Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: August 4, 2007

ON THE EDUCATION FRONT

With a new school year just around the corner it’s a good time to take a look at some news about education.

First up is the proposed new school calendar for all Michigan schools which will put all school districts on the same schedule – same start and end dates, same breaks, same holiday vacations. In theory this sounds pretty straight forward and simple. Not so fast, my friends.

You may recall that the current school post Labor Day starting date was basically set at the behest of the tourism industry which wanted a longer summer vacation season. However, those extra late summer days have to be made up at some other time of the year. One option is to add days to the end of the school year, but that affects tourism in June. As I’ve noted in other columns, the desire of the tourism industry has long been a school ending date around Memorial Day.

The only way to accommodate those beginning and ending dates is to have fewer days off during the school year. In other words, in order to bolster summer tourism industry the state’s winter tourism industry will have to take a hit.

Now consider how a statewide standard school calendar figures into this. Right now school districts have a bit of wiggle room, so with breaks and vacations occurring at various times and with various lengths, winter tourism businesses have a larger window of opportunity to fill lodging, bring tourists to towns, and promote skiing, snowmobiling and other activities.

If a standard calendar is adopted with all vacations on the same dates that wiggle room will be taken away. Winter tourism will have only a few select dates where it can expect maximum business; all other dates will be dead zones.

From a strictly tourism point of view, a standardized calendar is not good news for a city like Cadillac or a region like northwest Michigan.

Perhaps the oddest development on the education front is the current revolt among House Republicans against the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind law. Leading the rebellion is none other than our own Representative Peter Hoekstra.

All my life I’ve been told that the Republicans were against big government programs that infringed upon state and local rights, but there it was, the quintessential big government behemoth in the form of the No Child law rampaging across America in a GOP-led termination of local control of schools. It was exactly the opposite of what I had been led to believe was a core Republican value.

Now, it turns out, over sixty Republican Representatives have rediscovered their inner cores and, in the words of Majority Whip Roy Blunt or Missouri, “We now have to change our approach…you are better off having decisions about secondary and elementary education closer to where the kids are.” In other words, ‘Get the federal government out of our kid’s lives.’

Hoekstra adds,” The law is a straightjacket approach to education with mega-mandates. Does Margaret Spellings (i.e. the federal government) know more about educating kids in Michigan that Gov. Jennifer Granholm?”

What? Republican Hoekstra dumping on the President’s program and actually aligning himself with Democrat Granholm? How strange is that?

I’m always interested in studies done about education, so the report from the Committee on Economic Development, titled “The Economic Promise of Investing in High Quality Pre-School Education,” caught my attention because of the word “economic.”

The report focused on the economic benefits gained from pre-school programs taught by highly qualified teachers. From a strictly business-based perspective, pre-school programs are an incredible investment. Every dollar spent brings a return of $7, so if between now and 2080 this country spent “$59 billion on quality pre-schools we would get back $400 billion in added tax revenues and diminished expenditures.”

Why? Because there’s absolutely rock solid proof that quality pre-schools result in higher high school and college graduation rates, lower teen pregnancy, less delinquency and crime, and a host of other benefits. Simply put, ‘a five year-old who has had quality pre-schooling will evolve into a 35 year-old who is a taxpayer, not a tax eater.’

For me, what makes this report so important is that it makes providing quality pre-school programs a straight business decision. A 7-to-1 return on investment is just, plain good business.

We’re spending $5.9 billion per month in Iraq, $500 billion so far with no end in sight. Perhaps some of that would be better spent on our own children, a small thank you for sticking them with the bill for Iraq.

Finally, I just shook my head when I read about the new book titled “Unplugged Play” by Bobbi Connor. I agree with the book’s premise that kids should be outside playing instead of sitting in front of the television or video game consoles. However, I was aghast to discover that much of the book is devoted to teaching parents how to play because they have no idea how to do it.

Connor’s book shows parents how to stack blocks, play tag, make things out of a cardboard box, and other ridiculously simple activities. I thought to myself, “Who are these idiot parents?” I mean are there really adults out there who need a book to show them how to stack wooden blocks? And we let these people produce children?

We need to identify these people, explain to them the rules of hide and seek, tell them to go hide, and then forget about them forever.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.us.