Troubles Mounting For Granholm

The Michigan economy was bound to give Gov. Jennifer Granholm troubles in her re-election bid. GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos was bound to make things even more difficult for her re-election. Now a 'third shoe' has dropped: Michigan and national media aren't bailing her out like they do with most candidates. Here's part of the AP's article:

Michigan remains the only state besides hurricane-ravaged Louisiana to lose jobs between May 2005 and May 2006. Its unemployment rate has hovered two percentage points above the national average, and many economists expect that rate to climb until 2008. Those same economists often agree that the weak economy is not Granholm's fault. But they know it's an opening for her opponents.

You know that something's wrong when an industrial state like Michigan can't outperform Louisiana in job creation. You can't blame that all on the President or on trade agreements or the like. The bullseye is rightfully painted on the governor's chest. Governors get all the credit when the economy soars and most of the blame when it tanks. It's the same way with the President on a national level.

That these economists "agree that the weak economy is not Granholm's fault" is nice but not terribly important. Who else should be faulted for it? After all, the Michigan state unemployment rate is running 2 points higher than the national average.

Here's the Michigan take:

Every time he opens his mouth, state Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer reminds Michigan voters that Republican gubernatorial challenger Dick DeVos backed the failed school voucher initiative six years ago.

Brewer, who finds himself in the curious position of passionately defending a governor who tried to fire him, accuses DeVos of being an ideologue. Why? Because he believes parents should have more choices for obtaining a high-quality education for their children and refuses to pledge blind allegiance to the failed education bureaucracy. His narrow-mindedness makes Brewer the ideologue. And a demagogue to boot. For the record, DeVos has said repeatedly that Michigan voters have decided the voucher issue, and he won't try to revive it as governor.

That's a shame. Vouchers are a good idea, at least for parents in school districts that chronically cheat children of their future. Brewer's claim that DeVos and his vouchers would "destroy public schools" is laughable. Public schools are doing a fine job of destroying themselves.

It appears as though Democrats can't pry themselves away from their antiquated, failed playbook. Blaming Republicans for public school failure while Democrats are beholden to the status quo of the various education unions is laughable. What should be particularly alarming to Democrats is how substantial minority support for vouchers is. DeVos peeling off black support from Granholm based on that issue alone could spell a world of trouble for Granholm's re-election.

The statistics make education policy even gloomier under Granholm:

Nearly one in four public school students never graduate. That's a failure rate of 25 percent for a job that shouldn't be all that difficult. And if you figure that less than one-fourth of Michigan students earn college degrees, fast becoming the basic threshold for success in our economy, you could legitimately say the failure rate is above 75 percent.

In urban districts, the performance is even more dismal. Only 22 percent of students who start ninth grade in the Detroit Public Schools graduate from the district. They either drop out, move away or choose other alternatives. Detroit schools send more kids to prison and the welfare rolls than they do to college. And for that, taxpayers give the district $1.5 billion a year.

If that doesn't qualify as failure, then failure doesn't exist in America.

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Posted Monday, July 10, 2006 6:46 PM

June 2006 Posts

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