4A - Monday, December 6, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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SIMON BORST
AXC.T
JACOB SMILOVITZ
EDITOR IN CHIEF
RACHEL VAN GILDER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
MATT AARONSON
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.
Saying noto no
Republican senators must do their jobs
Despite their plans, Democrats may not be able to accom-
plish everything on their agenda before Republicans
take control of the U.S. House of Representatives on
Jan. 1. Last week, all 42 Republican senators decided to block
legislative action until Congress extended the Bush-era tax cuts
for everyone - a topic that requires debate, not a line drawn in
the sand. This rash decision creates gridlock in Congress. It's
the job of Congress to create legislation -and Senate Republi-
cans have flat-out refused to do their jobs. Republican senators
need to stop focusing on party interests and work with Demo-
crats to create the best solution for all constituents.
The next Michigan Man
On Dec. 2, the U.S. House voted to
extend the Bush tax cuts for families that
make under $250,000 each year. On Sat-
urday, Senate Republicans rejected the
bill. According to a Dec. 1 New York Times
article, Republican senators plan to block
all legislation until all of the tax cuts were
extended - including those for households
that make more than $250,000 each year.
This plan was outlined in a letter sent to
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-
.Nev.) Wednesday that was signed by all 42
Republicans in the Senate. Later that day,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) gave a speech scolding Democrats
and President Barack Obama for "ignoring
the midterm election results."
The tax cuts Republicans want aren't a
good idea given the current economic situa-
tion. While the Democrats' proposal would
add an additional $3 trillion to the federal
deficit over the next 10 years, the Republi-
cans' proposal would add $4 trillion. The
Republican tax cuts would onlybetter house-
holds that can afford to pay greater taxes and
would simultaneously hurt the rest of the
country's economic standing. The $1 trillion
added to the deficit would put further - and
unnecessary - pressure on this country's
already unmanageable budget.
But more disturbing than the cuts is the
Republican's attitude. Their approach is
frankly disappointing. Members of Con-
gress are elected and paid with taxpayer
money to pass legislation on behalf of their
constituents. Threatening to block all leg-
islation is irresponsible, particularly at the
end of a session. Other important legislation
- like bills pertaining to the ban on LGBT
people in the military and the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty - is now at a stand-
still as a result of the Republican's childish
behavior.
The partisan bickering in Washington
D.C. is strongly dividing the nation. In
rough times, Congress needs to work effi-
ciently, compromise and pass comprehen-
sive legislation. Americans want and need
to see policy made. Members of Congress
are elected to help advance the country,
not prevent its development. Republican
senators are putting their party's interests
before the well-being of the nation and its
citizens. This open-ended and unproduc-
tive threat is unacceptable.
The United States is currently plagued by
overwhelming unemployment, thousands
of troops fighting overseas, schools being
closed across the country due to a lack of
funding and poor infrastructure. Instead
of implementing a petty and juvenile stop-
page of all bills, Republican senators need to
refocus their attention on writing and pass-
ing essential legislation.
At the end of the year football
banquet last week, belea-
guered head coach Rich
Rodriguez nearly
wept as he said: "I
truly want to be a
Michigan Man."
But does he even
know what that is?
When Bo
Schembechler died
more than four
years ago, editors
from all sections IMRAN
of the Daily united SYED
to produce a spe-
cial edition of this
newspaper. In that
special edition and on the pages of
the regular editions of the Daily that
week, thousands of words were spo-
ken to celebrate that great Michigan
Man.
My own contribution to that dis-
cussion was a column on this page
(The last Michigan Man, 11/20/2006).
After discussing Schembechler's
unparalleled significance to the
University, I concluded that college
football and campus dynamics had
changed so much over the years that
there never would be another great
football coach who was also a Univer-
sity leader and icon the way that Bo
had been. He was, I wrote at the time,
the last Michigan Man.
Four years later, I see one flaw in
that conclusion. Yes, longgone are the
days when the football coach ruled
campus, when he was a role model
even to students he didn't coach and
when, regardless of who the presi-
dent was, the coach would be the
de facto face of the University. That
much is true, but I forgot something
then that I realize now: Just because
the world has moved on from that
idyllic time does not mean Michigan
football has moved on.
However naive an ideal it may be,
here at the University, we still want
that iconic Michigan Man to lead the
troops on Saturday and to lead us
all every other day. It doesn't matter
where the world may have moved on
to - Michigan football answers to
only its own gravity.
University President Mary Sue Cole-
man and former Athletic Director Bill
Martin also forgot that crucial little
truth when they sought a replacement
for the retiring Lloyd Carr three years
ago. They chose Rodriguez because he
has a brilliant football mind and even
his biggest critics have to admit that
very few people can build an offense
from the ground up like he can. But
excellence with X's and O's is second-
ary here at Michigan.
Yes, Rodriguez has lost far more
games than is moral in Ann Arbor. But
more wins would not cure his seminal
flaw: He has never wanted to be - and
never could be - the consummate,
all-around campus leader that this
University needs its football coach to
be. He's simply not of that breed. He's
not the type to push academics as Joe
Paterno did at Penn State, to push for
social progress like Bear Bryant did at
Alabama or to engage and involve stu-
dents from all walks of campus life as
Schembechler did.
Regardless of what he says, Rodri-
guez came here to coach football,
not to be a Michigan Man. That will
never be good enough, and that's why
Rodriguez will never be left alone to
coach in peace.
The image and destiny of the Uni-
versityhas always beentied tothe state
that gave it its name. For the state of
Michigan, the University has always
been a crown jewel - an indelible part
of the very identity of this state - along
with things like the assembly line,
labor unions and the Great Lakes.
As Michigan has suffered in recent
decades, it has lost the cornerstones
of its once enviable "middle class for
everyone" economy. The assembly ,
lines lie in ruins while thousands of
unemployed auto workers can find
nothing else to do. Labor unions now
take the brunt of the national criti-
cism of the American auto industry's
recent failures. The Great Lakes have
dropped, dried, been polluted and
now stand at the brink of an invasion
by some Asian killer fish. Yeah, it's
gotten pretty bad.
Being Michigan's
head coach goes far
beyond football.
Until three years ago, all was well
with the state's great University and
its football team. But the more you
lose, the more you begin to realize the
significance of what you have. This
University, this state and its people,
regardless of which team they cheer
for, can't afford the loss of yet another
Michigan brand.
We need Michigan football to rise
again to be .the silver bullet for this
state's national reputation that it has
always been. Four years after the last
one died, we need to find the next
Michigan Man to pull us up again
- and I don't just mean getting nine
wins and a trip to Pasadena.
Knowing all that it entails, does
Rodriguez still want tobe a Michigan
Man? Probably not. But there's a man
in Palo Alto who does. And he is per-
haps the only one who could.
- wmran Syed can be reached
at galad@umich.edu.
SETH SODERBORG I
Taking account of tax cuts
-the
podium
The Complete Spectrum: Christopher Dyer is pleased that
the new "Archie" character Kevin Keller, who is gay, is an
encouraging icon for the LGBT community.
Go to michigandaily.com/blogs/The Podium.
0
The federal budget deficit for 2010 is $1.47
trillion. That's approximately 9.1 percent of the
United States's total economic output for the
year. Since 2001, the Bush tax cuts have cost
the federal government $1.7 trillion. These tax
cuts will expire at the end of the year unless
Congress votes to extend them. According to
the federal office of Management and Bud-
get, if these tax cuts remain in place over the
next decade, they will cost the United States an
additional $3.3 trillion. If that seems unafford-
able, it is. But does this matter to our elected
leaders? Apparently not.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress
are debating whether the Bush tax cuts should
be extended in full or extended only for those
households making less than $250,000 per
year. No one is asking whether it makes sense
to extend them at all.
No one, that is, except the bipartisan deficit
commission appointed to plug that nearly tril-
lion-and-a-half dollar budget hole. The com-
mission came to the sensible conclusion that
spending trillions of dollars to extend tax cuts
already set to expire was, overall, an unproduc-
tive use of government resources. The budget
deficit was one of the biggest issues in the mid-
term elections. Does anyone in Congress actu-
ally care about the deficit? If they do, they sure
have a funny way of showing it.
It would be tempting to blame it all on the
Republicans. When all 42 Republican senators
signed a pledge to block all legislation until
Democrats agree to include tax extensions for
those making more than $250,000 per year, the
Republican Party once again proved its dedica-
tion to improving the lives of America's wealth-
iest citizens.
With their pledge, Republicans declared that
stopping a marginal tax increase on 1 percent
of Americans is more important than anything
else on the federal agenda. The Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty with Russia: less impor-
tant. Plugging the budget deficit: less impor-
tant. Remember that after the last stimulus bill
passed, Republicans declared that the budget
deficit threatened national security. Now they
support a multi-trillion dollar deficit expansion.
But if the Republicans are misguided, the
Democrats aren't much better. They argue that
the Bush tax cuts should be extended for every
household with a yearly income of $249,999.99
or less. Over the next 10 years, this plan would
save the government $700 billion relative to
what it would have lost by extending tax cuts
for the richest 1 percent of Americans. If the
Democrats have their way and extend tax cuts
for 99 percent of Americans, the government
would lose out on $2.6 trillion between now
and 2020.
The recession complicates the tax cut equa-
tion. Economic theory holds that an effective
recovery is possible only when lots of money is
available in the economy. Tax cuts, increased
government spending and inflation are three
ways to increase money supply. Together, these
three activities stimulate demand in the econ-
omy and begin a self-reinforcing cycle of eco-
nomic growth and job creation. Tax increases
remove some money from the general-economy.
Therefore, during a recession, a tax increase
could put a crimp on economic growth and
slowdown the recovery.
Many argue that the Bush tax cuts should
be extended to avoid this kind of crippling tax
increase. Peter Orszag, former director of the
Office of Management and Budget under Presi-
dent Obama, has suggested that the tax cuts
should remain in place temporarily for some
income levels. His plan would limit the tax
increase to those people least likely to spend
their money -that richest1percent - and would
also be an important step toward reining in the
budget deficit. Unfortunately, Republicans have
outright rejected this sensible proposal.
Tax cuts are a form of stimulus. Both par-
ties are in favor of the Bush tax cut stimulus
program, but their divide over the $250,000
bracket can tell us a lot about each party's priori-
ties. Republicans want to keep giving stimulus
money to the wealthiest Americans, while Dem-
ocrats support stimulus cash for everyone up to
and including the slightly-less-than extremely
wealthy Americans. Neither party is willing to
address the budget deficit. The Bush tax cuts
are a huge drain on the federal budget. Allowing
them to continue in any form for more than two
years would be truly irresponsible.
Seth Soderborg is an LSA junior.
Teacher examination
'm certain that you have had
some terrible teachers. Teachers
can be awful for a lot of reasons:
they're confus-
ing, they write bad-
tests and quizzes,
they give miser-
able lectures, they
pontificate for 20
minutes about .
something com- t
pletely unrelated i
to the class's sub-
ject or they're just RACHEL
plain mean. I haveV
experienced all VAN GILDER
of these things at
least once during
my time here at the University and
some when I was in high school.
The state legislature is working on
a way to find those bad teachers more
quickly and get them out of the class-
room. But it's anyone's guess if the
method they've proposed will work.
On Dec. 1, the Michigan Senate
passed a bill to alter the way teach-
ers are evaluated. If passed, 45 per-
cent of a teacher's evaluation would
be based upon student achievement in
the form of performance on statewide
standardized tests and school-spe-
cific assessments, according to a Dec.
2 report by The Detroit News. The
legislation now goes before the state
House of Representatives and might
make it to a vote before the lame duck
session ends on Friday. But that seems
unlikely considering the objections
of powerful teachers' unions like the
Michigan Education Association.
Maybe Michigan tenure needs
reform - it takes a fair amount of
time and effort to remove tenured
teachers unless they do something
blatantly egregious. On one hand,
that prevents adequate teachers from
being forced out of a district simply
because they ticked off a parent, stu-
dent or administrator. On the other
hand, it also protects teachers who
have never done well even though
they have been granted tenure.
Here in Michigan, we have fairly
good teachers overall because we have
a lot of strong teaching programs.
Michigan State University, Grand Val-
ley State University and, of course,
the University of Michigan have great
teacher education programs. And
Michigan certification is among the
most difficult to obtain in the nation.
Michigan certification will transfer
to a lot of other states fairly easily. It's
muchmore difficult to transfer out-of-
state certification to Michigan.
But that's not to say that every
single Michigan teacher is awesome.
Despite the quality of Michigan
teaching programs, there are always
going to be some poor teachers. And
they shouldn't retain their positions
if they're doing a bad job.
. The problem is figuring out what
"doing a bad job" means - and what
it means to do a good job. That's
because everyone likes teachers for
different reasons. For kids, a lot of it
has to do with personality. For par-
ents, a lot of it has to do with helping
their kid get into college. For the gov-
ernment (and school administrations
focused on funding), it's all about the
standardized test results. Teachers,
meanwhile, often just want to help
students learn. And though all of
those things are connected, they are
never the same thing.
In the School of Education here
at the University, we talk a lot about
grades, testing and learning. Some-
times, learning can't be effectively
measured in an empirical way. Some-
times, the best teacher is the one that
helps a troubled kid find peace in the
classroom. These students may not
learn anything about geometry or
Shakespeare - but maybe that's okay
if they feel like, for the first time,
they're in a safe, caring environment.
But students obviously need
to know about obtuse angles and
"Romeo and Juliet." Teachers have
a responsibility to present informa-
tion in interesting and varied ways to
appeal to the broadest possible range
of learners. They have a responsibil-
ity to help students understand that
learning is a life-long process, not
just something that happens for the
seven hours a day that the students
are in school. And sometimes, even if
students apply themselves, they still
won't get an 'A+'. If teachers teach
material specifically related to stan-
dardized tests in an effort to increase
students' scores, they're often teach-
ing test-taking skills instead of con-
tent knowledge. Test-taking skills
can be important, but shouldn't be
overvalued.
Learning often *
can't be measured
by a grade.
Sometimes, it's obvious that a
teacher is inadequate. Students don't
respond to these teachers, grades
remain low and there's no evidence
that students are progressing. But
because everyone has a different
perspective on what a good teacher
is, these teachers are few and far
between. Less effective teachers are
hard to point out.
The consensus among a lot of edu-
cators is that learning often can't be
measured by a grade. It can only be
measured by a student's attitude.
At the end of the day, it's a student's *
responsibility to apply themself. It's
the teacher's job to show them how.
I don't know everything that
makes a good teacher. I don't know
if it's possible to know. But what I do
know is that students' performance
on tests shouldn't be the determining
factor.
- Rachel Van Gilder is the Daily's
editorial page editor. She can be
reached at rachelvg@umich.edu
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Aida Ali, Jordan Birnholtz, Will Butler, Eaghan Davis, Michelle DeWitt,
Ashley Griesshammer, Will Grundler, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata,
Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga, Teddy Papes, Tommaso Pavone, Leah Potkin,
Roger Sauerhaft, Seth Soderborg, Asa Smith, Julian Toles, Laura Veith, Andrew Weiner
t