Luke was hopeful that Snyder would release some information on the budgeting concerns in his State of State speech last night but sadly Snyder did not. He alluded to some changes that he was going to make but none specific to the budget-which is one of the biggest issues in MI right now.
I would have to say that I was very hopeful about the the State of Our State Address given by Gov. Snyder last night. Although many other executives have great approval at this point in a term, he did seem to have some innovative ideas. The Michigan Dashboard, a statistical way to track progress in Michigan seems to be a way to keep Gov. Snyder accountable to the people. Overall, the State of the State address reflected pretty accurately what this article stated; although there will be conservative changes, the overall goal is to better the economic situation of all Michiganders. Hopefully, he will be the change that is needed.
I had hoped for more specific details in his plans and objectives, but I realize he and his team of advisers are putting that plan together in better detail over the coming weeks. I'm optimistic as to the state's future.
I agree with you Sara, the Michigan Dashboard initiative is a great idea if they implement it and then continue to keep it as an updated valid approach at accountability. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of the time innovative ideas are implemented, and then they are not followed through to fruition. There was an interesting point in the article about eliminating the education tenure. It would be interesting to see what kind of support would come from the teachers of the state if this were to take place. It does hold increase the amount of accountability teachers are subjected to, and I'm not completely sure how it works, but being tenured seems to be a big incentive when taking teaching positions...
I wish the State of the State address would have been more detailed, as do most other people, but since it wasn't I hope the citizens of Michigan are offered a detailed plan in the very near future.
I liked the Michigan Dashboard idea too, it's a new idea and should help us keep track of where our state stands. It's good to see that Michiganders have so much faith in Governor Snyder, hopefully he can live up to expectations. With a friendly state congress, he will probably not be given much time to begin seeing the results of his famed plan for Michigan. I also found the tenure issue interesting despite not completely understanding what tenure is or how it is obtained. I have heard some school administrators complain that it takes personnel decisions out of their hands. Disappointing he did not address budget issues, but again it is quite early for him to have those plans completed. Hopefully he focuses on the main platform he ran on: jobs and the economy.
The article in reference to Governor Snyder’s State of the State Address made many references to the forthcoming changes to public sector pay and benefit structure within the State of Michigan. The President of the Michigan Education Association in lieu of the forthcoming changes would like all decisions to be made local. I disagree with MES president on one point health care, I believe that creating a larger pool of insured’s in the state especially among the education sector of the budget would improve operations and give us better bargaining strength with the health care sector in determining a fair price for health care. One of the keys to success in improving the budget crisis is to reduce the cost of fringe benefits. The budget crisis in the State of Michigan was deferred by the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The funds that were injected into the state economy through these state allocations allowed almost every sector of the state budget to maintain staffing levels without making dire cuts. This was a bipartisan effort intended to support the National economy similar to the spending programs implemented by President Roosevelt during the depression. Now it appears that the Democratic Party has inherited the responsibility of any element of the program that cannot be deemed an overwhelming success such as support for Fannie Mae or AIG as well as state governments. From this partisan perspective I think it could be clearly established that education and public sector staff are going to bear the largest brunt of the forthcoming changes. It makes the most sense from the realization that education makes the largest sector of the public budget and labor typically accounts for 2/3rd’s of that budget amount. It is often discussed on the budgeting side here at the university the substantial cost of the fringe benefits are for the employees and retirees account for as a percentage of the individual departmental budgets. The very hard decisions on staffing levels were deferred because of stimulus funding. Now that those funds are not available and the Party affiliations have changed we are faced with a new wave of creative budget cutting. Clearly there will exist some partisan politics in play when it comes to the decisions made and the priorities treated. The last Republican Governor of the state John Engler made charter schools a priority part of his agenda. Some would argue that the failing public education institutions in parts of the state made it necessary others would argue that it was the Governor’s way of making the budget his particular tool to make good on campaign promises of reigning in the public school employees and the MEA.
Luke was hopeful that Snyder would release some information on the budgeting concerns in his State of State speech last night but sadly Snyder did not. He alluded to some changes that he was going to make but none specific to the budget-which is one of the biggest issues in MI right now.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that I was very hopeful about the the State of Our State Address given by Gov. Snyder last night. Although many other executives have great approval at this point in a term, he did seem to have some innovative ideas. The Michigan Dashboard, a statistical way to track progress in Michigan seems to be a way to keep Gov. Snyder accountable to the people. Overall, the State of the State address reflected pretty accurately what this article stated; although there will be conservative changes, the overall goal is to better the economic situation of all Michiganders. Hopefully, he will be the change that is needed.
ReplyDeleteI had hoped for more specific details in his plans and objectives, but I realize he and his team of advisers are putting that plan together in better detail over the coming weeks. I'm optimistic as to the state's future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Sara, the Michigan Dashboard initiative is a great idea if they implement it and then continue to keep it as an updated valid approach at accountability. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of the time innovative ideas are implemented, and then they are not followed through to fruition.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting point in the article about eliminating the education tenure. It would be interesting to see what kind of support would come from the teachers of the state if this were to take place. It does hold increase the amount of accountability teachers are subjected to, and I'm not completely sure how it works, but being tenured seems to be a big incentive when taking teaching positions...
I wish the State of the State address would have been more detailed, as do most other people, but since it wasn't I hope the citizens of Michigan are offered a detailed plan in the very near future.
I liked the Michigan Dashboard idea too, it's a new idea and should help us keep track of where our state stands. It's good to see that Michiganders have so much faith in Governor Snyder, hopefully he can live up to expectations. With a friendly state congress, he will probably not be given much time to begin seeing the results of his famed plan for Michigan. I also found the tenure issue interesting despite not completely understanding what tenure is or how it is obtained. I have heard some school administrators complain that it takes personnel decisions out of their hands. Disappointing he did not address budget issues, but again it is quite early for him to have those plans completed. Hopefully he focuses on the main platform he ran on: jobs and the economy.
ReplyDeleteThe article in reference to Governor Snyder’s State of the State Address made many references to the forthcoming changes to public sector pay and benefit structure within the State of Michigan. The President of the Michigan Education Association in lieu of the forthcoming changes would like all decisions to be made local. I disagree with MES president on one point health care, I believe that creating a larger pool of insured’s in the state especially among the education sector of the budget would improve operations and give us better bargaining strength with the health care sector in determining a fair price for health care. One of the keys to success in improving the budget crisis is to reduce the cost of fringe benefits.
ReplyDeleteThe budget crisis in the State of Michigan was deferred by the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The funds that were injected into the state economy through these state allocations allowed almost every sector of the state budget to maintain staffing levels without making dire cuts. This was a bipartisan effort intended to support the National economy similar to the spending programs implemented by President Roosevelt during the depression.
Now it appears that the Democratic Party has inherited the responsibility of any element of the program that cannot be deemed an overwhelming success such as support for Fannie Mae or AIG as well as state governments. From this partisan perspective I think it could be clearly established that education and public sector staff are going to bear the largest brunt of the forthcoming changes. It makes the most sense from the realization that education makes the largest sector of the public budget and labor typically accounts for 2/3rd’s of that budget amount. It is often discussed on the budgeting side here at the university the substantial cost of the fringe benefits are for the employees and retirees account for as a percentage of the individual departmental budgets. The very hard decisions on staffing levels were deferred because of stimulus funding. Now that those funds are not available and the Party affiliations have changed we are faced with a new wave of creative budget cutting.
Clearly there will exist some partisan politics in play when it comes to the decisions made and the priorities treated. The last Republican Governor of the state John Engler made charter schools a priority part of his agenda. Some would argue that the failing public education institutions in parts of the state made it necessary others would argue that it was the Governor’s way of making the budget his particular tool to make good on campaign promises of reigning in the public school employees and the MEA.