Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Alanna Berger
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SAM FOGEL | COLUMN

What the Chicago teachers strike can teach Michigan

EVAN STERN | COLUMN

Where is the urgency?

ANDREW MEKHAIL | OP-ED

We need to fix our aging infrastructure
W

hether you think 
about our rusting 
bridges, 
pothole-
riddled 
roads 
or 
antiquated 
water 
and 
electrical 
systems, you have 
surely noticed the 
alarming 
state 
of 
our old and decaying 
infrastructure. You 
should be alarmed. 
A 
recent 
report 
card 
from 
the 
American 
Society 
of Civil Engineers 
confirmed 
what 
most 
Americans already suspected: 
The 
U.S.’s 
neglected 
infrastructure is in the middle 
of a serious crisis.
These reports, released every 
few years, rank these essential 
systems at an embarrassing 
D+ 
overall. 
Breaking 
our 
infrastructure down into over 
a dozen categories, the marks 
become downright disturbing: 
Bridges earned a C+, energy a 
D+, wastewater a D+, drinking 
water a D and transit a D-, to 
name a few.
This 
shouldn’t 
come 
as a surprise. Millions of 
Americans are aware of the 
startling condition of these 
vital systems that keep our 
nation up and running. The 
decrepit water systems across 
this nation have been exposed 
 
by events like the Flint water 
crisis, almost 190 million trips 
are made across “structurally 
deficient” bridges each day 
and it is becoming increasingly 
difficult for our power grid to 
support the complex needs of 
our 21st century economy.
Unfortunately, 
according 
to the ASCE, our government 
would need to come up with 
$4.5 trillion by 2027 in order to 
bring our infrastructure back 
up to speed — something that 
in this divisive political age 
seems highly unlikely. 
While it seems that some 
proposals have gained a bit of 
traction — such as a $2 trillion 
plan to address this deepening 
problem reported by The New 
York Times — Washington as 
a whole has miserably failed 
to address this crisis. Year 
after year, Republicans and 
Democrats have been unable 
to part ways with politics 
and address this dangerous 
situation, instead preoccupied 
with how to pay for these 
much-needed improvements. 
Even 
President 
Donald 

Trump, who has expressed 
deep interest in fixing our 
infrastructure, 
has 
fallen 
short. In his victory 
speech 
in 
2016, 
he stated that his 
administration 
would 
work 
to 
“rebuild 
our 
highways, 
bridges, 
tunnels, 
airports, 
schools, 
hospitals.” 
But 
his 
infrastructure 
proposal, 
announced 
in 
February 2018, sadly made 
limited 
progress 
amid 
the 
complexity of partisan politics.
Ultimately, 
our 
elected 
officials 
have 
failed 
to 
realize 
that 
solid, 
modern 
infrastructure 
in 
good 
working 
order 
is 
essential 
to 
a 
successful 
economy, 
especially one as advanced 
as ours. Failing to allocate 
the money and resources to 
our infrastructure will surely 
send shock waves throughout 
our entire economic system. 

With our infrastructure in 
poor 
condition, 
our 
roads 
and highways will be more 
congested 
and 
harder 
to 
navigate, 
our 
public 
transportation 
systems 
will 
be less reliable for employees 
trying 
to 
get 
to 
work, 
communities will be more 
isolated from each other and 
it will be more difficult to 
address climate change. 
As stated by Robert Puentes, 
a nonresident senior fellow 
in the Metropolitan Policy 
Program 
at 
the 
Brookings 
Institution, 
“Infrastructure 
enables 
trade, 
powers 
businesses, 
connects 
workers to their jobs, creates 
opportunities for struggling 
communities and protects the 
nation from an increasingly 
unpredictable 
natural 
environment.”
Take the interstate highway 
system as an example: As 

one of the greatest advances 
in 
American 
infrastructure 
of 
the 
20th 
century, 
this 
complex network of roads that 
stretches across the entire 
nation provides for extremely 
efficient travel of both people 
and goods. According to the 
Highway and Motorway Fact 
Book, “The interstate highway 
system has had a profound 
effect 
upon 
the 
American 
economy 
and 
contributed 
significantly 
to 
improved 
economic 
efficiency 
and 
productivity.” 
Without 
the 
construction of this system — 
much of which is now in need 
of drastic repairs — our way 
of life would be dramatically 
different. “People would be 
crowded into more densely 
packed inner cities, intercity 
travel would occur less often 
and be more cumbersome; 
freight 
charges 
would 
be 
higher and, as a consequence, 
so would prices. Vacation travel 
would be more restricted,” the 
fact book states.
Beyond 
the 
direct 
economic benefits of strong 
infrastructure, generating the 
resources and jobs to actually 
rebuild 
these 
crumbling 
systems is also a significant 
economic 
stimulant. 
The 
Center for American Progress 
reports 
that 
“upgrading 
roads, bridges, and other basic 
infrastructure 
creates 
jobs 
now by putting people to work 
earning 
good, 
middle-class 
incomes, which expands the 
consumer base for businesses.” 
Worthwhile 
investments 
into these vital systems is a 
surefire way to truly reduce 
unemployment 
nationwide 
while 
simultaneously 
providing a stronger base for 
our nation to operate upon.
In 
the 
end, 
fixing 
our 
decaying 
infrastructure 
is 
not something that we can 
choose to debate. Regardless 
of political identity, we all 
greatly benefit from secure 
energy 
systems, 
strong 
communication 
networks 
and safe highways, railroads 
and 
airports. 
We 
cannot 
sit 
back 
and 
ignore 
the 
steady deterioration of our 
infrastructure while counting 
on it to fill our needs. If we 
don’t serve it through common 
sense action, it will inevitably 
be too broken to serve us.

Republicans and 
Democrats have 
been unable to 
part way with 
politics

Evan Stern can be reached at 

erstern@umich.edu.

MADISON COPLEY | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT MICOPLEY@UMICH.EDU

EVAN
STERN

A

t the time of publication, 
the teachers of Chicago 
Public 
Schools 
have 
decided to strike and walk 
out indefinitely until their 
demands regarding problems 
like funding and pay have 
been met. Other demands from 
the strikers include smaller 
class sizes, more paid time to 
prepare lessons and hiring 
more 
supplementary 
staff, 
like nurses and counselors. 
This isn’t the first time the 
Chicago 
Teachers 
Union 
has organized a strike. The 
same thing happened back in 
2012, with similar claims of 
paltry pay and understaffing 
of schools. But the woes 
of 
the 
CTU 
are 
awfully 
familiar. Many urban school 
districts around the country 
are reportedly understaffed 
and underfunded, including 
many 
here 
in 
Michigan. 
The same issues that plague 
Chicago’s schools affects us 
here in Michigan. In many 
communities around the state, 
educators and parents bring 
up the same concerns.
According to some reports, 
six in 10 schools started the 
school 
year 
understaffed 
in 2019. This usually leads 
to a reliance on long-term 
substitute teachers, who to 
qualify 
in 
Michigan 
only 
need 90 college credits. With 
dwindling 
pay 
and 
fading 
benefits, qualified teachers 
are 
growing 
ever 
harder 
to come by. In Michigan, 
teacher salaries have gone 
down by over 11 percent since 
2000. It’s much harder to 
convince people to come into 
education if they know the 
salaries are declining. There’s 
also the issue with student-
faculty 
ratios, 
which 
can 

greatly impact the quality of 
education students receive. In 
fact, a smaller student-faculty 
ratio is a great indicator of 
future academic achievement. 
To continue to pay teachers 
poorly is to deprive children 
of the education they deserve.
The awful truth of the 
matter 
is 
that 
many 
of 
the 
schools 
most 
affected 
by 
underfunding 
and 
understaffing are the districts 
that need the most support. 
Sixty 
teachers 
left 
Flint 
Community Schools in 2019 
alone. In Detroit, only 15,000 
of the city’s 85,000 students 
attended schools that made 
the mark for the state’s criteria 
of 
“performance.” 
Those 
statistics are frankly appalling 
and pathetic. 
Michigan has some unique 
problems concerning school 
funding. According to a study 
at Michigan State University, 
Michigan ranks “dead last” 
in funding growth, with the 
amount adjusted for inflation 
only being 85 percent of what 
it was in 1995. Predictably, 
Michigan’s schools have only 
ranked lower and lower on 
rankings 
for 
indicators 
of 
progress 
like 
standardized 
tests 
over 
time. 
Recently, 
however, 
the 
state 
budget 
might be increased on a per-
student basis by $240 dollars, 
at least for charter school 
students. But overall, Gov. 
Gretchen Whitmer’s budget 
is a mixed bag and might 
be insufficient to close the 
achievement gap.
It’s 
not 
up 
for 
debate 
that Michigan’s schools are 
inadequate 
in 
serving 
our 
children, but the way to solve 
the problem is often contested. 
Many cite charter schools as 

the answer, with claims that 
school choice is an effective 
way to address failing public 
schools, but that doesn’t seem 
to be the case. As of 2016, 70 
percent of the time charter 
schools were in the lower-
half of state school rankings. 
Charter school closures are 
also common, with Michigan’s 
rate being 31 percent between 
2000 and 2016. 87 percent 
of the students affected by 
said statistic were African 
Americans. Charter schools 
aren’t solving the inequality 
and 
troubles 
in 
Michigan 
schools and may be more 
trouble than they’re worth.
Solving these problems is 
going to take a lot of thought, 
and 
unfortunately, 
it’s 
something that’s also going 
to take a substantial amount 
of time. But one thing’s for 
sure: Our schools need more 
money. Salaries and conditions 
for teachers need to be better, 
considering 
the 
atrocious 
student-to-teacher ratio and 
retention rate. School spending 
in 
poorer 
school 
districts 
is directly correlated with 
rising test scores over time, 
and it’s undeniable that many 
districts 
are 
underfunded. 
In 
Michigan’s 
pursuit 
of 
evening out the gap between 
wealthier districts and poorer 
districts, it must recognize 
that money must be spent. 
Unfortunately, 
this 
means 
increasing expenditures, but 
there are ways of raising the 
funds. Though education is 
an 
expensive 
endeavor, 
it 
makes all the difference in 
maintaining 
a 
prosperous 
society.

Sam Fogel can be reached at 

samfogel@umich.edu.

O

n Oct. 4, I was fortunate 
to see former Secretary 
of State Condoleezza 
Rice 
speak 
at 
a 
“Master 
Class” given to a select group 
of 
University 
of 
Michigan 
undergraduate 
and 
graduate 
students. Guided by her vast 
experience, Rice spoke clearly 
and 
compellingly 
on 
issues 
like democracy, identity and 
international affairs. As the 
Master Class came to a close, 
however, my admiration gave 
way to dissatisfaction. 
The class was structured so 
that some participants had to 
watch her on a projector in a 
separate room, leaving half of 
us unable to ask her questions. 
Walking out of those adjacent 
classrooms, the air felt like that 
of opera-goers having exited an 
excellent show.
Let me be clear that Rice is 
brilliant and she fought in her 
official capacity with sincerity 
in her beliefs. I am guided in 
my writing by gratitude at the 
opportunity to learn, rather 
than bitterness — though I am 
mad I didn’t get out of my seat, 
walk for about 20 seconds to the 
next class over, and try to ask a 
question myself.
As 
she 
spoke 
about 
complicated realities overseas, 
I was left to ponder the crisis 
our own country is wrestling 
with at home. Speaking with 
poise and grace that seemed 
impossible to faze, she made 
it feel as if we had won 
something, that our troubles as 
a country were distant either 
in time or in proximity. In our 
discussion, 
many 
countries 
who had succeeded or failed at 
democracy were put under the 
microscope as if they were cute 
or flawed little experiments that 
the United States could study in 
a sanitized, removed manner. 
How can we talk about the 
failed revolutions of the Arab 
Spring as if our government is 
not currently engulfed in flames? 
As an Egyptian-American, I sat 
and watched as she discussed 
the “Middle Eastern exception,” 
the question of why democracy 
hasn’t taken to this region as 
it has around the world. We 
poked and prodded at all the 
particularities, and she adorned 
the conversation with anecdotes 
of her shining moments as 
Secretary of State. She spoke at 
length about instances in which 
she coached other democracies 
and helped navigate the chaotic 
world that we, as a great power, 

have helped steep further into 
chaos.
Meanwhile, 
I 
see 
my 
American president describing 
the investigation against him as 
a coup, dispelling criticism as 
a “witch hunt” and “bullshit,” 
raging against every element of 
the world that is not obsequious 
and adulating toward him and 
calling for the arrest of key 
actors in the opposition party 
and the impeachment inquiry. 
Our decrepit executive wields 
extraordinary power in military 
capabilities 
and 
legislative 
authority, 
but 
even 
“good” 
presidents have mobilized the 
equal or lesser power of the 
office to catastrophic ends.
Am I supposed to laugh 
him off as impotent after Rice 
extolled the values of strong 
institutions? Am I supposed to 
ignore the damage he can do 
after she warned of the growing 
divide between those affected 
by policy realities and those 
protected through education and 
affluence?
Where is the urgency?
I’m careful not to mistake 
her composure for complacency. 
When it comes to the answers 
of her students, she said in an 
earlier talk that morning that she 
dislikes a response that starts 
with, “I feel like,” because more 
likely than not, she doesn’t care 
about that student’s feelings in 
an academic context. 
I internalized her wisdom 
that feelings can easily get in the 
way of an effective argument. 
But when it comes to my 
country’s fate and the outcomes 
of my neighbors around the 
world, I’d rather risk the passion 
that comes with urgency than 
the 
resignation 
risked 
by 
indifference. 
Warned 
by 
Rice 
not 
to 
weaponize our identities lest 
others do the same against us, I 
couldn’t help but think of those 
whose 
identities 
have 
been 
weaponized against themselves: 
immigrants, 
refugees 
and 
women 
whose 
autonomy 
is 
robbed by a government non-
representative of their identity, 
let alone their interests.
As Rice largely criticized 
democracies 
abroad, 
she 
celebrated the strength of our 
civil society here in America. 
Conflict in this country, she 
reassured, is settled in court, not 
by shooting each other. 
For her to choose gun violence 
as an analogy was emblematic of 
the divide I felt between her ease 

and my unrest. Our indifference 
loses precious American lives 
every day. The suffering to 
which I am a bystander is beyond 
calculation and comprehension. 
A classmate finally asked her 
a question about the state of our 
country’s pluralistic democracy. 
Rice chose to focus on how far 
we’ve come and the progress 
we’ve achieved. Certainly, giving 
history too much power can 
disempower us in the present, 
but I wonder if Rice is too far 
removed 
in 
experience 
and 
success to feel the danger that I 
feel.
In her answer, she argued 
that voting shouldn’t be easy. 
Maybe so, if it was equally hard 
for everyone, but arguments like 
those have allowed those with 
power to construct mazes of 
varying difficulty on the path to 
the ballot box. She mobilized the 
example of Roy Moore’s narrow 
defeat in an Alabama Senate race 
as an example of our democracy’s 
strength when it matters. For 
a man accused by nine women 
of sexual misconduct — several 
of whom were teenagers at the 
time of incident — to lose by only 
1.7 percentage points is a sign 
of fatal structural weakness to 
me. In his new election bid this 
upcoming year, every vote will 
matter. It is a moral travesty that 
so many Americans, including in 
the state of Alabama, continue to 
see their right to vote threatened 
and even removed.
Whether by erecting new 
hurdles or declaring arbitrary 
qualifications, some bureaucrats 
love to define what a “God-given 
right” should look like, and who 
God has given it to. 
Rice can argue that voting 
shouldn’t be easy, but arguing 
that it should be difficult to 
varying degrees is untenable. I 
don’t think we can measure our 
progress on how far we’ve come. 
To ensure that voting access is 
equally easy for all members 
of this democracy, we have to 
measure it by how far we have 
yet to go — by setting goals.
Secretary Rice: For fear of 
failing others and failing this 
moment, I cannot take solace in 
the ways our democracy is doing 
well. Our shaking democracy 
bears grave consequences for 
others, and before we can hope 
to stabilize it, we can expect 
more chaos.

Andrew Mekhail is a senior studying 

Public Policy and can be reached at 

mekhail@umich.edu.

