"People on both sides," says Ted Kirsch of the Philadelphia Federation of teachers, "shouldn't be wasting their time, energy or effort debating it in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania because the reality is the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this issue, based on cases coming to it from Ohio, Wisconsin or Maine."

Kirsch is right. By the luck of the legal calendar, Pennsylvania won't be a player in the voucher debate, no matter how often John Street raises the issue in his TV ads or Sam Katz ducks it in his.

Yet this "non-issue," as Kirsch sees it, simply won't go away. In fact, it promises to make an already confusing political picture almost too complicated to readily understand.

Item: John White and most of his supporters are against vouchers, like Street, yet they support Katz for mayor.

Item: Most Jews are Democrats and oppose vouchers, yet they are expected to support Katz, the Republican.

Item: Catholics are also a normally Democratic stronghold in this town yet could vote for Katz because of vouchers.

Item: Most black and Hispanic leaders oppose vouchers, yet most black and Hispanic voters tell pollsters they overwhelmingly support vouchers.

Item: Most teachers, like Kirsch, oppose vouchers, yet the PFT endorsed Katz in the primary and could do so again, or remain neutral, in the general election.

Item: Rowhouse Rizzocrats, mostly Democrats, could easily go for Republican Katz if that meant they'd have a choice of public, private or parochial schools for their kids.

Item: Two of the strongest voucher supporters in Harrisburg, Rep. Dwight Evans and Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, support Street despite his vehement opposition to vouchers.

It's often said that politics makes strange bedfellows, but this is unprecedented. In a race that most polls now suggest will be very close, Kirsch's "non-issue" might just end up deciding whether Katz or Street wins in November.

After all, those political forces outlined above represent more than 100,000 highly motivated Philadelphia voters, maybe twice that number when spouses, friends and family members are included.

That's a lot of voters. More than enough, by far, to make the difference in a close election with only something like 225,000 votes needed to guarantee victory this year.

So don't expect Kirsch's "non-issue" to go away, even if, as he correctly says, our next mayor will legally have little to say about the issue when it hits the Supreme Court sometime in the next year or so.

Street has invited Katz to debate vouchers on TV, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Expect the topic to be well-covered from pulpits all over town, whether Baptist or Catholic, as well as around the kitchen table in every rowhouse when the household budget is being discussed.

Don't even be surprised when national politicians, on both sides of the issue, join in our local voucher debate. Our mayoral race is close to the biggest political plum up for grabs this year nationally, so whichever party wins here gets a leg up on the 2000 races for Congress and the White House.

How ironic that an issue the next mayor may have little control over might make this an exciting and nationally important election.

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