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Raise the curtain.

The consistent inconsistency of the Michigan Left

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 06:59:03 AM EST
Tags: Granholm-Cherry, MEDC, MEGA, drop out rates, public schools, GM, bankruptcy, Detroit, corruption, ethics, consistency, lying liars (all tags)

So much to talk about, so little space. Alright, so, technically there's all the space in the world since this is a blogging community, not a newspaper and none of us are confined to word counts or column size restrictions... so let me rephrase. So much to talk about, so limited my ability to juggle multiple topics in one blog post while maintaining some semblance of focus.

Hmm. Not quite as pithy. Nevermind. Besides, you get the point.

I mean, we could discuss General Motors escape from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Ivory Tower even manages to poke a little fun at the Obama administration, which is a little bit jarring on first blush, but nice for a switch.

We could discuss the Associated Press's revelation of additional shady business from elected Democrats in the Motor City. Shady unless you consider using emergency funds to purchase a $1,600 floral arrangement good stewardship.

Then there's the Detroit News taking the Granholm-Cherry administration out to the woodshed for lying about Michigan's graduation rates.

(And oh so much more... please read on...)

According to Michigan State University's Education Policy Center, Michigan again is pretending those students who repeat ninth grade -- the students most at risk for leaving school -- do not exist in its state dropout calculations.
Statewide, the state reported the 2008 dropout rate was 14 percent. On the very same day, state schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan said at least 1 in 4 Michigan children never finish high school.
Meanwhile, the state is reporting the Detroit Public Schools' dropout rate is just 27 percent, despite respected national and state research that has repeatedly put the true rate as high as 75 percent.In addition, despite federal criticism, Michigan is calling tens of thousands of students who failed to graduate "off track," rather than putting them in the dropout column. These students are counted in neither the state's graduation nor its dropout rate, leading researchers to call them the "unknowns..."
Many researchers have asked the state to share its records, confidentially, to allow independent analysts to ascertain the real rates. The state has refused.

You don't need to be a high school graduate to know that the opposite of telling the truth is lying. Tsk. Tsk. But what do we expect after all these years? Integrity and consistency are the first things the Left abandons when they've got an agenda to push.

In this case, 2010 Gubernatorial candidate John Cherry needs to do a little (read: a lot of) damage control and his darndest to hide as best he can all of the ugly numbers associated with his last six years in office. A 75 percent drop out rate in a public school district doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his leadership ability, so why not cook the books and call it 27 percent?

Cherry, a de facto role model, isn't necessarily providing the best example to Michigan kids, but when three out of four are already dropping out of high school, that particular ethical peccadillo probably doesn't rate very high on the bad-learned-behavior list anyways.

And if all that still doesn't get the discussion cooking there's a move now afoot by the Big 3 to secure massive property tax relief in Michigan to keep a few extra workers on the payroll. According to the News:

Already this year, GM has taken 51 tax appeals against 17 communities to the Michigan Tax Tribunal. That's in addition to 88 appeals to the state tax board in 2007 -- the year when the law was changed so that industrial and commercial property tax appeals could bypass local boards and go directly to the state.

What's it going to be, Lansing? Lower taxes and save jobs or keep the levy tens of millions of dollars above what the Big 3 can pay and watch more auto plants dissolve into shuttered blight?

Oh, my bad. I forgot... the Left believes tax rates have no impact on job creation and retention. Which is why Democrats never use programs like MEGA and the MEDC. There's me expecting consistency again.

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