Ex-GM Exec Roy Roberts new DPS EFM...

[Mikeg]

Why do I get flashes of Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority after the Iraq Invasion and occupation when I ponder the school [and other] take overs? I'm not generally cynical and I hope for the best; yet I can't stop wondering how long these commitments will be and what will really get done.

I guess I remember the last take over and all the hoopla about David Adamany bringing some new world order with a distinguished team of authorities. How quickly he fled and now he and his 'Coalition Provisional Authority' are almost forgotten. What did they do?

More importantly, what could they, or the current hope-to-be healers, really do?

Could they create classrooms with 15 students staffed by quality teachers, which is really what is needed? Could they assure safe and secure buildings and student transportation? Could they put a parent with a middle class income into the homes of half the students who live in impoverished circumstances?

This is an extremely difficult situation and it requires a lot of money and love. It has neither and instead we are watching a classic 'rearrangement the deck chairs on the Titanic'.

There is no serious political will to address the situation and, instead of healing, there is punishment.

Are you implying with your analogy that the State of Michigan is the cause of the dysfunction in the DPS?

The "Coalition Provisional Authority" was put in place in Iraq because of the "Pottery Barn Rule": you break it, you own it. The US military had in effect already "taken over" Iraq as a result of defeating Saddam and his Army and the CPA was an attempt [[however flawed and belated) to restore order and repair the organizational and physical damage we had done to that country.

[Lowell]

Are you implying with your analogy that the State of Michigan is the cause of the dysfunction in the DPS?

The "Coalition Provisional Authority" was put in place in Iraq because of the "Pottery Barn Rule": you break it, you own it. The US military had in effect already "taken over" Iraq as a result of defeating Saddam and his Army and the CPA was an attempt [[however flawed and belated) to restore order and repair the organizational and physical damage we had done to that country.

The State is not the cause, but it is certainly a big part of the problem. You could extend the Pottery Barn Rule to say that 'if you took it home, you own it'. This is what happened previously with the Adamany, and whoever followed him. They became like the proverbial dog who chases a truck - if it caught it, it wouldn't know what do it. So they 'took it home but then returned it' to the store. The challenges were too great and the resources too limited and they didn't want to get the failure pinned on their reputations.