Think about it. Policy makers and advocates have a lot more to consider than parents, teachers, administrators, and school boards do. Parents just have their kids, teachers but a classroom, and administrators but a district. But legislators and advocates. . .they have the CHILDREN!

There is the child's self esteem to consider, his proper diet, a free before-school breakfast, his physical exercise, his embrace of cultural equality, and his acceptance of the global green economy and climate change. He must possess a healthy dose of imperialist guilt, have a willingness to work in a team setting (even if other team members do nothing but screw off,) know how to apply a condom, embrace the collective, learn that communism wouldn't have been as bad had it been tried in a more industrialized country, and must have a keen understanding of his country's founding based on Judeo-Christian principles. Hmmmm, maybe not that very last part. And, let me tell you, this sort of intervention doesn't come on the cheap.

How could bureaucrats ever trust parents to do an adequate job of teaching their children these things?

As if to emphasize the fact, during the same year that Michigan legislators were telling parents and local school boards that their opinions mattered not one whit on something as simple as a school calendar, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued this statement in a ruling concerning parental rights in the education of children in California.

"While parents may have a fundamental right to decide whether to send their child to a public school, they do not have a fundamental right generally to direct how a public school teaches their child."

Unfortunately for Michigan's state-owned school children, the additional Labor Day tax revenues have not been nearly enough to steer Michigan out of the economic doldrums, and another solution (along with many more dollars) are needed to thwart insolvency. Fortunately, we might have found us a stop-gap Sugar Daddy.

From MLive and the AP:

Michigan's efforts to win more federal cash for schools could result in changes that would cause some angst beyond education circles.

Among them is a proposal that would eliminate the requirement that Michigan schools wait to start classes until after Labor Day. It's one of several changes proposed in legislation that supporters say would give Michigan a shot at winning up to $400 million in the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition.

[...]

Some lawmakers say eliminating that requirement may improve the state's chances of securing more federal cash for schools. Rep. Tim Melton, an Auburn Hills Democrat who sponsors key Race to the Top-oriented legislation, says the provision is intended to meet the federal program's goals of providing schools flexibility to boost time spent on instruction.

"It's a provision that we believe, in Race to the Top, makes us more competitive," Melton said.

From the evidence provided we can clearly discern the established preferential hierarchy of education policy makers in Lansing.

1. The education policy makers themselves
   
2. Feds with boatloads of cash earmarked directly for government education coffers
3. Business lobbies who like busy holiday weekends (and taverns that have Lotto)
4. School Districts that have to adapt to it all on the money they are allowed to have
   
5. Parents and other citizens who have been pretty much booted out of the whole process (other than those pesky tax contributions)
6. Public school children who will learn exactly what socially driven policy advocates feel is important for them to learn, at least as long as the money holds out and parents don't butt in

So, where will the money come from?  The feds cannot borrow into perpetuity because either the Chinese will balk at our gluttony, or inflation will hammer the dollar into oblivion (and you thought $4.30 a gallon gasoline was bad.)  Not only can  the state not finance its endeavors on borrowed money, its legislators have already sucked every discretionary dollar possible out of Michigan's shriveled economy, and in doing so they have reached that magical point of giddy irresponsibility where squeezing $1 more out of the economy will drive more than $1's worth of wealth beyond the state's borders.

The solution to this problem lies in returning control of schools back to the local level and entrusting parents and voters with making the best decisions for their own children and communities. This may prove to be a pill too large for bureaucrats to swallow. After all, they didn't get the power they have today just so they could throw it away on a bunch of blue collar country bumpkins.