We’ve always wanted our children to have more chances than we did. Americans believed in sacrificing for the next generation.
That‘s why our ancestors died at Valley Forge and Omaha Beach, and that‘s why we established and funded public education.
That is, until now. Our politicians in Lansing have already damaged our children’s future, and are now using Michigan‘s children to play a dangerous game of chicken.
Whatever happens, we all lose. In an effort to cope with a huge and growing deficit, the legislature agreed on a compromise earlier this month to cut the amount of money they give the schools by $165 a student. Now, keep in mind that this is for the ongoing school year. This is money the schools were promised and counted on, and now are losing in the middle of their budget year, which means these cuts are much harder to make.
This is happening now because the lawmakers did not do their jobs and agree on a budget when they were supposed to.
And if you think that is bad, this week things got much worse. Governor Jennifer Granholm shocked just about everybody when she vetoed some funding for some of Michigan’s largest school districts.
This means some middle class districts are really going to be clobbered. Harper Woods, a small middle-to-working class district, will lose almost $500 a pupil. A woman I know with a child in the system wrote her state representative. Democrat Tim Bledsoe, to complain, saying, “Our community and our families are working class to middle class and don’t have a lot of money.
“How does this make sense?”
Bledsoe agreed. “I am angry that the Governor and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop would use our schools as though they were poker chips in a high-stakes political game,” he told her, adding he would do what he can to fight it.
Bishop says the governor is doing this to try and force Republicans to agree to a tax increase to save the schools, but vowed once again that it wasn’t going to happen. As for Bledsoe, while he may think the cuts are terrible, he opposes the one serious attempt that has been made to get new revenue, a small tax on physicians. You see, he has a lot of doctors in his district.
Meanwhile, members of both parties scrambled to try and find the votes to override the governor’s veto of that appropriation.
But it looks like they’ll fall short.
And then yesterday, the governor said, “We must invest in our children, who are going to be the workforce of the future.” She then called on Senate Republicans to be, in her word, “reasonable.”
By the way, she said that after also vetoing a $1.6 million appropriation that has been helping provide a good start for disadvantaged children under the age of three. I think that’s called cognitive dissonance. It is clearly a mess. More school districts than ever are now in danger of receivership. Our leaders have failed us, and the system has broken down.
And somehow, we need to find a way to force them to fix it.
I hate this type of loser driven journalism on the backs of children...Extortion driven journalism never works and it only reveals the hollow depth of those invoking such cheap parlor tricks..
Truth is our educational system in Michigan and the nation has failed to many for to long..More funding has not improved the outcomes or educational quality even in rich school districts where grade and GPA inflation is the norm..Recently MSU issued a report that the majority of freshman students need and take remedial math etc( bulk of these students BTW are white kids)
I have counsel taxpayers in the city to reject the King Bobb DPS Bonding issue and I encourage more not less funding with regard to the state's educational funds for districts..
Our state does not need to toss more money at schools we need to toss more integrity, competence, and the focus on the core subjects we need less labs, pc's, sports fields and more basic focus on the core tools of educating our students none of which have anything to do with $$$$$$$
Posted by: Thrasher | October 22, 2009 at 04:28 PM