanted pregnancy than Bristol Palin," writes Stanhope. "Rather than sit back and impotently bemoan Bristol's tragic, lonely circumstance, it is time for us -- the silent majority -- to unite behind this poor, imprisoned woman and save her from both a tyrannical household as well as the horrible nightmare of a forced childbirth."

But wait, there's more. "I was once in a similar situation where I'd accidentally impregnated a girl and she had to make that same fateful decision that now faces (Palin). It was easy for her -- she didn't have a fascist, oligarch parent, the entire Republican Party or the sneering eyes of the Christian Right to contend with, much less a daft, puppet boyfriend who's just waiting for the cameras to stop rolling so he can bolt like a gazelle."

Stanhope initially encouraged visitors to his Web site to send in donations, but in order to not look like he was going to pocket the money, he urges donations be sent to the Lilith Fund, an agency in Texas that provides low-income women money for abortions.

Comedian Bill Maher has also joined the cause, offering a Web site, www.freelevi.org, after Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin's boyfriend, whom the National Enquirer describes as "a boozing pot-smoker who doesn't want to get married."

Calling him "America's No. 1 political prisoner," Maher is offering Johnston the Web site to raise money for Johnson's future.