The TRUTH is a BEAUTIFUL Thing!

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April 4, 2007

Fixing state's crisis means angering special interests

Michigan must endure pain to fix neglected problems

Tom Watkins

When homeowners have a leaky faucet or a small hole in the roof and do not fix them, the small problems grow into big problems. We all know this from our own experiences: When a problem is continuously neglected, it does not go away; it festers.

If Michigan residents have learned this lesson, why haven't our elected leaders?

For years, cutting across governors and legislators from both political parties, our elected leaders have looked at and ignored a multitude of small problems, hoping they would go away. The result is a continuing budget crisis that threatens to get worse as Republicans and Democrats disagree on short-term as well as long-term fixes.

Certainly some actions have been taken. But they have been marginal -- budget cuts, accounting changes and delayed payments -- and have not addressed the structural problems that need to be reformed for the long haul.

Michigan residents repeatedly have heard the keys for success during the last few years, even decades. They include:

Michigan is too dependent on the auto industry; we must diversify our economy.

A high-quality education is the key to a prosperous future. Michigan spends more money enriching the adults in the system rather than the students we profess to want to succeed.

The state's corrections budget absorbs far too many of our tax dollars (we spend more on prisons than on higher education), but we must find ways to punish and rehabilitate offenders without going broke.

Escalating pension and health care costs are absorbing every new dollar spent on public education, preventing investment in programs and services that will prepare our children for the 21st-century knowledge economy.

There are too many small, inefficient school districts and municipal governments; they should be consolidated and merged to save money and work better.

Let's face the truth

For too long, our state's elected leaders have failed to face these truths and take decisive actions that result in permanent solutions.

It is often said the first part of solving a problem is identifying it. We have identified Michigan's problems. State government spends more money than it takes in. It disinvests in education when thinking for a living has replaced lifting for a living.

The state is organized as though nothing has changed -- much like the auto industry, which long denied the existence of high-quality competition -- when everything has changed.

And residents are relying on elected leaders who are more interested in appeasing the special interest groups that keep them in power. The governor and Democrats listen to the Michigan Education Association (the state's largest teachers union), the trial lawyers and organized labor. The Republicans heed the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, insurance companies and real estate agents.

We will know that the tough choices have been made and the problems truly addressed when the MEA is furious with the governor and Democrats, and the state Chamber of Commerce is mad as hell at the Republicans.

Yes, the pain of fixing Michigan's problems will be great because they were neglected for too long. Yet if we do not step up and fix them now, they will likely get much worse.

Real change requires elected officials who are willing to lead by serving. Michigan needs a shared vision, a common agenda and the leadership to help take us there.

Tom Watkins is president and chief executive of TDW and Associates, a business and education consulting company. He was state superintendent of schools from 2001 to 2005. Fax comments to (313) 222-6417. E-mail letters to letters@detnews.com.