Why does Michigan want Governor Nerd?

Michigan newspapers have endorsed Rick Snyder to be our next governor; an outsider, a nerd, and never having held a public office, or pushed through a piece of legislation, let alone navigated a term-limited partisan-shackled legislature.  When students with disabilities are in a “critical area of learning” our public schools provide them with an “extended school year.”  Are we going to put Mr. Snyder into an extended school year in order to learn Legislation 100, the Michigan Compiled Laws 200, and the havoc incurred through both John Engler and Jennifer Granholm’s Executive Orders 300?  Rick Snyder has ZERO legislative experience.  We have no idea if his legislative knowledge goes beyond the stunningly superficial because he has refused to convene Town Hall meetings or hold more than the one paltry debate against Democrat Virg Bernero. His 10-point plan is nothing short of 10-points of superficial cyber-space mumbo jumbo. 

Why is an “outsider” considered to be the Messiah for a State in the crisis of its Statehood?  Snyder would go to Lansing without a base of support and a virtual legislative illiterate, and that’s supposed to be good for Michigan?  He runs as “One Tough Nerd.”  Dr. Seuss first printed a modern use of the word “nerd” in his 1950 story, “If I Ran the Zoo,” talking about creatures and animals.  Newsweek then used “nerd” in an article referring to Detroit’s description of people considered to be “square.”   Merriam Webster dictionary defines a nerd as, “an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person.”  The Dictionary.com; “a stupid, irritating, ineffectual….”   Again, why do we want a Nerd to be our State’s next governor?  Brian Calley as a Lieutenant Governor is certainly no Dr. Seuss.  And while Rick Snyder “pretends” to be a candidate without a party affiliation; his choice of Brian Calley as his running mate speaks volumes to his pandering to the far right wing of the Republican Party.  Can you spell “disingenuous?” 

Synonyms for the word nerd include, “bookworm, dink, dork, geek, grind, weenie or wonk.  This is the portrait of a person we want to elect governor?  Rick says that Michigan is “broken.”  What, we think he is capable of putting Humpty-Michigan-Dumpty back together again?  I will agree with those who say that Democrat Virg Bernero would be nothing short of a puppet with strings pulled by the unions.  Still, Mr. Bernero’s positions on women’s rights, protecting our Great Lakes and rebuilding public education are akin to those espoused by a large majority of this State’s populace, Mr. Snyder’s are not.     

Personally, I am sick and tired of voting for what we refer to as the “lesser of evils” and that is what newspaper editorial boards are telling us to do.  Mr. Snyder wouldn’t get my vote if Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel rose from the dead to become his running mate.  I don’t want a nerd to be my next Governor.  I love Michigan and I’m tired of voting to make it erode further, and into a State of no return.   Fewer than twenty-percent of Michigan voters took the time to vote in the August primary and what did that get us?  We were left with the two worst gubernatorial candidates, perhaps in the history of our State.  Michigan is the most broken State in America.  On November 2^nd don’t make Michigan worse at 8:02 PM, than it was at 7:59 PM, by voting for a governor who will send Michigan down a path toward further destruction.  Think of your children or Michigan’s children when you vote.  Ask yourself which gubernatorial candidate can begin to return Michigan to a place that can offer its citizens a piece of the American Dream.  If you can’t answer that question then don’t vote for a governor.  Vote in all other races but don’t vote to make Michigan worse.

MDE, DPS and an Educational Shell Game

The Michigan Department of Education is withholding $5 million dollars of federal money from the Detroit Public Schools after finding them in substantive violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, our federal law that mandates a “free appropriate public education” for students with disabilities.   This is outrageous when the very same Department gave ALL Michigan school districts, including Detroit a “meets requirements” for their so-called performance on the special education programs and services delivered during the 2008-09 school year.  Solely to allow them to reduce their special education budgets by 50% of the one-time federal increase in special education funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan referred to Detroit Public Schools as “Ground Zero” and the Michigan Department of Education still gave them a “meets requirements” for special education as recently as June 2009 in a memo from Dr. Jacqueline Thompson the recently retired State Director of the Office of Special Education.

 Parents are now supposed to believe Dr. Eleanor White the State’s newly installed Director when she says, “It is completely unacceptable for students not to receive the services they’re supposed to… These children have a constitutional right to a good education. It’s an entitlement. We take that very seriously.” (Detroit News 10-21-10)

The Michigan Department of Education under the leadership of Governor Granholm and Superintendent Michael Flanagan have done anything but take the education of our state’s 237,000 K-12 students with disabilities seriously.  It is not only Detroit that continues to fail in its obligation to provide a free appropriate public education to the students with special needs.  Why is the MDE ignoring Highland Park, Hamtramck, River Rouge, Ferndale, Inkster, Pontiac, Saginaw, Flint, Lincoln Park, Southfield, Ferndale and Oak Park?  And yes there are many more.  Detroit children with disabilities are not the only students being denied their civil right to a public education that prepares them for post secondary education and the global workforce.  More than 28% of Michigan students with a disability drop out of school after entering the 9^th grade. The achievement gaps are better than 50% points by the time these students reach the 8^th grade. 

Detroit children with and without disabilities grab the daily, weekly and monthly headlines due to more than 40 years of educational neglect and abuse, but they are far from the only K-12 students suffering in school districts, public academies and charters across a state that has not cared about a crumbling and archaic public education system in almost 50 years.   Our children with special needs are egregiously underserved…so why is only Detroit losing federal funds? How can the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education give the State of Michigan a “meets requirements” when Detroit has been found so out of compliance that $5 million in federal funds have been withheld.  When you have an answer will you please explain this to our 237,000 K-12 students who go to school and wonder when the day will arrive that their education and future will matter? 

- Marcie Lipsitt