The Work Goes On: The Dream Shall Never Die

What Are The Odds? 

Given that the Chicago Cubs came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, and Iowa just defeated UM in football, I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was to have Trump win.

Rationally, I knew that, as described, the chance of Trump winning was about the same as a college kicker making a 38-yard field goal. I've seen that happen--not frequently, but also--not so infrequently. (I'm not a huge football fan--but I get called in to watch the replays of the big plays.)

So, the election happened.

And I should be happier than I am that two out of three of "my" candidates won the Ann Arbor school board election. Actually, I am very happy that Harmony Mitchell and Jeff Gaynor won seats on the AAPS board; and that Donna Lasinski won a seat in the State House, leaving open an AAPS school board seat, so another new person can join the school board (and, in the process, putting a dedicated education advocate in the state House).

But I would have given all that up for a Clinton victory.

I was at an immigration conference on Friday, and Rep. Stephanie Chang spoke. She represents Ecorse, River Rouge, and part of Detroit, and one of the things she said is, "We need more candidates running for office!"

I think she's right. So I am really happy that we had competitive school board elections in nearly all of our local districts. It takes a lot to put yourself out there--I appreciate that people are willing to do it!

I had forgotten, but even when candidates lose, competitive elections do some important things:

• draw attention to key issues
• allow candidates to refine narratives and see what catches attention
• running for "lower level" seats like school board allows candidates to learn the skills needed to run for higher office

One thing that I had also forgotten is that there are lots of roles for people who want to support candidates, but don't want to run for office. I had also forgotten that canvassing can be fun, especially if you are working with friends. I canvassed for Hillary Clinton in Ohio and Pennsylvania with old friends; made a new friend canvassing for Clinton in Michigan; and got a lot of exercise walking the streets for Hunter, Harmony and Jeff in some beautiful fall weather.

Now What?

The pressing question for me, now, is: what should I work on? Part of me thinks, "Why were you working on local education issues when so many "bigger" issues are more important?" Part of me thinks, "Work on things you can control and that have a chance of success."

Should I be working on climate change? the Dakota pipeline? civil liberties? reproductive rights? I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Even within education issues, the big question for me is whether we should focus on the short game or the long game. Let's face it--the short game is ALL defense, and it's much bigger than some of the issues that are important to me, like overtesting. [They are related, though.]

Some proposals I have heard are coming down the pike from the state legislature include attacks on teacher pensions and the use of specialized education accounts to pay for private schools.

The long game would be focused on things like ending gerrymandering; improving our Freedom of Information Act law; ending online charters and for-profit charters.

I still believe that our new local group Educate Ann Arbor; the statewide group Michigan Parents for Schools; the national Network for Public Education have a lot to contribute.

More Than Ever

For inspiration, I am sharing Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic convention concession speech, in which he says:

"the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." 

After we are done mourning--we've got work to do. So whatever you choose to work on? Choose something.
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Michigan School Finance Primer: Part II, An Interview & More!

A few months ago, I sat down with Michigan Parents for Schools Executive Director Steven Norton for an interview. I had the best intentions of publishing a finished interview all at once, but--what can I say--that didn't happen, and I've decided to use the interview in several pieces. Today's piece provides some more context, information, and background for school finance discussions. You can find Michigan Parents for Schools on the web at mipfs.org, and on facebook as well.

Me: Looking at more recent history, how did we get into this fix, with school districts continually being in a position where they need to cut more and more?

Courtesy of Michigan Parents for Schools, mipfs.org

To be honest, people didn’t see this coming. Almost everything was being driven by the economy. People saw a cliff coming, but most people expected an economic recovery to give breathing room. That we would at least recover some of what we’d lost. Instead, in Gov. Snyder’s very first budget, not only did he make big tax cuts on individuals to balance the budget, but he also eliminated the Michigan Business Tax and replaced it with a much much smaller corporate income tax. The direct impact was the removal of $800 million dollars from the School Aid Fund. He also took money from the School Aid Fund, $400 million, for higher education. So that in a year where the economic projections would have said that more money would have come into the School Aid Fund, in fact there were huge cuts to K-12.  [Ed. Note: Funding for K-12 schools from the School Aid Fund was cut by more than 10%.]

Me: I thought they fixed the pension system, but the school districts keep pointing to retirement costs. 

Although they ‘fixed’ the pension system, they did so by pushing all of the adjustment costs onto schools and current employees. The existence of a pension for school employees is written into the constitution, and districts do not control the amount the school district needs to donate. 

Current employees are paying a lot more [into the retirement system] (effective pay cut of 4%) and the other money is coming directly out of the School Aid Fund. They also really downgraded the benefits of future employees. And for the next five years, all of the projected revenue to the School Aid Fund will be eaten up by higher contributions to the pension system.”

Me: Where do teachers fit in all of this? 

People say, “We should cut the teachers [salaries] more.” Well, these are the people who take care of our children. How do we want to treat our employees? When we have the opportunity to make smart policy for state employees, shouldn’t we do that? We have to look at the long term. And this is happening in every community. This is a conversation that we need to have.”

 [Bold=Emphasis added.]

Steve's bottom line: 

“There is a lot of work to be done changing the discourse around public education.  It’s easy to get lost in the specifics but there is an underlying misapprehension of some of the key issues. There’s a lot of work to be done with people talking to people. You need to talk to your neighbors, educate them about the facts.”

By the way, you can read more about the issues around retirement in this May 2013 report from the Citizens Research Council--Funding for Public Education: The Recent Impact of Increased MPSERS Contributions.