The Flint Journal. Jan. 29, 2012.
Target state surpluses to crime fight in most violent cities
Gov. Rick Snyder has dropped some tantalizing hints that help may be on the way for the most crime-plagued cities in Michigan — including Flint and Saginaw.
Stay tuned for details in the special message the governor plans for March regarding crime. But even sooner, Snyder's budget due for release on Feb. 9 may show where expected surplus state money may flow.
May millions of dollars go to the cities the governor called out in his State of the State address on Jan. 18? He noted that four of the nation's top 10 cities for violent crime are in Michigan, up and down the Interstate 75 corridor: Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac and Detroit.
While that's not news to those of us who live and work in these beleaguered towns, the focus of the state's top executive on them for a fight against high crime areas has us keen to know more.
They've noticed. And state officials say they are poised for action to make our cities safer.
After years of not enough money for anything extra, the state this year may have the cash to pay for efforts to reduce crime, particularly in the cities Snyder named.
At a state revenue forecasting conference earlier this month, state budget director John Nixon said the state will have the money to "address hot spots."
Michigan ended the last budget year on Sept. 30 with a one-time surplus of $416.3 million. This year, the state may take in $633 million more than it spends.
The first priority for these windfalls must be the fight against crime in Michigan's most violent cities.
On Wednesday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette trumpeted his proposal to use some of the surplus to hire 1,000 law enforcement officers. It's an idea we could get behind, provided such an effort targeted the most violent cities in America.
Already, special interests with their own list of long-delayed needs are scrambling for the money. Transportation interests are calling for more work on roads that have been neglected too long. Education wants its share, especially in K-12 public schools that had hundreds of dollars in per-pupil state aid lopped in budget cuts the past two years.
But public safety funding must come first.
Better roads and schools won't matter if people fear traveling those streets and flee these cities and their schools for safer surroundings.
All the economic development efforts in cities that desperately need new jobs are for naught if entrepreneurs back away, afraid, or if they figure they can't attract the talent they need to these crime-ravaged environs.
These cities can't entirely fix their crime problems themselves. Although, Saginaw has made a valiant — and largely successful — effort to drive down violent crime with a voter-approved public safety tax and technology such as ShotSpotter gunfire detection systems.
Even so, state help has been a major boon to these cities, when it has been made available. Extra state police patrols helped drive down crime in Saginaw.
In Flint last year, the number of state police patrols was doubled after the state stepped in to pay for the transfer of inmates to free up space in the Genesee County jail.
That was following Flint voters' refusal last year to approve a tax to reopen the city jail so police had someplace to put the criminal suspects they arrest. Flint still desperately needs more police and more jail cells.
Flint Emergency Financial Manager Michael Brown has in his preliminary plan to the state that he wants to make public safety a funding priority. In Saginaw, volunteers are enlisting to add to the eyes and ears police have on the job. Pontiac just combined its police force with the Oakland County sheriff's office. Detroit's finances are bad enough to warrant a state-ordered financial review.
They are wracked with violent crime, and they need help.
Use at least some of the state's projected budget surpluses to make them safer.
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Jackson Citizen Patriot. Jan. 28, 2012.
MEAP test results matter greatly, but parents should know what they are saying
Is your child learning enough to someday make the cut for a good college? Is your child's school doing its job in educating your little one?
Expect those questions to land squarely on the front burner sometime in the next month or two with the release of this year's MEAP scores.
So, let's offer fair warning to any parent who is reading this: Those scores are going to look ugly.
Several local school superintendents met last week with this newspaper's editorial writer, Brian Wheeler, and education writer, Leanne Smith, to talk about the MEAP scores, which they have just received but are not yet public.
State education officials have changed the game on local schools, setting a much higher standard for students to be considered "proficient" in all subjects. Past scores would routinely show 80 percent or more of a school's students made the grade; this year's results will nosedive to somewhere below 50 percent for most schools.
Michigan Center schools Superintendent Scott Koziol put it this way:
"You have to put it into perspective. A score of 39 this year does not mean the same thing that a score of 39 did in previous years.
School critics will say the low scores are further proof of the decline of American public education. Or perhaps it's further proof of the challenge in settling on a true, accurate measure for what happens in the classroom.
Educators will note, correctly, that test results are a snapshot, not the definitive barometer, of how well students are learning. Some smart kids simply do not test well. Others might be sick, emotionally troubled or in some other way distracted during test time.
The process of learning, too, is not a straight line for many youngsters. They can go months, or years, without making great bounds forward before the light turns on. A mediocre middle-school student can blossom in high school, with college or a career goal in sight.
We believe firmly that tests have great value in measuring individual students' progress and in assessing how well teachers and schools are doing their job. Still, in Michigan, the art of selecting the right tests — and understanding what those tests should reveal — is being refined.
With the MEAP, the state education department is setting a high bar before declaring students are proficient. That explains the dramatic drop in scores that is right around the corner. It does not mean that local schools are doing anything differently in this school year compared to a year prior. Nor do the low scores mean they are doing anything wrong.
MEAP scores, and the emphasis on student proficiency, provide an answer to the question: "Is my child ready for the next level?" There are other questions that are as important. Are individual students making progress year to year? Is my child's school helping students at varying levels equally — raising the ceiling (for top-scoring students) and also raising the floor (for those who struggle academically)?
Parents and the community should look for these MEAP results with interest. Talk to your child's teacher if he or she is not proficient. Ask your principal what your kid's school is doing to improve.
Don't despair at the lower numbers, though. They tell part, but not all, of the story.
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Midland Daily News. Jan. 25, 2012.
Closing a school building never easy
It's been a very difficult past few years for public school districts across the state of Michigan.
And, locally, that was proven again Monday night.
The Midland Public Schools Board of Education voted to close Central Middle School in the year 2013 as a way to save the district money.
This is not the first gut-wrenching decision that the school district has faced in recent years to streamline costs and save money. The board has voted to close elementary schools, lay off teachers, paraprofessionals and other school employees and restrict pay raises. The belt has been tightening for years in a variety of ways.
And, now, with the closing of Central Middle School, another chapter will be written in the school district's long history.
But what comes with the closing of a building, especially one as old at Central Middle School, are all the memories and emotions associated with the school.
Central, built in 1937, started out as Midland High School before the new high school was built on Eastlawn in the 1950s.
Countless students have called Central their home school, first as a high school, then, as an intermediate school (grades seven through nine). And, for the past several years, it has been as a middle school (grades six through eight).
The school hosted many sporting events in its gymnasium and surrounding baseball, softball and soccer fields. Its hosted innumerable theater productions, concerts and recitals in the auditorium.
From 1937 to the present, so much has happened at Central Middle School. Many, many people — students, teachers, administrators, custodians, support staff, etc. — have called that school home. There are many memories attached to that school.
That's why closing a school building is never an easy decision. There are many emotions involved. Especially from those who've been directly involved with the school.
We understand that tough decisions like this need to be made. Superintendent Carl Ellinger and the Board of Education are in the midst of a very difficult period in public education's history.
Budgets must be met. Tax dollars must be accounted for.
The reality is, that's the way public entities must operate.
And, emotions aside, that includes closing buildings that are too expensive to operate.
But it's never easy making a decision like that. And that's especially true of buildings that have such a long storied history like Central Middle School.
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Lansing State Journal. Jan. 24, 2012.
Lansing casino proposal worth pursuing
Yes, backers of a plan to put a tribal casino in downtown Lansing face tough odds. Still, the city should pursue the possibility.
Casinos are already in Michigan, with more than 20 tribal gaming operations across the state and three non-tribal casinos in Detroit.
Since gambling already is taking place in much of Michigan, pursuing a casino as economic development should be the decision of an individual community. Yet in 2004, state voters passed a constitutional amendment to protect the Detroit casinos by requiring any community wanting its own casino to win approval in a statewide vote.
So unless a successful ballot initiative challenges the 2004 amendment, the only course left for communities is the one Lansing is exploring: partnership with an Indian tribe.
The Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa tribe believes it has a viable legal path for getting U.S. Department of Interior approval to put a casino in Lansing.
Other tribes and the Detroit casinos likely will mount legal challenges. Let them. The Sault Ste. Marie tribe agreed to cover legal costs, protecting Lansing taxpayers.
That's just one smart piece of the elegant plan crafted by Mayor Virg Bernero and his team, along with the tribe.
The proposal is tied with existing downtown entertainment efforts; it would be near the city's convention center.
It will commit money to the city for services, as well as a 2 percent payment that Bernero wants to put toward a Promise Scholarship fund for Lansing School District graduates.
The proposal means up to 2,200 jobs, including 700 in construction and some 1,500 in the casino. Those are workers who will pay taxes here and who will support the regional economy.
Casinos do come with a social cost. Some people gamble money they don't have, and that creates problems that the greater community must deal with. Lansing needs to be ready for that.
But here's the reality: Greater Lansing residents already are gambling. Now, their gambling dollars go to casinos near Battle Creek or Mount Pleasant, or in Detroit, or to one of the tribal casinos scattered across northern Michigan. Many of those arguing against a Lansing casino are benefiting from that spending.
Lansing's economic development leaders have put serious thought into this proposal, as has the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa tribe.
It's an intriguing plan worth pursuing.
