You can call it a cheap shot, but the liberal web site Michigan Messenger has posted a story that says Gov. Rick Snyder’s daughter attends a private school where tuition is $20,000 a year – and the school is begging for more money.
The Messenger compares that $20,000-plus figure to per-pupil funding of public schools, which averages about $7,000.
Snyder’s daughter attends Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, which has just released a fundraising video in which school officials say the $20,000-per-year tuition per student is not enough to keep the school running.
As Snyder continues to face staunch opposition for cutting per-pupil state funding for public schools, Greenhills has produced a fundraising video urging parental participation in an annual auction.
The video asks viewers to consider a donation of $10,000, $500 or $50 to help the school defray the school’s operational costs.
Snyder Communications Director Geralyn Lasher said the Snyders had no role in the fundraising campaign and she added that the governor’s K-12 funding plan rewards those school districts that adopt the “best practices” recommended by the Snyder administration.
“When only 16 percent of high school students who graduate are ‘college-ready,’ as a state we have to look at the entire education system and not just funding in order to change that figure to 100 percent of high school graduates who are college-ready and career-ready,” Lasher said.
Not surprisingly, Michigan Education Association spokesman Doug Pratt had a very different reaction to the $20,000-per-pupil funding at Snyder’s daughter’s school.
“That level of funding would allow for small class sizes, advanced and well-rounded course offerings, sufficient textbooks/supplies/technology, top-notch teacher training, student support services and more -– all things that are essential to providing a world class education. $20,000 per student is a lot closer to what we should be spending on public education than where we are today,” Pratt said.
Most, if not all the legislators send their children to private schools. Call your legislator and ask.
Rather than point fingers and attack each other, why not understand that this all comes down to fundamental value issues. What is the role of government in our lives? Should we rewrite the Michigan Constitution to eliminate the right to a public education? Once people come to grips with why we are in decline, then you can start to ask the right questions. Read Pat Buchanan's "The Great Betrayal", or MacArthur's "The Selling of Free Trade" and you will see that this has been a long time coming – only delayed by an artificial housing bubble. By destroying the ability of the middle class to make income, you destroy the ability collectively to pave your roads, fund your schools, and maintain your water and sewerage. Snyder and the other parents at his daughter's exclusive school don't pay for these things. That is never going to happen. The American people's trust of their politicians and the main stream political parties – which are identical on issues of free trade, Wall Street, and Big Finance, have led us here. "Cassius was right: 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves"
Meanwhile, learn to live on less. Think about that next time you walk into that voting booth, and don't say you were never told.