By DAN QUINN and SUSAN QUINN
Michigan deserves more.
Recently Michigan again proved why it is racing toward the bottom of the educational world. In a state where the governor and the Legislature cannot fully fund Michigan's public schools, where education funding has fallen to its lowest level in decades, where the percentage of college-educated professionals is already a structural unemployment problem, Michigan continues to baffle.
Why is it that we're willing to push through 20 years of educational reforms in 72 hours but can't provide schools with the funding needed to make changes? Why are we willing to jump through federally suggested hoops to secure a chance at school funding, but we cannot impart on our schools the money needed to make real changes? Michigan deserves more from its leaders.
Sure, reforms to help struggling learners and schools are needed; sure, getting kids to be strong 21st century learners is needed; but is rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline set by Secretary of Education the smart thing to do?
The smart thing for Michigan is to create its own dynamics for education, transform our schools and create our own model for 21st century learning. Instead of racing with the rest of the nation to make changes that are temporarily funded, Michigan needs to revolutionize the way we fund education. If you can't provide an adequate tax structure that values the education of our children, how can we honestly compete in the long run with the rest of the world?
To become competitive, teachers and school administrators must be empowered to make changes needed to create global citizens. The "Race to the Top" political game disenfranchises school leaders and teachers and takes the education of Michigan's children away from educators and places it in the hands of politicians.
Investing in education is the best investment that we can possibly make. Improving our human capital will have a greater return than tax cuts and subsidies for existing or emerging markets. In the same breath that they talk about cutting funding for schools, our leaders are touting tax abatements for projects that have no oversight or proof of success.
Michigan needs to create a fair, stable and equitable tax structure to fund our schools. There is an undividable link between investing in education and a healthy economy. Michigan's children deserve better than they're getting.
Sure, political leaders will hail the changes made in the dark of the night as a step to improve education in Michigan, but at what cost? Improving failing schools is a charge we need to address, but fixing failing schools takes a concentrated effort by Michigan's leaders to fully fund schools.
So as political leaders pat themselves on the backs for making tough choices, we must challenge them to make even tougher choices. Stop giving arbitrary tax cuts to special interests and begin paying it forward. Invest in public education, invest in our schools, invest in our colleges, invest in our children, invest in our future and invest in Michigan.
About the authors: Dan and Susan Quinn, of Grosse Pointe Farms, are longtime educators.
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