0 4A - Thursday, September 27,2007 P 1/N The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E CJtIzdigan BaIj Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Budgetblues Partisan wrangling in legislature must give way to solution C hildren are taught about responsibility at an early age. Apparently, Michigan's legislators forgot those childhood lessons: They have yet to pass a budget for the 2008 fiscal year, and the deadline is Oct. 1. Partisanship and polarization in the state legislature has kept lawmakers from doing this essential job. Michigan's Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, Repub- lican-controlled Senate and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm are now bickering over a budget that should have been done months ago. With four days left to pass the budget, it's time for Democrats and Republicans to recognize that their petty squabbling is jeop- ardizing the state's essential services and that raising taxes is the inevitable cure to the massive budget shortfall. I call on President Bush to follow President Reagan's example and listen to those among his advisers who know that we need to have binding reductions in CO2." - Former Vice President Al Gore at a White House-sponsored climate conference CHRIS KOSLOWSKI| TPL) H~#JI rDoV PSYeah, tlw- retatef..A pair o etev oal Te Miciga ayiriaa III .Jh, Wednesday.rd say arouad 3aO.-Aaes right pm.Yesid. He's amt 6 feet tall,2000 pounds hoofed, 1Q00 CR Ieo stol WIOI 0opin sn . 00 fia NOES Dic sunglasses Student ogi len elevator EtE: ret adoswvDai WHERE:Ha eta on agse WN: ednesday S Wednesday a mbos li55 an. p'w WHAT: A female M A bullooidsnr sdentaroaed ece eioiihtUiverasity suggestie look ie i his eeasivepaiet of aae elevatorderT asses stater,P5e ported, aported sihesatw theadeno ipzi _ DD sa aed iover a ,al sev anevaer o hatsn.o zeortde swip is sisllahn giwian coeg gca~~oee~siO "ai~'~osm 0I 111I1I t11111 111111111111111111 !./T.3 F Who knows best? The great finagling is taking place because Michigan law states that the budget must be balanced; Michigan cannot run a deficit like the federal government can. This year, lawmakers face a $1.75 billion shortfall that must be filled with a simple combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. If an agreement about the budget is not made before the Oct. 1 deadline, a government shutdown is close to inevitable. Hoping to avert this approaching shut- down, both the Democratic House and Republican Senate have proposed plans that cater to their bases, but overlook the best interests of the state as a whole. The Republican Senate passed one such plan on Monday. That plan, however, was nothing but a PR play; state Republicans are quick to point out that it would not cut state spend- ing on public schools and universities any further. However, they fail to account for inflation, and that essentially results in cuts as the budget continues to pay out the same amount even though that amount is worth less year-by-year. The Democratic House will surely reject the plan, but without a more viable alterna- tive on the table, the state moves closer to the brink of a shutdown. After months of debate, both sides have now devolved into childish stubbornness, risking further dam- age to the state's economy, reputation and the well-being of residents. Although it is possible for the legislature to push back the budget deadline another 30 days, this option is not acceptable either. The state's economic reputation is in shambles already; a bicker- ing legislature that passes the state budget when it feels like it is hardly what businesses like to see. No one likes the idea of raising taxes, but it is a bullet the state will have to bite if it's ever to recover from the current "one state recession." Opposing politicians and special interest groups - like the one that erected a 10-foot anti-tax pig and whose mantra is comprised of "no new taxes" - need to realize the impracticality of their stance. With critical services like public schools, Medicaid and the state police in jeopardy, raising taxes is a solution can no longer be ignored. Without this solution, the University and other public institu- tions of higher learning, will eventually have to raise tuition, possibly even for the upcoming winter semester. The partisanship that has been infect- ing Lansing: for the many months-of this current battle needs to be ousted. A budget has to be passed before the deadline, and it must include appropriate plans for public services, especially for public universities. Anything short of that would simply not be worth the wait. What it means to be educated has been a hotly debated subjectsince the proposition of the No Child Left- Behind Act by Pres- ident Bush within the first week of 7 his presidency. Ther New York Times recently ran an editorial (What's Good for Children, 09/12/2007) that BRYAN focused on pOs- KOLK sible reforms to the - act. But those sug- gestions miss the point: The real focus needs to be on the larger trends in mod- ern American thought about education reform, specifically regarding who we think our teachers are. The editorial begins by stating, "America's business community was an early advocate of reform and a prime mover in the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, which required the states to improve public schooling for all students." While that's a true enough statement, the language contains a few subtleties that should be dissected. For instance, the usage of the word "required" implies "with aloaded gun to one's back." And "improve" is a very debatable word in this case. NCLB is essentially a reauthoriza- tion of anolderact, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965,with _ the addition of several new strategies. While NCLB is immense and multifac- eted, the most contentious part is the scheme by which it seeks to focus on poor students. The act employs a car- rot-and-stick approach in which fed- eral money given to public schools is directly tied to standardized test scores in English, math and science. Do better on the tests, and you get the carrot. The problem is the stick; it causes far more harm than good in most schools. The Times editorial goes on to state, "Business leaders are rightly raising their voices in an attempt to prevent the teachers'unions and their political allies from weakening this important law." These business leaders - in this case members of the Business Roundtable - want more highly qualified employees and are rightly willing to support high- er educational standards in order to get them. Somehow, though, the standards they have deemed appropriate are not as highly thought of by teachers. Too much of the conversation on this issue tries to paint a picture of teach- ers' unions as being anti-education and serving only the teachers' interests. It is certainly true that some teachers have been able to take advantage of unions and tenures in order to retain healthy paychecks while not meeting some of the program's requirements. But are we honestly ready to believe that the majority of teachers are so self- centered as to hold opinions detrimen- tal to the very field to which they have dedicated their lives? The idea of a healthy teacher pay- check is laughable to begin with. Not so with the people who pushed for NCLB - the business professionals whose paychecks are more than healthy., Which one is likely to have a higher per- centage of corruption? Without resting too much of my case on an appeal to the ,senses, who would you trust more with, the education of your children, Mr. Rogers or Mr. Kenneth Lay? Business leaders certainly are not all bad, and they contribute immensely in support of education. But perhaps the spending of their money and the direc- tion that education takes in the future should be left up to the experts in the field, the instructors and researchers who will educate tomorrow's teachers. By basing educational funding on standardized tests, NCLB has two widespread and devastating effects on education. English, science and math become means to an end - the stan- dardized tests that give schools money. Districts that teach largely to these tests cannot be focused on encourag- ing ongoing education and exploration. Under NCLB, schools need scores, not creative thinkers. Listen to teachers' opinions regarding education reform. Additionally, programs unnecessary tothesestandardizedtestsare devalued and often cut. There is no social studies test, so guess which programs are dis- appearing in schools struggling to meet NCLB requirements. Don't even men- tion the arts; how could they possibly be important to developing well-round- ed and intelligent individuals? Here at the University, we are all well-educated, and still a good number of us would probably rather represent our intelligence by something ,other than a test score. I'm guessing that part of that sentiment comes from an inter- est in lifelong learning, a craving to knowthe world better. These interests in all of us extend beyond fifth-grade English, science and math and into other subject areas deemed less impor- tant or immeasurable by NCLB. If we want to contribute to the future for every part of society, then our policies for education need to reflect that goal. Bryan Kolk can be reached at beakerk@umich.edu. Editorial Board Members: Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Brian Flaherty, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Gavin Stern, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner BRETT SEAMNON# Tasers are safest option for cops Like any authority fearing college stu- dent, I find excessive use of police force troubling. Like many people, I was upset by the police attack on University of Florida student Andrew Meyer. When I opened The Michigan Daily on Monday, I expected an editorial detailing the events of the attack and condemning the police for their exces- sive use of force against a student. Instead, there was a six-paragraph editorial, criticiz- ing the device used to carry out the attack (A shocking trend, 09/24/2007). I feel that criti- cizing the Taser itself distracts people from thinking about why excessive police violence occurs and how it can be eliminated. Among its central claims, the editorial argues that the increased use of Tasers exacer- bates the problem of police brutality. It argues that Tasers are likely to be abused since they "take far less thought and effort then batons." One problem with this reasoning is that it ignores the fact that Taser International, the main producer of Tasers, is starting to create many safety features specifically designed to curtail the use of excessive force. Unlike the incident with Meyer, most instances of police violence are not captured on film, begging for our reactions. Tasers are now offering a chance to change that. Some police Tasers, including those used by the Chi- cago Police Department since 2005, now have a small camera attached to the Taser to record the incident from when the device is turned on to when it is turned off. This allows those not present to determine if the force was unwar- ranted. The Taser also offers a feature that records the amount of times a shock was deliv- ered to help determine if a Taser was used in a way that would be considered abusive. Because of these features, officers who fear losing their job, fear legal repercussions will likely think twice aboutcusing the Taser. If the officer disregards these consequenc- es, these innovations offer a greater ability to investigate the matter and determine if exces- sive force was used and punishment is war- ranted. A baton does not have these safety features. Additionally, the editorial makes much of the health risks of the Taser but fails to note that in many cases the Taser is absolved from the incident. In litigation where death was blamed on Tasers, the victims were shown to have had severe heart conditions that would possibly have been set off by any stressful event like being shot, clubbed or even simply being confronted by the police. When com- pared to a gun or a club, the Taser is the safest choice. In fact, police must practice using Tas- ers on themselves before taking them into the field that. For obvious reasons, they do not do that with clubs and guns. Unless we want to take all weapons away from police, the Taser is the best way to pre- vent police brutality. Perhaps when people stop criticizing the Taser and allow it to become more accepted, it will replace the weapons that actually hurt and kill people. Brett Seamnon is an LSA senior. PAGE REDFORD in This Case justice Was Not BRi,d Free speech argument wasted on people like Ahmadinejad TO THE DAILY: I'm glad to see that the Iranian president's visit to Columbia captured every word of Wednesday's Daily opin- ion page, butthe debate is misdirected. Much to the delight of Columbia's featured guest, everyone in this country has allowed his appearance to turn into a referendum on free- dom of speech in our country. We all know that in America you are free to say and free to do as you please, even when it offends the sensibilities of the great majority of people. And from time to time, that includes letting speak those people who we would rather see rotting in a dungeon. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Iranian public discourse. Most everyone with a voice that does not adhere to government doctrine is suppressed. I point to the most recent case of Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American schol- ar who was imprisoned without charge in solitary confine- ment for more than four months this summer. Her only crime was participating in research on the role of Iranian women while at a policy center in Washington - hardly an imprison- able offense in any country with even moderate free speech standards. Until Iran and its tyrannical leader can account for that government's speech and thought suppression, we should not be impeaching our very advanced and protected free speech rights at the behest of cruel and petty dictators. Aaron Willis LSA junior A word to Ann Arbor parking enforcement officers TO THE DAILY: Dear Ann Arbor parking cops: I fully understand that you're only doing your jobs and should, perhaps, even be commended for having admirably devoted your lives to civil service. Nonetheless, I want you all to know that I hate you. Passionately. As passionately as any man or woman has ever loved, I hate you. Andrew Dixon LSA junior Random drug testing for students is counterproductive TO THE DAILY: This week, the Office of National Drug Control Pol- icy came to Detroit to host its fifth regional student drug testing summitthis year. Faculty and administra- tors from schools all over Michigan came to this event SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU to learn more about random student drug testing. Unfortunately, the information the ONDCP pro- vides is horribly one-sided. That is why the University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy decided to show up and inform the teachers and administra- tors that student drug testing is not only costly, but invasive and ineffective. The University's Institute for Social Research actually conducted the largest national study on student drug test- ing and found no difference in drug use rates between stu- dents of schools thathave drugtesting programs and those that do not. Prominent national organizations represent- ing experts on adolescent health - includingthe National Education Association, the National Public Health Asso- ciation and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence - oppose student drug testing. SSDP was there to offer a perspective that would not have been present otherwise. Our students were able to clearly explain to the summit attendees that drug test- ing programs are not just ineffective, but may actually be counterproductive. Drug testing often holds back students from participating in extracurricular activi- ties when those are the very activities that are most likely to provide structure and supervision during the peak hours of adolescent drug use. Random drug testing erodes relationships of trust between students and adults at schools, hindering open communication and damaging an essential component of a safe and rewarding learning environment. Educa- tors, please just say noto random student drug testing. Chris Chiles LSA sophomore The letter writer is the executive director of the University chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. Wolverine fans winning hearts and minds of opposing fans TO THE DAILY: I attended the Penn State-Michigan game on Saturday. I wore my white very proudly and had the luxury of sit- ting near two die-hard Michigan fans. One stated he even worked for the University and now attends games with his daughter. Another was at the game with his wife. Before I drove to Ann Arbor, I was told stories of how mean and rude Michigan fans are during and after games. On my way back, I was telling stories of how a few Michi- gan fans became friends with some Penn State fans. These Wolverine fans acted like all fans should toward visitors. I hope that if they come to Happy Valley, they are treated the same way. For their acts, they should be commended. My view of the University of Michigan certainly changed over the weekend. Kyle Rentschler The letter writer is a senior at Penn State University