What a Teacher Pay Freeze Really Means

It's no surprise that Michigan's public schools face significant budget challenges in today's economy. An increasing number of school districts are looking to deal with overspending by privatizing or consolidating some services. Since employee compensation consumes almost three-quarters of all school expenditures, however, districts ultimately must face the reality that aside from layoffs, the most effective way to control costs are spending reductions and employee salary freezes.
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Solid Foundation

About this audio file: On Sept. 16, 2009, Patrick Wright, the Mackinac Center's senior legal analyst, was a guest on "The Frank Beckmann Show" on WJR AM760 in Detroit. Wright discussed the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, a new public-interest law firm of which he serves as director. The firm filed its first case Wednesday at the Michigan Court of Appeals against the Michigan Department of Human Services on behalf of two home-based day care owners who object to being forced into a union that Wright says was illegally formed. The interview is 4 minutes and 49 seconds.
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Garbage In, Garbage Out

Cap-and-trade, one of the most expansive government efforts to control the U.S. economy, requires Americans to make sacrifices based on assumptions underpinned by dubious data. These economic and scientific claims made by politicians and advocacy groups should undergo close scrutiny. Data used to justify policy changes, especially those as monumental as cap-and-trade, should be analyzed critically to ensure validity.
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Run for the Border

By now, Americans are familiar with the stories of Canadians who would have died because of their government's health care rationing had they not been able to get care in the United States. Perhaps just as troubling, however, are the less dramatic but much more common instances of minor indignities, inequities and inconveniences imposed by the Canadian health care system.
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School Privatization Increases Again

More Michigan public school districts contracted out in 2009 for at least one of the three main support services — food, custodial or transportation — according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's annual privatization survey. Some 246 of the state's 551 districts, or 44.6 percent, contract with private companies for one or more of those support services, up from 42.4 percent a year ago. The Mackinac Center has surveyed Michigan school districts since 2001, when 31 percent of districts contracted out for one of the "big three" noninstructional services.
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Doth Protest Too Little?

Young adults in America are often criticized for their apathetic attitudes and ill-motivated behaviors.
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Train Wreck

About this audio file: On Aug. 24, 2009, Randal O’Toole was a guest on “The Norm Jones Show” on WTCM in Traverse City. O’Toole, a senior fellow with Cato Institute and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center, is the author of “High-Speed Rail: The Wrong Road for America.” He discussed the drawbacks to the recent announcement that Michigan would seek subsidies for high-speed rail construction and why such a project won’t benefit the state’s economy. The interview is 18 minutes and 10 seconds.
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Prescription for Reform

The most fundamental problem with America's health care system is not one that politicians are talking about.

They discuss its symptoms, to be sure: We spend too much, costs are rapidly rising, and some patients undergo excessively expensive procedures while others can't get the treatment they need because costs are prohibitive or are not covered by their insurer.
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Recipe for Success

The Michigan Legislature is considering three proposals aimed at fixing failing Michigan schools. Rep. Timothy Melton, D-West Bloomfield, introduced House Bill 4879 in April; Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, introduced Senate Bill 636 in June; and most recently Rep. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair, introduced House Bill 5238 earlier this month. All three of these bills deserve merit for recognizing some of the roadblocks standing in the way of effective school reform. Ultimately, though, these proposals are not an effective recipe for turning around failing schools.
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The EFCA Rodeo

If you've ever watched rodeo — I don't pretend to be a cowboy, but I've seen enough to get the general idea of things — then you've probably seen an event called calf roping. In this contest, a calf is let loose to run around the ring. A rider on horseback throws a lasso around the calf's neck, jumps off his horse and then ties up the calf's legs, rendering the animal immobile. Since the cowboy hardly ever fails to catch and tie up the animal, the competition centers on who can do it the fastest. Calf roping isn't quite as dangerous or exciting as bull riding, but it looks like it might be fun for the cowboy, if not so much fun for the calf.

Calf roping also serves as a pretty good analogy for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that labor unions have made their prime goal for this term of Congress. EFCA seeks to reduce workers to the role of helpless calves to be lassoed and tied up by union organizer cowboys.
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Rose D. Friedman, RIP

Of the many stellar champions of liberty on my reading list, Rose D. Friedman wasn't one of them. As a recent college graduate, I thought I had covered the basics: Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Thomas Sowell, Hernando de Soto and others. Many of us probably don't realize how much we owe to one of liberty's greatest champions — Rose Director Friedman.

While the exact date of her birth is unknown, Rose D. Friedman died on Aug. 18, 2009, near age 98.
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Ballot Proposals Bad for Michigan

Michigan has firmly established itself as the worst-performing economy in the country. Its unemployment rate, at 15.2 percent, is nearly six full percentage points above the national average, and nearly three percentage points higher than the next highest state. You currently have a better chance of finding a job in Puerto Rico than in Michigan.

In response to this situation, the Michigan Democratic Party is promoting a series of ballot proposals that will only make the situation worse. Three of the proposals will make it more expensive to hire labor, especially low-skill labor that is feeling the economic crisis the most. The other two will create uncertainty in our utility services and make it harder to buy and sell houses.
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Lighten Up

The typical argument against smoking bans is that the market is capable of deciding where smoking should or should not be allowed more easily and smoothly than any bureaucrat. Such is the current debate in the Michigan Legislature, where several competing bills call for everything from a complete workplace ban to a nearly complete workplace ban with exceptions carved out for Detroit casinos and tobacco shops, regardless of the preferences of private business owners and those who choose to patronize them.
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School Daze

Voices around the state and prominent education officials are calling for Michigan to lengthen its school year and increase the amount of time students spend in class. Unfortunately, this type of reform is misguided since there is no correlation between the amount of time students spend in school and their level of achievement. Michigan instead should focus on implementing reforms that have track records of improving student achievement.
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All Aboard?

On June 17, the Federal Railroad Administration asked states for proposals for spending $8 billion of stimulus money that Congress allocated to high-speed rail. This raises a question: Would you pay $1,000 so that someone — probably not you — can ride high-speed trains less than 60 miles a year?
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Summer Reading

According to my thermometer, summer has finally arrived, albeit about a month late this year. I'll be brief so you can enjoy the remaining warm weather!

It was during the heat of last summer when Jim Vote, a Mackinac Center labor policy intern, discovered the smoking gun that proved that the Michigan Democratic Party and its union allies were behind a supposedly bipartisan plan to reform state government. Our research was the turning point that led to the partisan plan's demise. This summer, Democratic Party head Mark Brewer is openly supporting ballot measures to make it illegal to pay anyone less than $10 an hour for any kind of work, and make it illegal to hire anyone without also paying for health insurance.

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Follow the Leader

Michigan has an opportunity to become a leader in health insurance reform. State legislators know this and are pushing to see state-level reforms passed before Washington implements its national plan. They should be commended for taking the initiative and pushing for bottom-up solutions, but caution is advised lest unintended consequences of some proposals far outweigh any potential benefits.
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Advice .... Or Vice?

In a fast-paced world, life can sometimes be daunting. Fortunately, the state of Michigan has online advice for almost every aspect of life, from shopping to gardening, eating to driving. Sure, some of it may be painfully obvious, nitpicky or bizarre, but just remember: The state knows what's best for you.

For instance, state government is concerned about your health. It offers shrewd advice on meal choices: Don't eat the guts, heads or bones of fish (Michigan Family Fish Consumption Guide). If you are trying to reduce your sugar intake, consume less sugar (Sweet Relief!). While state officials are rarely the model of restraint, they want you to practice self-denial: Eat dried fruit instead of candy, and eat unbuttered bread (Sweet Relief!).

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Private Funds

THERE HAS BEEN a strong connection between private property rights and prosperity throughout history. As a nation obtains more private property rights, it also obtains higher degrees of prosperity. There are three fundamental reasons for this relationship. Private property rights:

Lower the cost of self-defense
Reduce uncertainty
Allow individuals to reveal their preferences through trade.
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Songs of Freedom

It was not so long ago that Detroit was a beacon to the nation. Capitalizing on the ingenuity and the perseverance of entrepreneurs, the city housed some of the best and the brightest. Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, was just such an entrepreneur. In such troubling times as these, it would be worthwhile to revisit where his success stemmed from, and what we might glean from his ideas.
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Presidential Pardon

There is precious little to praise in the legislative world these days. So it's my particular delight to publicly commend one lawmaker for mustering the backbone to admit a mistake, pledge to correct it and model a genuine apology.
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Tear Down This Wall

"Am I optimistic that they can avoid it . . . ? I am not." That's what retired judge Ray Graves said this week when asked whether Detroit Public Schools, which he is advising, would be forced into bankruptcy. Facing violence, a shrinking student body, and graduating just one out of every four students who enter the ninth grade on time, the city's schools have been stumbling for years. Now they face a seemingly insurmountable deficit and are expected to file for bankruptcy protection at about the time that students should be settling down in a new school year.
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Pool Party

On the left, it has self-interested Michigan Education Association leaders fulminating and issuing fatwas, while Gov. Jennifer Granholm shakes her head gloomily and avers that she'll have to "see the details." On the right, they're looking for a snake in the grass, and muttering suspiciously that it's part of a larger Democratic scheme to engineer a major tax increase.
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Departmentalize

It appears that the long awaited "bold reform" in Michigan government is merely combining state departments. The proposed recombining of the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality would save little money — a few hundred thousand dollars at most in the face of a state overspending crisis that could top $2 billion. More important, however, it would not remedy the two major structural problems at the root of state environmental and natural resource programs' poor performance: the obstructionist state regulatory bureaucracy.
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Driven to Tears

New unemployment statistics are the latest in a seemingly endless series of reminders of Michigan's economic woes and policy miscalculations. The state's unemployment rate leapt to 15.2 percent in June, the 40th consecutive month Michigan has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. To put things in even greater perspective, consider that Puerto Rico's unemployment rate — 14.5 percent — is lower than Michigan's, the first time it has been lower than any state in the union since 1976, save for one month after Louisiana was blasted by hurricane Katrina.
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Bargaining Power

Budget problems are the norm for Michigan school districts these days. Detroit Public Schools is considering declaring bankruptcy, and school boards around the state need serious fiscal reform. At the same time, there is little doubt that many necessary reforms will be met with strong opposition from the state's largest teachers union — the Michigan Education Association. As school boards make difficult budgetary decisions and prepare to negotiate with unions, it is important for them to remember the true mission of teachers unions.
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Art Attack

A July 8 Detroit News article reads like a Monty Python sketch: "Detroit council trashes art created for Paradise Valley." After commissioning three artists to create pieces commemorating the once artistically vibrant area of downtown Detroit — now the site of Comerica Park and Ford Field — council members deemed the works "too abstract" and pulled the plug on their installation.
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Too Big to Succeed?

In 1890, Americans were outraged that their House of Representatives in Washington spent a record $1 billion dollars in just two years. They punished the "Billion Dollar Congress" in the elections that year by making the majority party the minority party, cutting its roster in the House by more than 90 seats.
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When We Should Break a Promise

The Michigan Senate recently voted to cut the $140 million Michigan Promise Scholarship. Created in 2006, this tuition assistance program awards $4,000 to each student who achieves a proficient score on the Michigan Merit Exam. It also hands out another $4,000 to each student who fails to meet the MME proficiency level but maintains a 2.5 GPA in their first two years at a Michigan college.
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Buy American?

The recent turn of events in our nation's automotive industry has prompted many citizens to rethink what nameplate they'll purchase the next time they're in-market for a new vehicle. Chrysler and General Motors may soon shed what little brand loyalty remained prior to unprecedented government interference.
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High Tide

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports that Great Lakes water levels are up from this time a year ago. Lakes Michigan and Huron are up 12 inches, Lake Superior two inches and Lake Erie five inches while Lake Ontario is unchanged. Even Lake St. Clair is up nine inches. Erie and Ontario (and St. Clair) are between two and six inches above long-term monthly averages for June. Superior, Michigan and Huron are only 6 to 7 inches below long-term averages for June. While this change in the water levels is pronounced, it is not unusual. The Great Lakes have a history of considerable fluctuation in water levels.
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Right-to-Work Dashboard

This comparison of economic data shows how states with right-to-work laws are outperforming Michigan in several ways.
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Reading List

The media drumbeat of the declining fortunes of the Republican Party stands in contrast to the recent rise of a different sort of party — the citizen-led TEA parties that stand for Taxed Enough Already.
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Keep Private Enterprise Private

Many economists have long criticized government "economic development" programs — including selective business subsidies and tax incentives — as being wasteful and ineffective at "creating" new jobs.
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A First Step

A package of bills for reforming failing schools that was recently introduced by Rep. Timothy Melton, D-West Bloomfield, calls to mind two old sayings, both involving travel and — coincidentally — China. The first is an ancient one attributed to Lao Tzu: "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The second, of more recent origin, is to the effect that only Nixon can go there.
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