Note to Republican Big Wigs: Robert Bobb is Doing What Should Have Been Started by the GOP

Education along with the economy are touchstone issues that will drive voters to vote.



During school board elections, I would campaign on the very topic that Robert Bobb is taking action on; cutting the waste out of school budgets and making sure the appropriate money makes its way into the classroom..

After the Detroit Board of Education fired its superintendent and the state determined the district was in financial emergency, Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Bobb to his one-year post effective in March. State law gives him — not the school board — broad authority over the district's finances and budget, and he's using it. He's eliminated cabinet positions, slashed other administrative posts, promised more staff and teacher cuts, closed schools, overseen audits, publicized prosecutions of former employees and is trying to balance a budget with a deficit of $304 million and rising.

As I pointed out in Alaska, less than 50% of the budget makes its way into the classroom.

I will bet that Detroit sees a similar percentage that makes its way into the classroom in Anchorage.

What strikes me about the actions by Robert Bobb is; the GOP has been silent on this issue for years.

The GOP will continue to lose elections, because they put up candidates and put loads of money behind them with the same message that Democrats have.

President Bush was another prime example on education.. He grew the federal budget when the system was corrupt and was wasting tax dollars. Republicans followed and they lost elections.

Now comes along a man who is starting to make appropriate cuts in Detroit Michigan's school system and the GOP is left out of the equation...