Never put off to tomorrow what you can just as easily put off til the day after tomorrow: the EAA and Oakland County Republicans

Christmas Day has passed.

And it is "boxing" or St. Stephen's Day, a day historically known for turning things topsy turvy, where masters give to servants. Fittingly, Shakespeare's King Lear, a play that depicts an aging and demented 80 something king trading places with a crazed beggar, was first staged on December 26, 1606 . . . at court in front of King James.

But American holiday attentions turn mainly to New Year's and, in true American spirit, the construction of a set of resolutions to make the next year better than the last.

Americans famously prefer to  look forward, not backward, not to a world of  masters and slaves, but to the shining city on the hill to come.

Indeed, in the days before New Year's and on the day itself we find ourselves sounding very much like one of the founding fathers -- Ben Franklin -- spouting words we hope to live by.

"Eat less, move more" sums up many of our current expressions.

Franklin, though, always tried to strike a more universal -- and not specifically American -- tone.

"Honesty is the best policy."

"Lost time is never found again."

And, getting straight to the New Year's point:

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

Like many, my favorite is "Never put off til tomorrow what can be done today."

The trouble with Franklinesque  resolutions, however, particularly in a modern day that indulges irony to a fault, is that resolutions are so easily mocked and thus lost.

Mark Twain's famous ironic rejoinder to Franklin, for example, was "Never put off til tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well."

Twain came to mind  while trying to parse Senator John Pappageorge's office response to my email about the EAA codification bill (HB4369) that passed through the Senate in the last week of session (by a "whopping" 20-18) before being held up in concurrence by the House where it is set to emerge in some as yet undetermined form for consideration on January 8.

Does Sen. Pappageorge's response give some hint of what that final agreement will look like?

Here is Pappageorge's Mark Twain like response to consider:

"Thank you for contacting my office regarding the Education Achievement Authority. I appreciate your comments and concerns as we move forward with building a better Michigan.

Few things are more important than our children's education. Every student in our public schools deserves a quality education to establish a foundation for lifelong success.

Currently, there are schools in Michigan where you and I would not dream of sending our children or grandchildren. Some of them have less than ten percent of their students reading at grade level; some have zero students proficient in math. Many of them have been failing children for decades. We are talking about literally tens of thousands of Michigan children, robbed of the education they deserve.

In the face of such failure, I believe we are morally obligated to act.

House Bill 4369, which I supported, builds on laws enacted in 2009 under Governor Granholm that established the State School Reform/Redesign District. The bill will give Michigan's highest education official, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, better flexibility and discretion to address the severe academic problems in the state's lowest-performing five percent of schools.

Specifically, the bill allows the option for schools placed under the purview of the State Reform/Redesign Officer to be operated directly by the reform district, rather than having to use an intermediary management organization. The bill also includes a moratorium to specify that State Superintendent Flanagan may not put any new schools into the reform district until the 2015-16 school year.

The status quo for the children in these schools is unacceptable. We must ensure that they and their families are given hope for the future. I am proud to support State Superintendent Flanagan and his State School Reform/Redesign Officer as they strive to make a positive difference in these schools and in the lives of the children attending these schools.

Again, thank you for contacting my office"

Now, this is not exactly a clear vision for the future of public education in Michigan or even HB4369 and the EAA expansion so let's try to walk through the logic a bit to understand what is hamstringing the otherwise straight talking Senator who prizes honesty so much he wants to make it a misdemeanor to "lie" about political candidates while campaigning.

According to Senator Pappageorge,

1) There is an emergency in [some] public schools and the Senator is morally obligated to act.

2) But the Senator has decided not to act on this morally obligatory emergency until 2015-2016.

This delay makes some "moral" sense only if you take into account the supposed "emergency" began in 1999 when Gov. Engler put DPS under emergency management ..... so what is a few more years.http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/groups/ken-jacksons-blog/p/mr-mccreeady-might-have-to-wait-til-2015-t...

In other words, why put off an emergency response to tomorrow that you can easily put off til the day after tomorrow? Or, better still, until after an election? And better still, why not stick all this in the hands of an incoming State School Superintendent?

3) In 2015-2016, both the Senator and the State Superintendent in whom he asks you trust, Mike Flanagan, will be both retired. The Senator is term limited out and Mr. Flanagan's contract is up (assuming the current  State BOE does not fire him beforehand).

4) The Republican Senator from Oakland County here, who last year at this time told concerned parents the EAA schools were capped "at 50, forever" and "had two years to succeed" now wants you to believe he is working in tandem with the MDE and the wishes of the education community AND Governor Granholm to provide options. Now, I think it fair to say, pending a misdemeanor charge, that the Senator was not a particular fan of Gov. Granholm, nor was he a particular fan of the MDE until the skunks works debacle when the Governor turned to the State Supe to be his front man for education reform (by the way, look for stumbling, fumbling Mr. Flanagan to get a sizable reward in his "retirement").

And, one should note, Governor Granholm's SSRO state reform office for whom the EAA will be the "operational entity" was itself a response to Washington DC and Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" initiatives...themselves a response to George Bush's "No Child Left Behind Initiatives" of 2001.

This history is engagingly recounted in Diane Ravitch's *Reign of Error* (2013), a must holiday read for any parent trying to understand the larger context of what the heck is happening and will happen to their public schools.