Michigan "fixes" another problem

[el Gusano]

Those poor kids could never accomplish this on their own:

We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.

No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to "invest" in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.

The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township, also pledge $100 million to make better downtowns.

Their plan goes beyond cluelessness. Democrats are either entirely indifferent to the idea that extreme hard times demand extreme belt tightening, or they are bone stupid. We lean toward the latter.

Everyone deserves and iPod

[legaltender]

I suppose Michigan can save money on textbooks. The shelf life of information gets shorter and shorter. Web 2.0 content in the typical classroom may be inevitable. Pearson Education recently bought PowerSchool, Apple’s web-based student information system, promising a partnership to produce iPod-based content.

That said, this is way too revolutionary and untested for Michigan right now, given the budget woes. Online textbooks are one alternative, but the publishing industry bucks changes that would cut into profits. The idea is to engage students, and traditional textbooks, even updated every six years, are not doing that.

[RuneDeer]

True, it might be more cost-effective in the long run to substitute more flexible web content for books (which are known to cause back injuries when piled in excess into a back pack), but there are two problems here. We had a similar thing (let's just call it what it was, a scandal) in Cobb County GA about 2 years ago. Someone in the district made a deal (hmmm -- it was with APPLE, as I recall!) to give a laptop computer to every kid. It might have been limited to high school, I can't remember and don't have time to go look it up just now. But many people pointed out that kids are notorious for losing things and not taking care of them -- imagine the waste and chaos that would ensue with a laptop. You might as well spring for two apiece, with the second to serve as the inevitable replacement.

That's one problem with the iPod idea. The other? Well, teachers have enough trouble with kids "plugging in and tuning out" in class already. Is the teacher going to make the rounds of the class and check everybody's headphones to make sure they're listening to the assigned topic and not Busta Rhymes?

They really ought to try this concept out in college. I'm sure the students already in the hole for fees and tuition would be more appreciative of such a freebie and more responsible with it.

[Jay]

Okay, that is really, really stupid... I'm sure kids will use the ipods for school stuff and not to listen to music all the time,