Education and Michigan and the AFT

Governor Rick Snyder, that tough old nerd, claimed in State of the State address last night that he has put more money into education. Critics say that he has not. He assets he has added $600 dollars per student. Critics say he's cut education funding $470 dollars per student. But you know?

Both the governor and his detractors are full of hooey, because good education isn't ultimately about money.

Good education is about making students actually achieve good marks in real subject. It isn't about making them feel good about themselves, an inane idea which is all to prevalent in schools and teachers academies.

Good education is about sitting down, shutting up, and listening, asking only questions which help clarify a point or deepen understanding.

Good education is training the mind to think for itself, not spitting back elitist, leftist propaganda.

Good education is about respecting the subject more than the student who, if he really wants to learn, sees that he is not the arbiter of right and wrong and must make himself subservient to the work if he is to master it.

Good education is committed parents more than good teachers, although, of course, a good teacher, one who respects the subject he teaches, is a true gold treasure.

Good education makes a person, not a citizen, because only a person can be a good citizen.

Good education is not found on a political football field or a teacher's union shop. It is found wherever the above and related principles are found, which means it is not in most public schools in the United States today.

Detroit's Arrogance Harms Itself

Detroit deserves this. Despite what Jesse Jackson says, despite what the radicals within both the city and elsewhere think, Detroit deserves this. Detroit merits, such as it is, an emergency manger.

Detroit's leaders are pathetically territorial. That means that Detroit voters are pathetically territorial. Leave us alone, we'll fix it. Leave us alone, it'll be alright. In short, leave us alone.

But Detroit isn't alone. It is part of an entire state, an entire state which can be brought down if it does not think of the entire state. When Detroit has wanted help, it has appealed to the court of Michigan. It has said, we are a part of you, indeed, we are you. Don't touch us, should you violate who you are.

Yet, should that be true, should we and Detroit be the same, doesn't it work both ways? Should not Detroit think of the entire state?

Of course it should. Yet should it not, of whom does that speak ill: the state, or the city?

Detroit Brought on Emergency Manager

Well, the inevitable is finally about to happen. Detroit will be taken over by a state appointed emergency manager, with all the outrage which comes with the territory. It's undemocratic, it's dictatorial, it's racist. Blah, blah, blah.

The charge of racism is the weakest. If Detroit could run itself, if Detroit voters had elected responsible leaders, this would not have happened. That about says it all. Vote responsibly and you'll get responsible leaders. Otherwise, you'll get what you got: arrogant grandstand players.

The leaders weren't all that leader like. They selfishly protected their turf while rejecting state aid which might have helped, such as putting Belle Isle under the state DNR. But Detroit have that, because Belle Isle is hers alone. Never mind that that once beautiful park is now an eyesore. Never mind that Detroit is part of Michigan and ought to be willing to share what it can with the state.

Which leads to another issue, one all to often overlooked if it's ever even considered at all: what about Detroit's obligation to the state? We incessantly hear, from Detroiters and her Democratic allies, about what Michigan should do for Detroit. But what about what Detroit should do for outstate Michigan, namely, keep her affairs in order? We don't hear about that. Why? Because it's undemocratic, it's racist, and blah, blah, blah.

Yet perhaps stupidest charge of all comes from those who say the emergency manager is undemocratic. Detroiters, supposedly, have now lost democracy. Yet two things are ignored by this argument. One, that they are still in fact represented democratically through their state representatives. Every Detroiter has a state representative and a state senator. The emergency manger law is a state law; this means that Detroiters had input on it through them. Oh? That wasn't enough? Well, that's democracy, folks. You will sometimes lose. Get over it, if you really love the democratic process.

The second ignored fact is that cities are subsets of states. Detroit does not have relationship to Lansing analogous to that of Michigan's to Washington DC. It is an entity crated by Michigan and thus subject to the state's whim. Detroit can be taken out of existence should the state so decide. If you don't like that, work to change it. But as with the state representative situation, Detroiters are still represented by that process. There is still democracy in Detroit.

Bring on the emergency manager. Hopefully it will bring on a better Detroit. Short of that, it shall at least give Detroiters, and we mean every single Detroiter who has voted for the terrible leadership from which the whole city has suffered, a comeuppance of their own making. And as childish as we will admit this will sound, it will delightful to see.

Snyder: Give Detroit what it Needs

Get on with it, Governor Snyder. Put an Emergency manager in charge of Detroit. You will never win the hearts or minds of the overwhelmingly Democratic city. But the longer you wait, the weaker you'll seem to everyone else. Just do it and get it over with.

Detroit is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. Detroit leaders appear to think that Detroit is Michigan. That may have been the case at one point. It isn't anymore.

There are about 700,000 residents where there used to be 2,000,000. That's something in the area of seven percent of the population of the entire state. Detroit does not, or at least should not, have the clout it once had. The only real thing the city has going for it is political: the situation can be painted as David and Goliath, of Democrat against Republican; of plain old racism, even.

None of which is fair. Detroit got herself into her mess and is essentially refusing to get herself out of it. Someone else must. That someone is you, Governor Snyder. You wanted to be governor; you wanted to run the state like a business. So, do it. Maybe you won't be a hero to Detroit, but that was never going to happen anyway. Go on and be a hero to Michigan. Detroit may actually learn a lesson from that.

Vote as You LIke on 5, Michigan

Of all the proposals on the statewide ballot this year in Michigan, perhaps the easiest to overlook is Proposal 5. It would call for a supermajority in the the State Legislature to pass any tax increase, or a popular vote in a November election. The idea gives one pause. It appears to be a very easy proposal to support; who among conservatives anyway does not want to make it more difficult for governments to increase taxes? Still, a two-thirds vote of the Legislature seems high. On how many things can we find two-thirds support among the people, let alone politicians? Not many. That, perhaps, is the most troubling fact with the proposal. It becomes fair to wonder whether democracy itself could survive should the idea be more broadly applied. Still, we can't shake the feeling that there is a degree to which Michigan politicians, or, more correctly, politicians in general (Michigan government seems to have been curtailed in recent times), have brought this upon themselves. As government continues to expand, it may be that the only real check on its growth is to choke it financially. Limit what it can take in, and it can only spend so much. Yet sometimes taxes must be raised, whether we like it or not. While the principle of minority rights cannot be too readily shunted aside, neither can the fear of the tyranny of the majority. If and when needed monies must be had for the sake of everyone in the state it seems foolish to hamper raising them. As we have said twice this week already in addressing ballot proposals, we always have options with elected officials. We can elect them out the next time. So what to do about Proposal 5? We lean towards saying no. The idea of limiting the power to tax is quite appealing, and we realize that a simple majority to pass any given tax all too often comes dangerously close to infringing minority rights. This is particularly true in this day and age when we have married ourselves to democracy so much that we have an attitude that if the majority wants it, it must be right. Might makes right, as such, is hardly moral. Yes, sadly, the safe bet seems to be vote no. But we will just the same not harbor any ill will towards those who vote yes. By itself, that may be a great message to send to Lansing. It's really only too bad we can't apply the measure to Washington.

Snyder and the Protestors

Governor Rick Snyder appeared yesterday at a Detroit Church to discuss the issues: voter registration laws, how to help Detroit, and the proposed new bridge between the city and Windsor, Ontario, for example. He was greeted by protestors who demanded 'their' money, namely, $224 million dollars they say the State owes the City. Lansing has supposedly withheld the cash due to the city failing in its obligations.

Did any of those people protest the Detroit City Council or the Mayor's Office in the recent past? It is, after all, city leadership, presumably elected by the very same protestors chanting at Snyder, which has gotten Detroit so close to falling under a state appointed emergency manager. But that would be taking responsibility unto themselves, wouldn't it? We can't have that, can we? It's easier to berate a Republican than to admit we screwed up.

Other things on the agenda at the meeting involved the more stringent voter identification proposals before the Governor. One such idea is to demand picture identification for an absentee ballot. What's wrong with that? We require picture ID for so many other things, why not in order to vote?

This is another issue which ties into personal responsibility yet is rarely interpreted as such. If you want to vote, if you really care about your community and want to fully participate in it, how hard is it to get a photo ID? If you aren't competent to do that, how competent will your vote be?

The real issue here is that we have people who want to get people to vote simply in order to support their cause. These folks want it easy for transients to cast a ballot because transients vote more or less as expected: for the causes of those who claim to support the best interests of the transients. Yet the question never asked is, who is truly being taking advantage of, who is really being played, with this game?

Speaking of games, another Detroit Lion has been arrested on a suspected DUI. This makes about six arrests of Lions players in recent memory. It all reflects poorly on the current football mentality of sheer arrogance: we're football players. We can do what we want. Well, politicians have thought that for years, and you see how they're viewed. Why not remember that you're playing a game, nothing more, and are fortunate that a sports crazed allows you to make so much money at it?

Sadly, money corrupts like power. Perhaps politicians and football players may belong in the same cage at that.

Snyder Shouldn't Brag Too Much

Governor Rick Snyder, during his opening speech at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference on Tuesday, said that Michigan is doing well but needs to 'learn to brag' about its accomplishments, to let more people know the good things happening here. The attitude appears to reflect something which Nolan Finley wrote in the past Sunday's Detroit News. He said that the Governor needs to learn how to brag about his accomplishments in turning Michigan around because it's necessary in the world of politics. Finley asserts that, without selling yourself, others might not see the good which has been done. In politics, when the line between success and failure is finely drawn, when it may only take a small twist to upend someone's efforts (such a Democratic takeover of the state Supreme Court, as Finley says) then you have to make sure people know that you're responsible for the better times or the voters (and investors) will abandon you.

Sadly enough, he's probably right. Politics is one big what have you done for me lately world, and a very unforgiving and inconsiderate one at that. Voters, and more particularly opposition political parties and their leaders, either do not play fair or think clearly, or, really, act in a combination of both. Still, how many of us like braggarts? It's okay to sell yourself, but if you don't pay attention to how it's done and walk carefully, even the successful are frowned upon.

How many great athletes are seen as jerks simply because they say, in effect, 'I'm great and you're not?' Isn't that one of the biggest turn offs in sports today, that too many athletes seem too full of themselves, too over the top? Admit it, in our hearts we like the Alan Trammells better than the Kirk Gibsons, even though Gibson's heroics are more brash. Everyone loves that photo from the 1984 World Series of Gibson with his arms in the air, skipping around the bases after that home run. But that home run didn't win the game per se (the Tigers were already ahead) and who won the World Series MVP? Alan Trammell, who much more quietly dominated during the Tigers' triumph that season.

If you must brag, and, to be fair, it doesn't seem as though Finley is calling for anything over the top from the Governor on the issue, then do it by the force of your actions more than anything else. Point it out, if you must, if political reality forces you to do so. Still, we aren't quite so cynical about the average Joe as we are about the average politico. If crowing a bit, as Finley calls it, means stumping for Republican House candidates, as Finley also suggests be done, okay, do that. But be careful if you want too much more. Bragging normally oozes from arrogance more readily than from real accomplishment. If Snyder is to grab people by the nape of their necks, he must do so as gently as he can.

Snyder as the Number Two Man?

Snyder for Vice President? That is one scenario being bandied about the media and the political wonks the last few days. After all, he's one tough nerd. To be sure, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has done quite a lot which would endear him to conservatives. Perhaps even the social conservatives such as those of us in the Wayne County Conservative Examiner's Office could be persuaded to support him for second choice on the national GOP ticket. It's easy to like his approach towards the public school leviathan, pushing for more charters and cyber schools as he and the Republican Legislature in Lansing have been doing. Even the Emergency Manger law doesn't bother us, given that he treated Detroit with kid gloves as insolvency approached Michigan's largest city. But is that enough to satisfy conservatives nationwide? Would there be a true balance on such a ticket? To have both Republicans from more or less the same part of the country (the rust belt) doesn't appear to offer more than regional appeal. And we still wonder whether Governor Snyder much less Mitt Romney really feels very strongly about abortion and gay rights. One of the sins of Republicans, even the more conservative ones, are that they tend to do two things which can only be construed as weaknesses. One, they vacillate on more substantive issues in favor of the economic ones. We can only presume that they do so in order to get and stay elected. To be fair, seeing as the general electorate is indeed rather shallow, they may feel that is their only recourse. Even so, it still reeks of weakness. Point number two, they don't press their advantages as liberals do. The whole reason we have Obamacare looming is that the liberals didn't care about what the vast majority of the nation wanted. They wanted national health care, so much so that they engaged in little known and little used parliamentary tricks to get it. They had the power and the votes and they used both. In that regard, Snyder might not be so bad a choice after all. He's stood by his decisions and the GOP in Lansing has pressed its cause. But in the end, rumors of a Snyder vice presidential candidacy are surely all talk. What else can be done when politics are at a low ebb? Political writers spout conjecture. We should not put much weight in that.

Schools of Choice

We may be on the verge of a rather unusual political event. It seems that the makings of a what might otherwise seem an unholy union may be in store. Grosse Pointe Republicans and Detroit Democrats appear in agreement on the upcoming mandatory Schools of Choice proposal soon to be introduced in the State Legislature. They don't like it.

Not surprisingly, they are coming at it from different viewpoints. The Grosse Pointers do not want their schools tampered with by being made to accept out of district students. Democratic lawmakers from Detroit, Sen. Bert Johnson of Highland Park, Sen. Coleman A. Young II of Detroit, and State Rep. Lisa Howze, D-Detroit, all have spoken against it. They fear that the Detroit Public Schools would be further drained (the DPS has been losing students for years) without any chance to stabilize.

The idea, then, would appear to facing a sharp uphill climb. Even the Michigan Association of School Boards is against it, believing that any such choice should be left to the existing schools districts. Meanwhile, a group called the Michigan Communities for Local Control has been formed to direct efforts against the legislation. The MCLC argues that local officials locally elected van make the best choices for their schools.

However this all plays out, it isn't likely that we will see such hands across the aisle agreement with many other issues. But who knows? Maybe we can all just get along. So long as the right buttons are pushed.

Polls Serve Little Purpose

Recent polling show that Michigan voters think slightly more favorably of Governor Rick Snyder than the did a couple of months ago. It also shows that electors are slightly less disposed towards the job which Debbie Stabenow is doing as one of our senators. In each case, the numbers were down/up by around two to four percent.

These are hardly useful numbers, as they appear to be well within the range of acceptable fault. Indeed, it could be said that they are entirely meaningless. When opinions have shifted that little, if at all, then how excited are we supposed to get?

Yet even that doesn't really get to the crux of the matter. Why should we care at all what pools say, especially as they generally don't reflect anything particularly worthwhile, or when elections are so far away? In the case of the Governor, outside of the highly unlikely chance that recall efforts will succeed, he won't face voters before 2014. The junior Senator at least is up for election next year, but still, her numbers in July 2011 are surely irrelevant.

The electorate cannot reasonably be expected to become gaga over these figures at this point. They probably don't mean squat among the bulk of them anyway; Democrats will certainly vote for her no matter what, while Republicans vote against her despite circumstances. That only leaves the amorphous middle. Yet even they, within reason, won't actually make up their minds until much closer to November 2012.

We are left to believe that the pools are really only for the pollsters, the political wonks and talking heads who need fodder during slow times in the cycle, and their brethren who live and die on minute and trivial changes in the political atmospheric pressure. We will leave you with the question, then, what's the point?

Recalling Snyder: Ranting and Nothing More

Arrogantly claiming that the idea is being pushed 'by the People of Michigan', there has been approval of petition wording to recall Governor Rick Snyder. If the folks actually pushing for the removal of Mr. Snyder can get 807,000 signatures within a 90 day window, he will be subject to a recall election.

We'll give the left this much: for now, anyway, they are working with rather than against the democratic process. Still, it seems a typical reaction on the part of anyone whose ox is being gored. The Governor is being called a dictator in some circles for supposedly taking choice away from localities. It is a violation of their rights to have, such as in Benton Harbor, elected officials power removed.

If Benton Harbor were an entity unto itself, then it would indeed be suffering a grave political loss. Yet it is not; cities and counties are subsets of the State. They do have the same relationship with Lansing as the several states do with Washington. Further, as Benton Harbor gets State money and has squandered its own spending, then it should come as no surprise that Michigan would have to step in, on behalf of the taxpayers of the whole State, to see that their monies are well and properly spent.

If you don't like that, the what you need to do is convince people to change the Michigan Constitution so that localities hold a certain real independence. But as things are, Snyder is no more of a dictator than the President. Yet we see no movement on the right to remove him except during the regular election cycle.

What we actually have here is a protest from the folks who live and breathe government money: leftists such as the Washtenaw Coalition for Economic Justice who feel that only they know how Lansing should spend the taxpayers' dollars. That isn't concern for Benton Harbor or education or the poor. It is, however, a sanctimonious display of false injury, and unworthy of civil debate.

Snyder's Budget is not Outlandish

Governor Rick Snyder has proposed his first budget for the State of Michigan, proposing permanent cuts of around $1.2 billion dollars in a plan he defended as shared sacrifice. Schools and seniors, as well as state employees and localities, are being asked to make forms of concessions in order to make Michigan financially sound.

When you are losing people, you lose tax income. Michigan, being the only state which lost population in the 2010 Census, is hurt by that as well as the malaise of the larger economy. Sometimes you just have to cut, and Snyder is taking the correct approach that as many as possible should share the burden. Where he will surely be criticized the harshest will come in the areas of seniors and the schools. He is proposing that senior pensions be subject to tax, and he is asking for K-12 funding to be cut 4% while seeking a 15% cut from public universities.

Those ideas are not outlandish by any stretch of the imagination. Seniors statistically are the wealthiest in the population, and surely anybody can find waste and redundancy amounting to one twenty-fifth of their spending. And while a 15% slice from college funding may seem deep, part of the trouble there is that we have to think too highly of university training. A bachelor's degree has become the new GED, yet commonsense tells us that far too many jobs which currently demand college in truth do not merit such high requirements. What we need, quite frankly, is to stop making university such a big deal. The schools will surely survive anyway.

In all, the Governor's budget is a mix of cuts, what amounts to tax increases, and the elimination and/or privatization of state jobs. What it will be in the end remains to be seen, but it seems a fair balance of pain at this point.

A Pragmatic Governor?

In yesterday's Detroit News, political columnist Nolan Finley described new governor Rick Snyder as pragmatic because of his experience in business. But is that in itself a good thing? Pragmatism simply as pragmatism can lead to many errors. Indeed, it is the root cause of the moral relativism which threatens our world. It would be better to have a leader based in and guided by solid principles.

That the Governor leans conservative isn't really much comfort. Even Finley conceded that that would likely mean conservative disappointment on some fronts. We'll see what happens, but if Mr. Finley's words were mean to be a comfort, they fell short. If Mr. Snyder fails to address the concerns of the GOP's right wing base, whatever actions he takes will likely fall short of success as well.