Beyond Bad Ideas
One of the many lessons Detroiters have learned is that a crisis produces a lot of bad ideas. This year’s Retreat of the elite on Mackinac Island, sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, launched a lot of them.
At a time when new thinking and a serious discussion of the economic and social realities of our state are essential, the Chamber proved once again that it could repackage bad thinking.
It began with the invitation to Newt Gingrich to comment on policy ideas for revitalizing the state. Mr. Gingrich is currently on a book tour promoting his latest effort titled “To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine.” This is a partisan tract aimed at restoring the GOP to power in the next election series.
The Chamber wildly endorsed the economic thinking embodied in Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America. This thinking fostered the decade of deregulation, greed and avarice unparallel in American life, from which we are likely to suffer for generations to come.
Gingrich touted ideas for a 10-year tax free zone for Detroit, eliminating federal capital gains taxes for people and businesses in the district, claiming that this would create “an explosion of investment and jobs.”
Much of his talk was aimed at unions. “It’s simple,” he explained. “The teachers union has to make children the first priority and benefits and taking care of the least-skilled teachers its last priority.”
Also pursuing simplistic solutions, Mayor Bing used the occasion to announce his willingness to take over the Detroit Public School System. Displaying slightly more sensitivity than Gingrich, Bing said he would do so only if Detroiters endorsed his offer.
Before Bing got back to the city from the Mackinac Retreat, petition collectors had hit the streets, planning on putting the question on the November ballot.
Within the week, complaints surfaced about the tactics of Bing backers. At a news conference on Monday, Defend Public Education/Save our Students, AFSCME Local 207, a caucus of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the Detroit Board of Education and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) said, “The whole endeavor has been a fraud from start to finish.” It seems people are being told they are signing petitions to keep schools open or that the local school board endorses the effort.
Voters already defeated a similar proposal in 2004 by a two to one margin. Detroit voters have consistently demonstrated that, whatever its limitations, we want local control of our schools through an elected school board.
The idea that any Mayor of a major city should also be in charge of the school district is foolish. There is certainly no educational justification for such a move. It is only designed to centralize decision-making and shift it away from public oversight. No doubt the lucrative bond issues passed by the city and the promise of millions more in federal dollars encouraged the Chamber and the Mayor in their efforts to gain control of these resources.
Now the bad thinking has spilled beyond Mackinac to the office of the Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy who is floating the idea of jail time for parents who do not participate in parent teacher conferences as a way to improve learning.
Such bad thinking is fostered by desperation. Instead of spinning ideas that will line pockets and fill jails, we should be looking very carefully at the schools, teachers, community groups and organizations that are developing thoughtful, concerned, talented and imaginative young people. All across Detroit, change is happening among our young people and in our communities.
That is the other great lesson of these hard-fought decades. Enduring change is created slowly, usually out of sight of elites who gather far away from the daily struggle to recreate life in our city.