Bonafides first: I am long on record as being both a fan of Chris Larson, currently my state senator, and an opponent of any sort of plan from state lawmakers to impose a "recovery district" or similar takeover on the Milwaukee Public Schools. The current version of such a plan, the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program, has been the subject of a number of my rantings here and elsewhere; OSPP gives the Milwaukee County Executive the authority to literally takeover MPS buildings, property and students and hand those off to outside operators with no democratic oversight.

Larson's also in a scorchingly heated race right now for the very post of Milwaukee county executive, so it's not surprising I get fundraising emails from him. As with any fundraising letter, you have to allow for some hyperbole, but the last one Larson's campaign sent gave me actual pause.

"We can repeal the takeover of MPS," the subject line read. I know Larson and his allies have drafted legislation to undo the OSPP, which was a part of the state budget passed last summer by the Republicans who run the state. But there is no chance of that legislation going anywhere anytime soon – the legislative session is pretty well done for the year, and as a Democrat, Larson has no real power to even force a hearing on his bill.

Still, I was intrigued what else might be in the works besides that legislation and Larson's stated plan of refusing to comply with the OSPP law if elected. Is there anything besides magical thinking up Larson's sleeve here?

Nope. "You can help us undo this power grab by donating $100, $50, or $25 right now to my campaign, and help us put a champion of public education in the Milwaukee County Executive’s office," the email told me. Electing Larson undoes the OSPP, end of story it seems.

Look, there are plenty of things in the County Executive's race to consider. While no one would argue the county is not better off now than it was six years ago, I think there is a reasonable argument to be made that maybe it could be even better on a number of other issues. The MPS takeover is not one of them.

Yet the takeover is one of the two or three issues giving Larson the most traction in this race. It's earned him press and endorsements and a lot of spending and campaigning on his behalf, including from my union. The scare tactic is effective: Abele is coming for your school, goes the subtext – and sometimes text – of the pro-Larson arguments on the OSPP. But that argument runs into both practical and political problems.

Abele appointed Mequon-Thiensville Superintendent Demond Means to be OSPP "commissioner," and both Means and Abele have been clear that they will not takeover any MPS schools. Larson supporters can – and do! – insist that Means and Abele are lying about that, but that's a stretch and involves taking the word of anti-MPS lawmakers over the word of the pro-public school, MPS graduate Means.

When asked, Larson's campaign told me they wouldn't comment on whether Larson would fire Means. But Larson is clearly and repeatedly on the record that he will refuse to comply with the law, which I presume means no commissioner and no county funds for improving services to MPS students as the law demands.

Politically, the consequence of that could be much worse for MPS than what Abele and Means have laid out as their OSPP plan. This was the subject of my last Bay View Compass column, which has earned me some scorn from my peers already. But no one has a good answer to the question of what they think legislative Republicans will do to Larson and to MPS if Larson refuses to follow the law as Abele has.

As I wrote in that column, there's nothing to stop Republicans from revising the law to appoint their own commissioner or, worse, create a true New Orleans-style recovery district that would strip dozens of schools and tens of thousands of children from MPS immediately.

Larson should be worried about this, too, as his fundraising email reminds me: "As a state senator who sits on the education committee, I know that similar takeover measures across the country have failed students and sabotaged the financial stability of the school districts they target."

There is nothing to date from Abele or Means to suggest anything like one of those takeover measures. However, the authors of the OSPP law have already made their intentions known that they would rather go that route than the OSPP, which seems a bit of a compromise from their original idea.

The authors are State Sen. Alberta Darling and State Rep. Dale Kooyenga, and in January 2015 they put out a shiny booklet with all their plans for the city of Milwaukee, plans that extended far beyond just an MPS takeover. Included among them was the idea of a "turnaround district." They directly reference New Orleans and Tennessee as models – those places Larson cites as a warning – and then lay out their real plan for MPS.

Their plan would "create a board who will oversee a turnaround school initiative for all schools that fail to meet expectations in the targeted zone. The board will entertain proposals from charter school operators and will award a 5-year charter school authorization to the authorizers that present the most compelling plan."

Again, that's all schools that fail to meet the state's expectations, not the handful a year, maximum, the current plan calls for. This is what Darling and Kooyenga really wanted from the OSPP. This is their unfiltered id barely hiding their contempt for current MPS leadership and caring not one bit for how badly they would hurt the district. If Larson stands firm against following that law, what is to stop the GOP from going back to Darling and Kooyenga's plan A? And that would be exponentially worse than anything Demond Means would inflict on the city he grew up in.

Now Larson, probably because there's nothing else he can say about this, insists that the legislation he's drafted and his resistance to the Republicans' OSPP plan will be enough to change Darling and Kooyenga's minds on this. Really! Check out his interview last week with Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel. At about 4:40 in the video, Larson explains that all he has to do is "go to Madison to repeal the power grabs. ... We're going to say, 'We don't want that legislation. We'd rather have schools get the funding they need.'"

Sure, because that argument has been so persuasive on the Republican legislature so far. Oh, wait, no it hasn't, and that's why state funding for schools today is lower than it was before Gov. Scott Walker and his Republicans swept into power in 2010. That's why last week I argued that what Wisconsin really needs is a new school-funding lawsuit to prove the inadequacy of state school funding.

Ultimately, there is no easy answer on the OSPP, on undoing the takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools as envisioned by Darling and Kooyenga. The best solution, a repeal at the state level, is a non-starter today and unlikely to be much more possible in the next legislature. Even if Democrats can take back the state senate this fall – a longshot, but not impossible – Republicans would still hold the Assembly and the governorship, and pro-MPS legislation like the one Larson has drafted will still be unlikely to even get a hearing.

The next best solution is almost certainly what is already in place under Abele and Means, who are following the letter of the law but in most ways skirting its intent. Any other action, including Larson's simply refusing to play along with the law, is potentially very dangerous for our schools and children.

Larson's email closes (not counting the PS, which asks for money again, natch) with the sentiment that if elected Larson "will continue to fight against the MPS Takeover plan and for all students to have access to learning opportunities in well-resourced, safe schools with classes small enough for one-on-one attention." I have no doubt this is true, that Larson will continue to be a strong advocate for public schools. I marched in Madison in 2011 to support him and other State Senate Democrats in their efforts to protect Wisconsin's students, teachers and schools. If people want to vote for Larson because of his long-standing support of MPS, they should.

But his election will not end, repeal or otherwise stop "the takeover," and we need to be clear about that. Making the opposite claim as much a centerpiece of his campaign as it has been strikes me as iffy at best, and plain dishonest at worst.