Question 1): Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used a mini-State of the State speech last Wednesday a few blocks from the state capitol building to call on the Michigan Legislature to repeal “politically motivated” and “medically unnecessary” laws that limit access to abortion.
The second-term Democrat wants to “repeal waiting periods and other … hurdles that make it harder for women to get abortions and for doctors to treat their patients,” she said. “With a U.S. Supreme Court that’s shown it can and will strip away basic rights, Michigan must be proactive and repeal antiquated state laws.”
What “hurdles?” Abortion rights activists hope the list includes repealing a longstanding parental consent law for minors, and also striking a 24-hour waiting period statute, removing limitations on insurance coverage and ending what they call “medically irrelevant regulations” and building code requirements for abortion providers.
The governor also proposed a 100% renewable energy mandate and a broad paid sick leave law for Michigan workers.
Whitmer went even further — the governor called on lawmakers to codify protections in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in the event legal challenges thwart the federal health care law. She called for adding to state law protections for pre-existing conditions, allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plan, banning annual or lifetime caps, and requiring insurance plans to cover essential services. Whitmer additionally said she hopes to establish an independent prescription drug affordability board to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Republican legislators were quick to respond. House Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo area); Minority House Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford); and state Reps. Andrew Beeler (R-Port Huron); Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester Hills); and Mark Harris (R-Clarkston) all bashed the governor’s proposals, especially her demand for 100% carbon-free electricity production by 2035.
Here’s what Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) had to say: “Gov. Whitmer has demonstrated that her bridge-building rhetoric was always insincere and is showing herself as the left-wing, progressive extremist she really is. Unfortunately, it has become painfully obvious that what’s next for the people of Michigan is bad news for their pocketbooks.”
“On the heels of the highest inflation experienced in four decades, Gov. Whitmer is still fighting to increase income taxes on hardworking families and impose new tax burdens on small businesses and charitable nonprofits,” Nesbitt said. “Instead of supporting proven policies put in place to lower taxes, reduce oppressive regulations, invest in infrastructure, and provide access to reliable and affordable energy, the governor is doubling down on radical policies that will do the opposite, crippling economic growth and super-charging inflation.”
So, does Whitmer really think she can get a lot of this stuff enacted this fall? What are her chances of succeeding?
Answer 1): Slim and none. In trying to get majority Democrats in the Legislature to repeal parental consent for minors’ abortions is playing with fire for any incumbent Dem in a marginal district. And the governor’s other proposals, many of them major policy shifts with long-term ramifications, must require extensive work — including public hearings — if there is any chance they can be done in a thoughtful, productive way. There is too little time available in a fall session for that to happen. Could she be trying to set the table for action next year? 2024 is an election year, traditionally not a time when the heavy lifting on controversial issues is done with an election looming. No, this must be about something else of greater interest to the governor. Otherwise, Whitmer might be wise to listen to the words of former state Rep. Bob Traxler (D-Bay City), also a long-term Congressman, after his party blew a huge, 36-seat majority in 1966 — “We just did too much.” But that was before Whitmer was born, and if she knows about it, she seems not to care.
***************************************
Question 2):): In a bold, unexpected move, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order last month establishing a new “Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential” (MiLEAP), which is aimed ostensibly at bringing the state’s early childhood and higher education programs within a single department under her administration’s control. Whitmer’s order takes effect Dec. 1.
As a result, earlier this month state Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of the new department, questioning whether the order creates duplicative education departments under the Michigan Constitution with overlapping authority. Nessel has replied that it’s “too early” for her to rule on that, but for now she doesn’t see a “conflict” between the order and SBE authority.
In addition to providing administrative support to the board, the state’s Education Department currently certifies teachers, provides funds to educational organizations, assists school districts and provides early education support for low-income families. Under the state constitution, the State Board of Education is tasked with appointing Michigan’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. Board members are asking for constitutional clarity from Nessel’s office as the broad scope of the new department overlaps with the State Board’s responsibilities in several key areas, including teacher assessment and curriculum assignments.
Some legislative Republicans have already blasted Whitmer’s proposal. “There is no reason for MiLEAP to exist other than the vanity of Governor Whitmer,” said state Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Alto). “The only thing this new department does different is give the governor more control. I applaud state board members for pushing back against that … I agree that we need to improve our education policies in this state, but we could do so much simpler and cheaper if the governor’s ego would get out of the way.”
State Rep. Alicia St. Germaine (R-Harrison Twp) added this: “At a time when we should be working collectively to address the education crisis brewing in our state, the governor has chosen to act unilaterally and push her own plan. Adding more bureaucrats and new layers to our education system without fixing the problems that already exist is not going to help our kids. Shifting billions of dollars away from classrooms to fund unnecessary projects for politically connected districts won’t teach kids to read and write. This runaway train needs to be stopped.”
The basic questions are: Should Whitmer have issued this order? Is it a good idea? Can it exacerbate rather than solve the very educational problems the state has long encountered and that seem to have helped sink Michigan to the bottom of national rankings in educational achievement?
Answer 2): Whatever hopes for her new agency Whitmer may have, they’re unlikely to work any better than anything else has in the past six decades since the 1961-62 state Constitutional Convention abolished the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction as an elected statewide office (Democrat Lynn Bartlett was the last one we had).
In Bartlett’s place, what Con-Con created (and the state’s voters approved as part of our current Constitution) is the much ridiculed state Board of Education (SBE), eight members who are elected statewide (Michigan is the only state that does this). Virtually nobody knows who they are, but the SBE appoints the Supt. of Public Instruction, and some Michigan governors, frustrated because they have very limited influence on what happens with higher and K-12 education in Michigan, have tried to dictate who the state “Super” is. Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm got the holdover state Supt. kicked out and her own choice appointed by a Democrat-controlled SBE. Did that make a difference? Nope.
Maybe Whitmer believes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Hers is a new approach, but it appears clumsy and not well thought-out, and has alienated members of her own Democratic Party, who weren’t invited to “buy-in” on the governor’s plan. It reinforces the growing image of Whitmer as an autocrat who decides what she’ll do when she wants to do it, with limited interest in trying to achieve ‘consensus’ or cooperation with anyone or any entity in state government that might have ideas other than her own. If Whitmer really wants to make a difference, she should get some changes to the basic law, or a constitutional amendment resolution, passed by the Legislature to abolish or drastically alter the SBE. What has been the biggest impediment to that over time? Her own Democratic Party, because they have relished controlling it (as they do now, by a 6-2 margin) almost always. And they sure don’t want to end the political careers of elected Democratic statewide members.
Governor Whitmer believes she has a mandate given her impressive electoral victory in 2022.
What she does not realize is that there is massive citizen pushback over her educational initiatives.
One GOP member of the State Board of Education once told me that it was his job to ensure that as much power is relegated to local school boards as is possible and the influence and control by state and educational authorities be minimized to the extreme.
“No more Common Core!” in 2014 was the rally cry of conservatives in response to the attempt of the Obama administration to tie federal educational funding to a federally-mandated public school curriculum.
We do not want Democrats in Washington D.C. dictating how local schools are run. That is the job of local school boards. What works in Detroit is not necessarily good for Grand Rapids or Clawson.
Hillary Clinton galvanized the Michigan electorate in 2016 against her by her attempts to federalize our state educational system on a national basis. When we speak of Trump’s “Michigan Miracle” in 2016 look no further than parents such as myself who fought hard to help the Republicans save our educational system.
Governor Youngkin’s keynote topic in his campaign speeches was to protect and localize the Virginia educational system and insulate it from federal control. He won an upset victory in a Democratic-leaning state. Likewise, if the GOP leaders in Michigan do not take this opportunity in 2024 to pound the table on decentralizing control over local school systems, they will fail as they did in 2020 and 2022.
Governor Whitmer and Democrats are bad for public education in Michigan. They are toxic.
Sounds just like Snyder, Engler, and the other Republican Governors over the last 40 years, as the Republican Party controlled the Legislature the last 40 years.
I completely agree. Now after those same 40 years, it’s nice to hear republicans whine.
The only thing Toxic was 40 years of Republican toxicity in the Michigan Legislature! When are these Republicans going to realize that just say No to progress is NOT the answer and building bridges to the future is!
Another very thoughtful analytical piece from Bill Ballenger. Thank you again.
Nice article Bill, and a nice way to end the Labor Day weekend.
QUESTION 1: Yes, she is probably biting off a bit more than she can chew, or what the legislature will let her do. It is telling the first thing she talked about was abortion. A bit short on specifics, but that is par for the course with her. But the lack of specifics is something she should not get away with.
First of ALL legislation is politically motivated. Even hers. Apparently, it’s ok if she’s doing it.
Her position is extremist. No elective surgical procedure is an “essential right”. John Hart Ely was right. Nothing in the Constitution of the United States gives the Supreme Court any authority to invent a constitutional right out of whole cloth. She (and all of us) should listen to the late Nat Hentoff on abortion. And for those like Nadine Strossen on “That Delicate Balance II” who thought his position on abortion was imposing his religious values on others, the late Mr. Hentoff was an atheist.
Does she want to get rid of parental notification laws? If a 13 or 14-year-old can get an abortion without parental consent, is striking down statutory rape laws next? If a minor child has the mental capacity, or the mens rea if you will, to have an abortion, what are the constitutional grounds to say she cannot get laid? Seriously. What constitutional provision would permit one while banning the other? Or engage in other adult activities like incurring debt? What are the limits of personal autonomy? Or does it only apply to abortion?
Building codes? Really? If abortion clinics are “healthcare” facilities, should they be held to a lesser standard than podiatrists’ offices? Urgent care centers? Veterinarian offices? And if so, why? Or are the standards for these other healthcare facilities too stringent?
Medicaid funded abortions? I think you’re right about legislative reluctance here.
The only thing missing is a call to ask Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania to pardon Kermit Gosnell so he could set up practice here.
The renewable energy provisions are not realistic. We are not going to line the Great Lakes shorelines with windmills. We get less sun than Seattle, so solar power is more delusion than dream. And if we can get enough sunshine in the morning, the sun has this nasty habit of setting at night and it becomes dark. Hard to get solar power without sunlight. We do not mine enough zinc, copper, lithium and all the other elements needed to make the batteries and other stuff necessary to store the solar energy we could get during the day to make this a reality. Unless your plan is to strip mine the entire planet. Anyone who reads Peter Zeihan or watches him on YouTube will know what I am talking about.
As for the other stuff, codifying Obamacare into state law is not a stretch. Democratic-led states have already done this. The pre-existing conditions provision part should be easy – and bipartisan – if done as a standalone piece. If pre-existing conditions are not covered, then a worker is stuck at his/her existing job. Sometimes you have to choose who is your real constituent – citizens or insurance companies. If Michigan businesses, insurance companies and other right-leaning types don’t like it, then get more involved in politics. What you did in 2022 did not work.
Keeping adult children on their parents’ insurance is more telling of what our society has become. Unfortunately, it has become more necessary than most people want. There was a time when you were in your early 20s, you would be on your own with a job that had insurance. The fact that is not the case now, is more than a bit troubling. Kids spend too much time in college (full time students should take no less than 15 credit hours per term). Too many go to college who shouldn’t. I saw this doing Social Security and SSI disability reconsideration hearings. And we still have the residuals of too many economic policies that sent the good paying jobs available when I graduated from college in the 1970s offshore so the folks at the upper end of the economic ladder could get richer. Fix these problems, then the need or policy benefit of extending the time adult children spend on their parents’ health insurance will drop.
Banning annual and lifetime caps is a generally good idea and compatible with the general welfare provision found in the preamble of the US Constitution. Or at least my understanding of it.
A Michigan-only plan on reducing prescription drug prices will not work, but it will expose the abject greed of Big Pharma (look at the prices of insulin and Epi-Pens if you don’t believe me). In this fight, the drug companies hold all the cards.
You’re right about the late Bob Traxler. Too bad there is no one in the current administration willing to learn from the past.
QUESTION 2: Your points are mostly spot on. The people of Michigan would be more likely to name all seven of our state Supreme Court justices than any two members of the State Board of Education. For the record, the SBE members are: Marshall Bullock, II, Ellen Cogen Lipton, Tom McMillin, Judith Pritchett, Pamela Pugh, Mitchell Robinson and Nikki Snyder. (I remembered Pugh, the chair and McMillan and Cogen-Lipton who are former legislators. The others I had to look up). Now for your three questions…
Should Whitmer have issued this order? YES. Our educational scores, school attendance (aka absenteeism) and overall school performance are not good (they suck), and they strike me as a cross between two songs, Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”. And I am in a good mood today. Some of your readers who have been in politics and government might not share my rosy opinion.
The SBE has been a bane – off and on – of Michigan’s governors since the 1963 Constitution was adopted. It is blamed, rightly or wrongly, for much of the dysfunction and poor performance that permeates our state’s education system. What we have been doing has not worked particularly well. So Whitmer deserves kudos, and a good grade, for trying to do something. Whether the achievement gets as high a grade as her effort remains to be seen.
And if MiLEAP is struck down by the Courts or the legislature screws up the implementation, she gets credit for trying. And she can blame someone else. In politics, sometimes activity is confused with accomplishment. And given the mostly fawning coverage she gets, she won’t get blamed for its failure – except maybe in the TBR. So yes, she should have done it. Negative consequences are highly unlikely.
Is it a good idea? PROBABLY. First of all, MiLEAP is Whitmer’s roundabout way of circumventing the SBE. Everyone knows it. The governor, the legislature, the attorney general and especially the six Democrats on the SBE all know it. Not to mention the MEA and MFT who got the six Democrats nominated and elected, and generally get the policies from the SBE that they want. What is also interesting is the fact that she did it. This tells me that her relationship(s) with the SBE rival her good relationships with the GOP in the state legislature and Michigan Right to Life.
This is different than when Granholm was governor. The Democrats on the SBE then were backers of Jim Blanchard and put one of his guys – Tom Watkins – in as state superintendent. I seriously doubt the six Dems on the SBE are not Whitmer people. Whitmer either obviously was not able to get the SBE to do what she wanted, or did get what she wanted and it turned to nitrogenous waste and she is looking for fall guys.
As a workaround or roundabout way of subverting the SBE, Gov. Whitmer is trying to get some control over a state agency she does not control and has only limited influence over but whose work product she will be blamed for. This is something a politician looking for another office would do, after she’s been re-elected to her final term.
So yes, it is a good idea. Probably.
Can it exacerbate rather than solve the very educational problems the state has long encountered and that seem to have helped sink Michigan to the bottom of national rankings in educational achievement? MORE LIKELY THAN NOT.
First of all, she’s pissed off some interest groups who will actively work to stop it. I’m sure that John Engler thought about doing this, but realized it was unconstitutional and therefore would not fly. Especially with Frank Kelley as AG. Dana Nessel has to know this is unconstitutional unless all MiLEAP is little more than a group of cheerleaders.
Second, there does not appear to be a plan as to what this new Department will do. Will it cover things the Constitution leaves to the SBE? If it isn’t, then what will it do? She’s had five years to think about it. There should have been a plan of some sort attached to the announcement with some specifics. Absent specifics, why bother with the announcement? Sometimes activity does NOT lead to the perception of accomplishment.
I do not see her wanting to amend the state Constitution to get rid of the SBE. Now whether there is an interest group out there who will do her bidding….. As they used to say on TV, film at 11.
Regarding SBE – Nikki Snyder and Tom McMillan are outstanding elected members of the SBE.
Ellen Cogen Lipton is a Harvard Law School alum who practices intellectual property law. She obviously chose a private school to obtain a law degree from. She lost to Andy Levin in the 2018 U.S. Congressional Democratic primary election – even though she beat Levin in his own hometown of Southfield, Levin won the Macomb County portion of the district by a wide margin.
Nicolette (Nikki) Snyder is a registered nurse and homemaker from Washtenaw County (no relation to Rick, the former governor). She is a declared candidate for U.S. Senate.
Republicans would prefer to abolish the SBE and relinquish all power to local school boards. School boards are the one public body that advocates for the interests of students and parents.
Democrats are beholden to the liberal elements of the MEA and try to control educational policy in this state via state conventions and lobbying the Michigan Legislature. On the other hand, the Republican caucus of the MEA (YES – THERE IS REALLY SUCH A GROUP!!!) often attends GOP Michigan conventions and has astute observations regarding the state of the public education system in Michigan.
Grassroots Republicans are targeting local school board races to oust liberal-leaning pro-MEA activists seated on these boards and to support conservative candidates.
Michigan needs to protect its students from the toxic effects of Democratic Party officeholders and their left-wing educational theories. We do not need the U.S. Department of Education dictating the policy of local public schools.
Thank you, Bill, for shining a light on Michigan’s horribly screwed up politics. In general, I hate what Whitmer is doing to further tie MI’s Gordian Knot. But then, I am woefully reminded that elections have consequences and to the victors belong the spoils. Still keeping a jaundiced eye on the GOP ever growing a spine . . . till then, hail Caesar!
Ave Imperator! Morituri te salutamus? (I hope I got that right. It has been decades since I took high school Latin).
According to WJR All Talk radio, there is no longer oversight nor transparency in State governance . Corruption will flourish!. Unchecked POWER breeds Corruption .as in the National government. Anyone fighting for Honesty??