In a Dec. 6 report to the
Michigan Board of Education, then-state Superintendent of Public Instruction
Thomas Watkins called for "boldness and candor" in addressing a "structural
funding challenge" in the state’s public schools. A few weeks later, he
exercised a bit of that boldness and candor in response to critics of charter
schools, telling The Grand Rapids Press: "Let’s take a look at traditional
schools. Some of them will complain about losing 300 (students) to a charter,
but you won’t hear a peep out of them when 3,000 (dropouts) go to the streets."
In January, the Michigan Board
of Education tabled a one-year renewal of Watkins’ contract. This decision came
just one day after Board President Kathleen Straus had bristled when asked by
MIRS to respond to rumors that the Granholm administration wanted Watkins to
leave. Straus asserted, "The State Board awarded the Superintendent an A- grade
on his last performance evaluation, and my colleagues and I have the utmost
confidence in Tom."
Perhaps Watkins made errors
that have not yet come to light. But whether the board and the Granholm
administration like it or not, his sudden political exile has sent the signal
that it is virtual suicide to challenge the status quo or tolerate even weak
forms of school choice, such as charter schools (once championed by President
Clinton). Watkins’ December report may have been short on specific remedies, but it did show promise, making it plain that "additional revenue without
unprecedented change" in the state’s education system was not likely to make a
difference.
If the Michigan Board of
Education, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the state Legislature hope to regain any
credibility with the public, they must now show that they are serious about
helping kids — and not just shutting down people who offer straight talk about
the system. They should enact at least four reforms that don’t require school
choice, but would free education money for kids in the classroom without raising
taxes:
1. Exempt public schools from Michigan’s archaic Prevailing Wage Act. Mackinac Center research suggests that forcing school districts to contract with only those construction firms that pay "prevailing wages" inflates school renovation and building costs by $150 million annually — a job-killing subsidy to construction unions that provides no equivalent increase in building quality. In 1997, Ohio exempted its
public schools from a similar law, and the results there indicate that the
Center’s savings estimates are sound.
2. Create a level playing
field for providers of employee health insurance. Many Michigan public
school districts are awash in soaring health care costs because they face
intense union pressure to buy insurance from MESSA, the health insurance
provider affiliated with the Michigan Education Association. MESSA’s Rolls-Royce
premiums for Cadillac plans are financed by taxpayers who typically get nothing
so irrationally excessive in their own jobs.
The Legislature’s efforts to
create a level playing field in school health insurance have foundered on
MESSA’s unwillingness to provide claims data that would allow school districts
to shop around effectively. This costly game of cat-and-mouse should end: The
Legislature should require district insurance contracts to stipulate that
general health insurance data produced under the contracts are owned by the
public, not the provider. Enabling school districts to consider multiple
providers would likely save millions of dollars.
3. Overhaul teacher
certification. School boards should be permitted broader latitude in hiring
competent instructors, whether or not they’ve jumped through the dubious hoops
of university education courses. If today’s certification requirements
guaranteed competency, poor student outcomes wouldn’t be a national epidemic,
and Michigan businesses and universities wouldn’t spend $600 million annually on
remedial education. Unfortunately, today’s certification requirements exclude
many competent candidates, creating shortages in key subject areas and driving
up the cost of hiring teachers.
4. Encourage competitive
bidding for school support services. Holland Public Schools in West Michigan
voted recently to save as much as $700,000 in annual costs by outsourcing
custodial work, but a Mackinac Center survey in 2003 indicated that two-thirds
of Michigan school districts do not outsource busing, food or even janitorial
services to the private sector. These districts should be strongly encouraged to
do so; 63 percent of the districts that had privatized these services reported
cost savings, while 88 percent said they were satisfied with the service quality
(only 3 percent were not).
The problems listed above are
the "elephants in the room" that are too often ignored when education spending
is discussed. Tom Watkins wasn’t quick to recognize them either. But if Watkins
wasn’t permitted to hint that there is more to fixing education than "spend more
money" and "charter schools are evil," it’s hard to see why Michiganians should
send another nickel to the public schools until state policy-makers pass these
commonsense reforms.
Lawrence W. Reed is
president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational
institute headquartered in Midland, Mich. An earlier version of this article was
published in The Oakland Press on Friday, Jan. 14, 2005.