This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

MI Republicans on education: "I want to party like it is 1999...but it is 2014"

In 1999 many were saving water bottles up for Y2k.

Many liberal Democrats were busy grousing that Al Gore was no different than W. and, in fact, actively campaigned and voted for Ralph Nader in -- get this -- "protest."

Original Prince fans were at the stage in life where they wanted to say, no not that song, Controversy or Private Joy instead -- as if, finally, having listened to their parents talk about Elvis and the Beatles,  they were the ones that had lived through some major cultural event.

Times change.

But in terms of education many Michigan Republicans want to party like it is 1999.

Times were good, then, for early education reformers.

Under then Gov. Engler they could talk openly about what they really, really wanted: privatization of public schools and vouchers. Indeed, Mackinac Center guru, Richard MacClellan, got a voucher amendment for the state constitution (which prohibits vouchers) on the ballot and Governor Engler took over Detroit Public Schools with an Emergency Manager!!!

This seemed new! Finally!

Alas. That just didn't stick.

The voucher amendment went down to defeat (70% to 30%) and the DPS EM actually made things worse, academically and financially, and, in 2005, control was returned to an elected school board.

So, in 2010, when the housing crisis created a new opportunity, Governor Snyder began rather quietly trying to roll back the clock to those good ole days -- relying on Engler pal McClellan to create the Oxford Group and Dick Posthumus, Engler's Lt. Governor, and his daughter, Lisa, now old enough to serve as a Rep., helped out, too.

Snyder was able to frame his ideas as "new" and "pragmatic" rather than old (vouchers invented by Milton Friedman in 1956 and have not been successful anywhere) and ideologically determined.

Do this quietly and piecemeal, he insisted, without grand political strokes.

Then the "unbundling" itself started to unravel and the reverberations of 1999 started to appear -- or at least make themselves audible -- in December 2012 lame duck. This stuff might bring down good Districts, too! Bloomfield Hills, of all places, complained and made national news. The Oxford Group was really the repackaged voucher groups from 1999. The new EM for DPS was no better than the old EM.

And Snyder was successful only in closing Inkster and Saginaw Buena Vista -- not the sturdiest of political opponents.

Now that it is an election year again the time lapse photography makes much visible. Here is the recent call for state vouchers from Republicans: http://www.freep.com/article/20140103/OPINION05/301030012/school-vouchers-michigan-private-expansion...

Check the date. That is 2014! Not 1999!

It seems, perhaps, that some hardliners have grown as impatient with the piecemeal, Snyder slow kill as those, like me, have grown concerned.

Here is The Mackinac Center, at once calling for vouchers and lamenting (hutzpah out the wazoo here) that politicians are being "silent" about the need for vouchers: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/19493

Trouble in Republican paradise? Is controlling the Governor's office, the house, and the senate becoming too much to manage. They seem not even to be able to disengage Andy Dillon, perhaps the last guy you want signing off on the closure of mostly poor, African-American districts right now.

They had their marching orders. They were told to do the voucher thing "piecemeal" this time around -- and things were going reasonably well.

But this is 2014, an election year. The Governor is fresh out of ideas, as is certainly MacClellan, and fresh out nerd, pragmatist image. But you go with what you got. Here is Nolan Finley of The Detroit News/Mackinac Center Gazette trying to restage -- not exactly 1999 -- but 2010, suggesting Snyder is an Obama friendly moderate.http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140112/OPINION01/301120005/Column-Snyder-Obama-relationship-fre...

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. You ...can...not...make...this...stuff...up.

The cat is a bit out of the bag here, especially for teachers and parents. Even a well publicized give back from the budget surplus won't help much.

How do you publicize your support of education AND say 55 school Districts still need to close? Jase Bolger doesn't even get this. He wants an income tax even though John Nixon is telling him to get with the program ("psss...Jase, xnay on the tax cutay, we are getting killed on education and need some kind of show...").

Oakland County politicians are in particular bind. Does Mike "If it ain't broke don't fix" McCready really want to be the guy that brings down Bloomfield public schools?

In 1999, Oakland County pols never, never thought they would have to stay silent on one simple question: do you think Birmingham, Bloomfield and Troy School Districts should exist??? Go ahead. Ask one to say in public they think they should continue to exist in robust form.

Crickets.

Stephen Henderson of The Free Press irritated many -- especially after "right to work" -- by honoring Snyder's own proclaimed self image as pragmatist.

But he did earn himself some credibility when he posted this wildly popular op-ed saying what everybody now knows. Snyder can't be trusted.


http://www.freep.com/article/20140103/COL33/301030014/Snyder-NERD-campaign-finance-promise-Michigan-...

It is 2014, not 1999. And this old Prince fan would be more than willing to give someone who was about 10 in 1999 a shot.







We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Bloomfield-Bloomfield Hills