I know mine is.
Our kids go to public schools threatened by the market based corporate "reforms" that have appeared here and elsewhere and you would think we (her more than me, of course) would vote for the party of public education: the Democrats.
Indeed, Democratic challenger Mark Schauer is running as the champion of public education and, in fact, to the surprise of many, has made a race out of virtually nothing (if you want to call a 7% gap in the polls and a 4.5 million gap in available spending a race).
Schauer's early ads, for example, challenged Snyder's supposed "1 billion" dollar spending cuts in public education and bolstered by parent groups, teachers, and remnants of the Democratic Party post "right-to-work" made at least a bit of a name for himself even on the east side of the state.
Here's the ugly rub of the new economic and political reality though.
Lisa Brown's kids, like mine, go to Bloomfield Hills Schools in L. Brooks Patterson's Oakland County. The public schools are fantastic. And while Gov. Snyder's ALEC based reforms threatened my schools over the last few years I ultimately owe their continued existence in familiar form to Oakland County Republicans.
When legislation designed to "unbundle" geographically defined Districts called for in the 1963 state constitution only made it through Lansing "piecemeal"-- and in significantly degraded form -- Governor Snyder turned to the MDE and Superintendent Mike Flanagan to "dissolve and consolidate" Districts instead.
Different language, different methodology, but same ultimate goal. Superintendent Flanagan dissolved Saginaw Buena Vista and Inkster and had Pontiac (a community that borders mine) lined up.
Enter the backroom boys. Oakland County Republicans cut a special, "unprecedented" deal 10 year finance deal to keep Pontiac open. For Lisa Brown and I, whewwww.
Here is the ugly part: if Pontiac closed its 11,000 students, its teachers, and its buildings would be the responsibility of surrounding Districts. I wager my home that 50% of Bloomfield Hills parents would have fled the public schools in the first year alone. Amongst other things, the District had just consolidated high schools and was wrestling with all sorts of logistical issues. This move will never be popular or even possible but it certainly wasn't in the spring of 2013. Parents also would have withdrawn political support for such things as "Hold Harmless" millages, the lynchpin of Proposal A that allows certain districts to ask taxpayers for more money to supplement the state's standard per-pupil allowance. Many Democrats won't even say HOLD HARMLESS or think it a perk of some kind. Bridge Magazine recently called it a "quirk."
And, while many would still want to buy mansions, of course, the property values of Bloomfield and its surrounding suburbs are inextricably tied to the public school system.
Public schools: can't live with em, can't live without em.
So if Lisa Brown is every bit the beneficiary of Oakland County Republicans as I am, what do we do?
At any rate, if it is entirely unclear to me how to vote, may be she has some secret similar reservations.
Who is the party of public education in Michigan (and elsewhere) right now? Who will talk in the open about these "third rail" type issues? Mrs. Brown, the state of Michigan, is not shy about having difficult public conversations.
Here's some more ugly for Democrats: The "unbundling" legislation of Gov. Snyder was made possible by President Obama's "Race to the Top" funding in 2009. So was the EAA.
In a few days, the Democratic President may declare -- as he did with Washington state -- all schools in Michigan "underperforming" because they have not sorted out a testing system to rank schools and teachers. President Obama's good friend and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, seems determined to privatize all schools and then condemn teacher ed programs in all across the country, too.
The way things are looking, the next Secretary of Education might be Education Nation's Chelsea Clinton who promised her child's education to DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts and the EAA's John Covington.
Talk about tough choices.
If President Obama tells me BHSD is failing in a few days do I believe him? Or do I vote to move that kind of fed intrusion out of my life?
Candidate Brown, how do I vote? Do you and I get to keep our excellent School Districts?
Isn't it time to say, at least, President Obama is just plain wrong about education? You might close that 7 point gap just by talking to a few neighbors in Oakland County. And you could really solidify your reputation for blunt courage.
No comments:
Post a Comment