The House passed an aid package for the states which will, once the President signs it, give Michigan about $380 million dollars in added Medicaid funds, plus almost that much in new money for elementary and high school education.
Governor Jennifer Granholm was pleased. “For Michigan, this legislation means more than $300 million to hire or rehire teachers,“ she said, adding, “These funds will help our children receive the education they need to compete in a global economy.“
I would have assumed everyone would think this was great. But that would be wrong. Tom Watkins was state superintendent of schools during the early years of the Granholm Administration. He sent me an e-mail overnight, and he wasn’t impressed.
“Without a serious commitment to the Three R’s - Restructure, Reform, and Reinventing public education - these funds will do nothing more than provide a lubricant to protect the status quo,” said Watkins, who these days is a business and education consultant seeking to build bridges between Michigan and China.
Actually, Watkins fears it is even worse. This new money from Uncle Sam will “do nothing but delay the inevitable reforms that are necessary to make us again competitive on the global stage.” In short, he thinks what Washington did was sort of like giving a cheap bottle of whiskey to someone with a drinking problem.
Unfortunately, the evidence indicates Watkins is all too right.
Since term limits, the Michigan Legislature has gotten in the habit of passing the buck, of kicking problems down the road for somebody else to deal with, someday.
Here’s what the Gongwer news service said about this: “This action, while it should help Ms. Granholm and the Legislature complete the budget, will only push the eventual problem on to the state’s next governor and legislature when they take office on January 1st.” Actually, Gongwer added, it may make the problem harder to solve, since “there’s no assurance of federal money continuing to prop up the school aid budget,” or for that matter that portion of the budget having to do with Medicare.
No matter what happens, however, don’t expect our current crop of lawmakers to have a sudden epiphany and take up the long-term structural reforms needed. After all, it’s an election year.
They are all pretty much either campaigning for something, or seeking jobs in the private sector. No, they’ll patch together some kind of budget that is balanced on paper and does themselves the least possible political harm, and then get on their way.
We better hope that the next set of lawmakers we elect have a different attitude. For one thing, they may not have any choice. The days when we could postpone the inevitable, live on our savings, and shove the hard decisions down the road are pretty much over.
For another, we can no longer pretend the system is working. When Michigan slapped together some jury-rigged reforms to try to get federal “Race to the Top” education money, our application was ignored. Twice. Tom Watkins knows how serious things are.
“Let me assure you,” he told me, “the Chinese are not waiting for Michigan to get its act together. They are moving forward and leaving us behind.” I suggest we all think about that.
Until we address the real financial issues facing K12 education in MI we'll just continue to look for handouts from the federal government and never make the tough choices necessary to move education forward.
Posted by: Dave Schroeter | August 15, 2010 at 05:09 PM