)l 4A - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 L7 ef fl9E d The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu ANDREW GROSSMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF GARY GRACA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR GABE NELSON 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. ' MTH E b:ILY Tuningf up the workforce Education essential for ill-equipped industry Beginning next semester, it's back to school for 50 engineers at General Motors Corp. As part of a collaboration with the University, these workers will be joining a program that focuses on teaching them important new skills in alternative energy development and new technologies. At a time when GM is strug- gling to stay in business, this type of mutually beneficial partnership is good for the University and the state. It's also a stark reminder that Michigan workers as a whole are sorely lacking in exactly the kind of experience they will need to save this state's economy. We wouldn't have asked for it if we didn't need it." - Frederick Henderson, president of General Motors Corp., explaining the company's need for the proposed $18 billion bailout, as reported yesterday by The New York Times. Congress's auto defe f you have ever wanted to see cal opportunity. That's despicable, So what we're left with is the circus three grown men be ritualisti- no matter what your position on the that will begin tomorrow. The Detroit cally berated on live television, Detroit Three bailout is. Three understand that they will need tune into C-SPAN Take, for example, some of the to kiss alotofass to get the money they tomorrow. No, the questions (or more accurately criti- need. They've already started ramp- channel won't be cisms) lobbed at these executives last ing up the public relations stunts to replaying "Ameri- month when Congress rebuffed their get there, ditching the private jets for can Idol." It will first request for aid. Rep. Gary Acker- hybrid SUVs and promisingto receive be showing the man (D-N.Y.), getting close to asking only $1 in salary next year. Chrysler House of Represen- a question, said there was "a delicious even launched a campaign to "grab tatives Financial irony in seeing private luxury jets fly- democracy by the horns," whatever Services Commit- iginto Washington, D.C., and people that means. tee's questioning of GARY coming off them with tin cups in their Inevitably, members of Congress Rick Wagoner, Alan hands. ... It's almost like seeing a guy will respond in kind, and the great Mulally and Rob- GRACA show up at the soup kitchen in high Battle of Bullshit will ensue. A few ert Nardelli, the hat and tuxedo." representatives will grab the camera geniuses leading Someone was looking to get on the for a bit, blow off some steam about the Detroit Three. evening news back home. corporate pay and forget that they, Before I explain why this is bound And that's exactly what happened. too, are mostly rich white men who fly to be a perverse, hypocritical display The following days, the story wasn't in which a few unsavory members of about whether these companies need- Congress handcuff Wagoner, Mulally ed bridge loans, what would be the and Nardelli to a wall, spank them a costs of nothelpingthem and whether Chastising the few times and tell them to squeak like there are other options, it was about pigs in exchange for a few bucks, let how three corporate executives took auto executives is me say this: I'm no fan of corporate planeridesoncorporatejets. The story executives. was about how these three men didn't popular but wrong. No matter how subjectively diffi- come across as desperate enough to cult, visible or risky someone's job is, need the money. They really should that doesn't justify paying someone have shown up in T-shirts and ripped 344 times more a year than the aver- jeans with dented tin cans, shining in private jets, have lucrative incomes age worker, which is how much more shoes and begging for change. and haven't done their jobs particular- on average chief executive officers of Because that's what AIG did to get ly well (we wouldn't be in this mort- public companies make. And some- its billions of dollars in bailout money, gage mess if they had, right?). Once thing just doesn't make sense when right? that show is done, they will fork over executives get caught swindling con- Oh wait, no. Chastising insurance the money to the Detroit Three, and sumers out of millions of dollars and companies and investment banks everyone will be on their merry ways. knowingly passing off dangerous on television doesn't translate into What will be lost in this debate is products and only get a slap on the good news clips, so Congress didn't any legitimate concern about how to wrist while a shoplifter can do time do that. Instead, Congress has pub- revive American industry (or effec- in a jail or prison for ripping off a few licly shamed the easier target, the one tively move away from it), protect groceries from your local Kroger. everyone understands. I think I know workers and states like Michigan Though my heart may be small, how an assembly line works. I'm still from economic shocks, limit execu- it has grown three sizes in the past not sure how mortgages get bundled tive compensation instead of grand- few weeks for Wagoner, Mulally and into securities, collected into colla- stand about it and reduce the wealth Nardelli. Why? Because some mem- terized debt obligations, hacked up inequality in this country. I blame bers of Congress have looked at their into different types of tranches and Congress for not doingthose things. companies' plight (the same compa- "insured" with credit default swaps. nies that are, whether I like them or I'm especially not sure how so many Gary Graca is the Daily's editorial not, an essential part of this state) people got rich or lost their homes page editor. He can be reached and decided to use this as a politi- because of that. at gmgraca@umich.edu. The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed writers to be columnists next semester. Columnists write 750 words on a topic of their choice every other week. E-MAIL ROBERT SOAVE AT RSOAVE@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION. 0 Createdlastyear, the program is designed to pair engineers with experts at the Uni- versity who can teach them about alterna- tive energy methods, particularly involving electric batteries. Originally, the program included 25 GM workers. It will now take on an extra 50 employees, who will take online courses in three different areas of study: civil power, transportation power and microelectric and portable power. The hope is that as new technologies are developed and engineers familiarized with new practices, GM will have an easier time implementing these improvements. GM is certainly correct in its thinking: developing these skills is critical. Mov- ing ahead of foreign competition in profit- able alternative energy vehicles has been a hurdle that GM has stumbled over trying to jump. So part of the reason the company is begging on Washington D.C.'s doorstep is because it has failed to remedy the situa- tion. The first step to recovery, as the adage goes, is admittingyou have aproblem. If GM is going to prove itself worthy of $18 billion in federal loans, it will need to implement many more programs to revolutionize the company and its products. Thisrisn't just a GM problem, though. On - d scale, Michigan's workforce is simply not trained to meet the challenges of the future, despite programs like No Work- er Left Behind. During the pastseven years, Michigan has consistently ranked in the bottom half of states in terms of residents with professional degrees and near the top in terms of high school dropouts. When all this is considered, it's clear that Michigan is one of the worst states for technological growth to be implemented. Of course, there is a reason Michigan is so far behind: its lack of commitment to education. During the past seven years, the state has cut higher education funding by more than any other in the country and is still one of only three states to spend more money on prisons than higher education. As GM's new program shows, education is not just a way to attract new industry; it is also a way to make the industry more com- petitive. While it's a good thing that GM has iden- tified one of its many weak points and is seeking to improve, neither this company nor the state as a whole will be able to make the necessary transition overnight. Michi- gan's workforce needs to go back to school before the state can graduate to the level of new technology and energy-efficiency it so desperately needs.- EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Elise Baun, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Brian Flaherty, Matthew Green, Emmarie Huetteman, Emma Jeszke, Shannon Kellman, Edward McPhee, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Matthew Shutler, Robert Soave, Eileen Stahl, Jennifer Sussex, lmran Syed, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Margaret Young JENNIFER SUSSEX VIE T Testing NCLB's success MATTHEW SHUTLER C Pol Retaining Wolverine pride Earlier this semester;I asked my friend Ryan to take me to an upper-levelEngineering class.As an English major who takes as little "real math" as possible, I wanted to see what it was exactly that they did with the other side of the brain. When we entered the room, the professor from the previous class was erasing the chalk from the kind of fold-up blackboards that give me nightmares. I asked Ryan what some of the equations meant, to which he replied, "rocket science." I started to laugh, but then I realized he was serious. He rattled off some logic that I pretended to understand, but the only thing I caught was a brief allusion to a turbine. Luckily for me, Ryan had enough foresight to invite me to a lecture that Prof. Elliot Soloway was giving called "The World is Going Mobile" that was about education, not rocket science. Soloway opened with a couple of quotes from Diane Ravitch's recent opinion piece about No Child Left Behind in Forbes magazine. In her piece, Ravitch, who served as secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan, denounced NCLB, a plan she once supported. Though she questioned the intrusive policies of NCLB, the only improvements she suggested were that the U.S. Congress was "not the right place to decide how to fixour schools" and throw- ing more money at the problem won't help. Stories critical of NCLB have been hard to find in the mainstream media, enough to qual- ify the topic as one of media watchdog Project Censored's 25 censored stories of 2008. But that doesn't mean there aren't problems with the policy. NCLB has shunted the future of the coun- try into the hands of the private sector. Chil- dren in third through eighth grade are tested annually. The lowest achievers from the lowest socioeconomic rung are considered qualified to either move to another public school or under- go tutoring. That is, of course, assuming that transportation costs haven't been capped. The provided tutoring has no cost. It is instead funded entirely by profits of the testing industry that has garnered $1.9 to $5.3 billion a year from program mandates. Even worse, the big players in this game are McGraw-Hill, Houghton-Mifflin and Harcourt General - textbook giants that dominate the market. Ravitch and I agree on one thing: Congress should not be the battleground for educational reform. It has proven itself defunct, crooked and unaccountable for our education crisis. Soloway introduced the sobering fact that in Detroit alone about 22 percent of all ninth grad- ers are expected to graduate from high school. That means that only one in five young adults enrolled in Detroit public schools are expected to get their high school diploma, let alone go on to college. One solution to overcome the education gap is to bridge the digital divide by offering federal grants and subsidies to failing schools. Current- ly, most of the schools that lobby for this kind of funding are the wealthier districts; they know how valuable it is to provide computers to their students. In contrast to this, the schools that need this technology the most often fail to see its potential as an instrument of change. But it is crucial that information technology becomes accessible to this tech-savvy genera- tion of youngsters. Learner-centered computer interfaces and development in educational software is necessary to engage these students on their level. This approach recognizes that while part of the problem is the corruption of the government, another is the failure of edu- cators to recognize that this is one of the rea- sons why they aren't reaching children. If the government continues to allocate enor- mous sums of money to NCLB during Barack Obama's term, wouldn't it make more sense to spend it on technology that engages ratherthan grills kids? Until the government repeals or significantly revises NCLB, the testing indus- try should take some losses. NCLB needs to strengthen education through computational tools, preventative measures that would do much more toward fixing an educational crisis than simply conducting data analysis and offer- ing paltry suggestions. Jennifer Sussex is an LSA senior. It's been called the worst season in the University of Michigan's 129-year history and a slap in the face to the devoted hordes of students who bleed maize and blue each game, butI don't buy it. This football season was much more than that. Though the team may not have produced the record most of us wanted this year, it still delivered unforgettable moments for its dedi- cated fans, and helped create a home for thousands of freshmen, like me, here at the University. To put this in perspective for you, let me back up a couple months. This year my life in college as a freshman began with feelings of trepidation and anxiety. A new world existed inside the prodigious halls of the University and, in all honesty, I had no idea how I would adapt. I came to this school knowing just a handful of people and having graduated from a high school so small the entire student body could easily fit inside a couple of the lecture halls here. I no longer had the security of knowing every person I would see in my classes or the abil- ity to identify every faceI saw on any given day. Back in high school, I was never an avid football lover, if truth be told. I went to my school's homecoming game my senior year, but that was the extent of my interest. Thinking that wouldn't change, I didn't even buy season tickets when I came here. But amid the excitement and euphoria on campus, the first home game piqued my interest, and I decided to buy a ticket for the next game. The intimidating aspect of walk- ing into our stadium for the first time was lessened as new friends brought a feeling of reality and home to the Uni- versity environment. With the stub in my pocket and my friends close by, I entered the Big House. The energy was unlike anything I had ever expe- rienced.A vast seaofyellow blanketed the stadium while the ringing of cow- bells and the enthusiastic sounds of the band permeated every seat of the stadium. Standing among thousands of students whose sole intention was to cheer with every fiber oftheir being is truly an incredible experience. And as you undoubtedly recall, this match- up against Miami (Ohio) gave us one of our few victories. That was one of the best days I've experienced at the University so far. Despite a disappointing record, moments like the victories over Miami (Ohio) and Wisconsin dem- onstrate that this season did have some unforgettable high points. A 3-9 season - while admittedly not what anyone had been expecting - can never diminish that fact. I may only be a freshman and may have never experienced a "true" Wolverine win- ning season, butI still appreciate this year's victories along with the team's historic reputation. Call me naive, but it isn't about how many games we won or lost, it's about the times we spent crammed inside our great stadium rooting for our team. Walking to the games clad in our gleaming maize shirts and cheering untilourvoicesgohoarse fromoveruse is the true essence of Michigan foot- ball. Each Saturday when we parade into the Big House and continue our seemingly everlasting accomplish- ment of crowding over 100,000 people onto those benches, we continue the Michigan tradition. Every time we form the infamous "Z" by joining our thumbs and cheeringon punter Zoltan Mesko, we continue the Michigan tra- dition. Our season's record can never erase these memories. I feel sorry for the seniors who must exit on this slightly sour note, but my sadness can't go deeper than that. Winning season or not, we are the University of Michigan - a tradi- tion of football excellence and legend- ary fan support. Nextyear will give us a new season and another chance to prove ourselves. Whether next year's team is unstoppable or not, the stu- dents will stand proud and cheer until our voices escape us. Matthew Shutler is an LSA freshman. ROSE JAFF E E-MAIL ROSE AT ROSEJAFF@UMICH.EDU Con rA fot ow -r -our Fa e~r~t a-P - -1 }C *I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. Letters are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedai @umich.edu.