I just finished reading about HB 4787, passed by the Michigan house a few weeks ago. It describes a ghastly exchange. Michigan needs money. Mr. Obama has an open wallet, and is willing to distribute our money to the Michigan school system. This largesse however, has its drawbacks. Michigan’s Race to the Top legislation binds school districts from evaluating their own situation and making changes necessary for top performance. Our legislators have even
submitted the future of our schools without a definition of what top performance even means!  That’s yet to be announced by the feds.

Race to the Top requires many, many reports to the government, development of plans, hours, hours, effort. Frustration with the many requirements of bureaucracy is already one big reason for superintendent burnout. And, if these administrators/teachers/school boards can’t do the job now, how will it help to require them to fulfill even more bureaucratic obligations? The goal, according to the Michigan Association of School Boards, is to create “stronger schools.” I’m not into strong institutions. Don’t we want stronger kids? It doesn’t sound like it when part of the legislation loosens adherence to the curriculum requirements of No Child Left Behind.

Children are all different. One of my homeschooled sons has taught himself everything he knows. The other son required two years of daily drills to learn the ABC’s. They’re both surprisingly bright. They’re different. Don’t teachers and members of the local community recognize differences better than a pencil-pusher in Washington?

Another problem with HB 4787 is its establishment of a database that would forever track each student of every teacher. What for? I can’t think of any use for such information that is not punitive for the child…or the teacher. This dastardly legislation even provides for confiscation of school assets in nonperforming districts!

The 10th amendment to the US Constitution prohibits federal meddling in state issues. The 10th amendment is dead. We’re all so eager for federal dollars to change our circumstances, we’ll abandon our autonomy voluntarily. Forshame. Students are more important than dollars. Everybody is.

PS- US News and World Report named the best high schools in America. 17 of them were in Michigan’s first district. I wonder where they got their criteria, since the federal government hasn’t told us what to think yet.

To provide some background: David Walker, who heads Congress’ Government Accountability Office, asserts
that at our present course, the national debt could reach $46 trillion or more within a few decades.1  That’s an insurmountable debt to pass on to our children.  Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission found in 1980 that the
federal income tax was being spent entirely on paying down interest—not even principal, but interest—on the national debt.  That figure is somewhat lower today, but clearly, not for long.  We must get our budget under control if we are to sustain our economy.

We cannot borrow money from abroad indefinitely, and indeed, the more we do, the more our national sovereignty is jeopardized as the dollar becomes subservient to foreign currencies.  The borrower is always subservient to the lender.

There are two critical steps we must take to reclaim our prosperity.  The first step is simple: we must reduce our budget.  The military spending and the health care/welfare spending comprise the glut of it, and in both areas, the government spends far more than it should.

The second step is less obvious: we must return to sound monetary policy.  Presently, we allow the Federal
Reserve to create money from thin air, we allow banks to loan money far above the assets they have on hand,
and we allow our government to borrow money with almost no limit.  The effect is as if we as individuals were to borrow thousands of dollars a day—we could live affluently, until the bills come due, at which time we would be bankrupt.  This policy, on a national scale, is extremely dangerous and totally unsustainable.  I discuss this issue in more detail on my website.2

If Congress can muster the resolve to cut spending, then and only then can we cut taxes.  Otherwise, the government will continue to depend on credit and inflation to keep its checkbook balanced.  That would be no solution at all.  Once we reduce federal spending, the economy will begin to head in the right direction again.