HERALD EDITORIAL: Promise protesters should redirect their discontent

Several citizen action groups have organized a protest to take place outside the State Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 3. This rally has good intentions to voice Michigan students’ frustration over the loss of Michigan Promise scholarship funding, although a bit misguided in its direction.

We stated previously the Western Herald’s belief that Michigan Promise payments should be continued in fairness to its intended recipients who were counting on that money to help with ever-rising tuition costs. However, in targeting Governor Jennifer Granholm and her administration as the culprit responsible for cutting the Promise, these protestors have missed the mark.

Gov. Granholm is the highest profile figure in Michigan politics, and public platforms in state politics do not get much grander than the State of the State Address. With this in mind, it is easy to see how groups such as Common Sense in Government and the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, among others, would wish to seize this occasion to attract public attention to an important issue.

By all means, such an opportunity to rally public opinion in favor of Promise funding should not go to waste, but it is counter-productive to attack one of the Promise’s staunchest defenders.

Let us review how the Promise ended up on the cutting-room floor when last fall’s budget was passed.

The Legislature was tasked with eliminating some $1.2 billion in spending in order to pass a budget, with failure to agree before deadline meaning a state-wide shutdown of government services. Education funding was hit hard in this process, including $140 million previously tagged for the Michigan Promise.

This decrease in funding for the Promise was part of a larger push to determine the entire state’s budget, over which the only control Gov. Granholm exerted was a final decision to sign or veto the bill set in front of her by Congress. A veto in this case would have resulted in the aforementioned government shutdown.

Despite a track record of support for the Promise (including a video on her Web site entitled, “We have to keep the Promise” – pretty clear where she stands), Gov. Granholm elected to approve the budget passed by Congress.

During a speaking tour of Michigan’s public universities in November 2009, Gov. Granholm addressed an audience at WMU’s Bernhard Center. Gov. Granholm defended her choice to sign the bill as constituted (sans Promise) by explaining that she had to make a decision between signing off on an “inadequate budget” or shutting down the state government. It clearly was not the ideal outcome, but her title is not Superintendent Jennifer Granholm, but governor, and she had to act accordingly with the big-picture interests of Michigan in mind.

Anybody who remembers the embarrassment that was the 2007 budget process can see why Gov. Granholm did not want to put Michiganders through that again, so her only realistic option was to sign the bill and hope to get the Promise reinstated later.

When speaking at WMU in November, Granholm went on to encourage students to contact their local lawmakers to voice support for keeping the Promise in the budget, saying, “This is fixable.” Unfortunately for needy students, that appears less and less likely, but still it should be noted the Governor had not given up.

Doubters will point out that when Gov. Granholm said all these things she was standing in front of hundreds of college students – of course she stated support for scholarships.

Fair enough, she easily could have been feigning support to garner votes from Michigan’s youngsters for years to come… if not for the fact that term limits mean this is her last year as Governor, no matter what Joe the Student thinks of her policies.

Would Gov. Granholm, whom we can reasonably assume is a rather busy person, really take the time to travel to seven different state universities to openly discuss Michigan Promise funding if she did not genuinely care about saving it?

Lt. Gov. John Cherry, who has also received some flak from protestors, has been an ally of the Michigan Promise for some time. He was quoted in a July 2009 report on michiganmessenger.com as saying “Tell them Michigan Promise is one promise they can’t afford to break,” and encouraging a gathering of students to “write, call and email” elected officials to urge them to keep the Promise. This does not sound like a man who deserves the scorn of Michigan’s college students.

Who then should this earnest but errant group of discounted citizens protest?

Promise funding was nixed in Congress as part of a negotiating process to trim the budget.

A review of the roll call for notable votes during this process reveals a split largely along party lines, with Democrats rejecting the Promise-less budget and Republicans approving, with a few Republicans standing in opposition as well (michiganvotes.org). Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R – Rochester) even listed the Promise among certain “luxuries” that needed to be trimmed out of the budget to fight Michigan’s mounting deficit.

This is not to paint those Republican congressmen and women as the villains, because no one wanted to be forced into making extreme budget cuts. There was simply a difference of opinion on which sacrifices should have been made. Bishop and his colleagues pushed for what they felt was best for Michigan’s economic health, however damaging to a small segment of the population composed of college students.

That being said, if protest groups truly want to voice their opinions to the people who axed Promise funding, the group of 19 Senators who voted in favor of House Bill 4441 (determining higher education funding) last summer would be a good place to start. A note to Kalamazoo residents: local Sen. Tom George was among those who said “aye.”

Wednesday’s demonstrations should still go on, but to raise awareness of the issue rather than disparage our embattled governor. Instead of casting a cloud over Gov. Granholm’s final State of the State Address, supporters of the Michigan Promise Scholarship should be equally supportive of one of its
greatest champions.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=14302

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Jan 31 2010. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com