Michigan, the place where the modern automobile industry was born, has for years spent less money per person on our roads than any other state in the union. That’s true, even though we have one of the worst climates for highways in the nation, with constant freezing and thawing.
Not to mention the giant tractor-trailers that do their part to grind our roads to powder. We learned yesterday something else I strongly suspected: Michigan ranks dead last in education funding growth. Actually, there hasn’t been any growth at all.
According to a new study revealed by Michigan State University, when you allow for inflation, we are only spending four-fifths as much on education as we were in 1995. No other state “was close to a decline of this magnitude,” the study said.
Consequently, I’m sure you will be utterly shocked to learn that our students’ scores on standardized third grade reading and math tests have been going down. “Michigan schools seem to be getting worse. That’s the unavoidable, sobering summary,” of the meaning of these scores, according to a story published last month in the online magazine Bridge.
For four straight years, the percentage of Michigan third-graders who couldn’t read as well as they should has increased. Less than half those children are proficient readers. They test third graders, by the way, because the record shows that if you aren’t keeping up at that point, you are apt to soon fall behind so far, so fast that you are likely never to catch up.
By the way, this also has a major effect on the auto industry. Last week, Al Lecz, director of the Advanced Transportation Center at Washtenaw Community College, told me that there are all sorts of good paying jobs for technicians at dealerships and elsewhere — but that they can’t find enough people to fill them. That’s in large part because they don’t have the skills.
If you can’t read and do simple math, there’s no hope for you. Bill Milliken, who is both a car guy and a Washtenaw Community College trustee, understands that. So did his father, former Governor William Milliken, who in my judgment was the best governor Michigan has ever had.
He was, by the way, a Republican, one who understood that business and industry’s survival and success is dependent on an educated workforce. That’s not true today. For years, the Republicans in our legislature have waged a virtual war on education and teachers.
One of Governor Rick Snyder’s first acts was to take money from the schools to give business a huge tax cut. Almost his last act was to sign a disgraceful bill taking hundreds of millions away from the School Aid Fund to partially fix the roads.
The fact is this. We have to raise taxes and we have to raise them on those most able to pay, or Michigan won’t have a future. People won’t have jobs, won’t be able to buy cars, and automakers who can’t find skilled workers will leave.
Albert Einstein didn’t actually say that insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But when it comes to education, that analysis is very true.
