Comments on: An economist's fixes for Michigan

By: Tim Bartik

Tim Bartik — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:35:50 +0000

Regarding cy’s comment: “Bartik is the same guy who said, in the midst of the 06 shutdown, the state would have a lower deficit if it spent more.”

For the record, I never made any such statement. Nor would I have made such a statement, because I don’t agree with this supposed statement of mine.

By: cy

cy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:22:56 +0000

Bartik is the same guy who said, in the midst of the 06 shutdown, the state would have a lower deficit if it spent more. Huh? Gotta love that Keynesian multiplier!

Mr. Blackburn-gov’t subsidies and programs are the reason college is so expensive. Those programs reach down further and further into each HS graduating class–obtaining more less-skilled students each year–its requires a lot more money and time to train the less skilled.

By: T. Allen Blackburn

T. Allen Blackburn — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:11:36 +0000

Quote “The best solution is just for government to get out of the education business and put it on private enterprise.”

Where the private enterprise will apply for Federal and State grants to pay people to do what we should be expecting our present education system to provide. If we take away all of the incentives from taxes, that go to schools, you will have to be rich to afford a college education as tuition naturally has to be raised to meet the expenses. If we want a bright future we have to invest in bright kids.

By: Jess Atwell

Jess Atwell — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:41:35 +0000

I’m sorry to be a nay sayer, but until we get the regular school system to be successful, I don’t see how adding more programs is going to resolve our education issues. Government told us that they could standardize the curriculums and acheive better results. Has that happened yet? The programs your talking about putting in place for technical non degree education used to be called and “apprenticeship” and the cost was born by business’s that knew what education their people needed. Another “Great Society” type program will only result in more money for teachers unions I’m afraid, The best solution is just for government to get out of the education business and put it on private enterprise.

By: John Czarnecki

John Czarnecki — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:58:59 +0000

Elimination of the MBT and replacing with broader sales tax and an increased in the state income tax would be a step in the right direction. Becoming a right to work state would have lots of positive marketing advantages.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:14:30 +0000

About schools:

Career Academies – this will require that the Senate pass SB 0698 and 0757, the alternative pathways to secondary graduation, which has already passed in the House. The current Michigan Merit Curriculum requires Algebra II for graduation since the current “political” goal for education is college for everyone.

Universal pre-school. We do not have it and that is one of the reasons (just one of many) our educational system is less effective than in other developed nations. To support this the proponents may wish to include the “$100.00″ Laptop program (See Negroponte at MIT or the video at http://www.ted.com) and provide a laptop for every child enrolled. For the naysayers, please google the “Hole in the Wall” experiment in India.