Comments on Akindele Unleashed: The GOP Can Revive Itself Through Education by Aki...

I don't disagree that education is a key issue. I...

2008-11-15T15:52:00.000-08:00

I don't disagree that education is a key issue. I also don't disagree that we need to do things differently than we've been doing them if we hope to succeed.

Please don't confuse the Fair Tax with tax credits . . . they are most certainly not the same.

When I speak of core issues for 2010, I am referring to ballot initiatives. And, as I've discussed with several Grand Rapids area legislators, we cannot hammer on more than three lest we dilute our message too much and spread our resources too thin.

Unfortunately, in 2010 one of those ballot initiatives is already pre-determined constitutionally. The other two are "must-do" if we expect Michigan's economy to survive. And that includes any viable school system anywhere in this state.

Education as a key issue? Absolutely! And those three ballot initiatives will absolutely pave the way for further fundamental education reform.

1. The Michigan FairTax Proposal (as a core component) fundamentally rewrites the state's revenue sharing laws, which will send more funding down to local government agencies (including school systems), instead of leaving it in the hands of the legislature to distribute according to political favor.

2. The Right-to-Work Law makes dues-paying union membership optional, which means that the MEA will no longer be able to wreck school systems with screwed-up, anti-children policies.

3. And, to be perfectly honest, if Jon Stryker buys a Michigan Con-Con, then you can kiss any hope of freeing this state's children from a failing anything good-bye . . . forever.

Now all of these can be underscored by a desire for true education reform, or have true and lasting education reform hanging in the background of all three. And if something like a Personal Education Account petition starts circulating for the 2010 ballot, then I will not only sign it, but also circulate it.

But as priorities, these three -- should they fall our way -- open up the field for fundamental reform of Michigan's education laws and policies . . . but the reverse simply isn't true.

(1) Education is the primary root cause of the rea...

2008-11-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

(1) Education is the primary root cause of the reason why things are backwards.

(2)Like I have been saying all along, we have to get out of this traditional method of strategy in the GOP. For instance, education is an excellent platform because the inner cities are suffering. I have already done the research on this issue in six inner cities in Michigan with failing schools. Shockingly, the African Americans, who are loyal to the Democrats, would CONSIDER switching their vote for a GOP base if it's 91) contemporaty and (2) free the children from failing education. Almost all household I interviewed this past summer wants educational reform.

In terms of school vouchers that will never happen until you amend the state constitution. The same with tax credits.

Any other issue that we discuss will place us at high risk. Education is a crisis in all demographics that we can hit a home run on.

I have observing the pattern of national debate the past 4 years alone. This year it was the economy. The failure of education is a national security threat and therefore can no longer be ignored. It should be our ONLY issue in 2010. And we cannot have a traditional method of deliverly like we have in the past. The educational war will be in the inner cities.

I disagree that education is an appropriate core i...

2008-11-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

I disagree that education is an appropriate core issue for 2010. As I have posted on Right Michigan, our best bet for 2010 is to strip MEA of their ability to strong-arm uncooperative members by removing forced-unionization from Michigan law. Then, in 2012, when a Fair Tax and Right-to-Work environment are "rolling the snowball downhill" on rebuilding and reviving Michigan's economy, we slap Personal Education Accounts (read: "school vouchers"), along with other pro-citizen, pro-worker, pro-children, smaller-government initiatives, onto the ballot. But not sooner.

Consider it a chess match. Only in the rarest of circumstances does a four-move checkmate actually work. Make no mistake, we're going up against Big Labor, MEA, the Legislature itself, and Stryker's pocket book. If we spread our resources too thin, then we lose again . . . huge. Therefore, what we do is focus on a couple of issues that, when successfully executed, will set the stage for the larger sweep of the bigger agenda.

It's time.

2008-11-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

It's time.

I think you're on to something, my friend.--Nickww...

2008-11-14T06:06:00.001-08:00

I think you're on to something, my friend.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com

I think you're on to something, my friend.--Nickww...

2008-11-14T06:06:00.000-08:00

I think you're on to something, my friend.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com