Kent Intermediate says “Yes”

Today we received two more endorsements:

• Friends of Kent County Schools is the PAC for the Kent Intermediate School District,

• Michigan Association of School Administrators.

It means a lot to me that both a local and a state-wide group recognize our commitment. You can’t spend seven years on a school board without giving it your heart.

Their endorsement puts a lie to the idea you’ll hear from Democrats, that somehow Conservative Republicans can’t work with education. This Republican certainly does. A first class education should be the standard in our State, and not the exception. To get there will take the the lessons I’ve learned working with our administrators and teachers: how to handle conflict, how to be tough-minded and fair, how to work for the common good.

It takes time — experience — to learn those lessons. And that experience lets us look forward to putting conservative principles to work for our State. After all, the future we are building here in West Michigan — the future our State desperately needs to find — is a future built on strong schools. And we can do that, starting August 5.

The Right to Be Heard

As a Christian, I have a commitment that listening is an important part of what we do. It’s what we give each other.

It’s certainly been true around our dinner table. It’s what I do at work with my employees and my clients.

And we also need to listen to our opponents. They may be wrong, but they deserve our attention. It’s the same reason we should listen to the cause of the defenseless – they deserve a voice. That’s a big part of why I’m pro-Life.

Yet, a recent proposal would start encouraging the Legislature not to listen.

You may have heard of it: Reform Michigan Government Now! There’s a lot in it that should trouble conservatives and Republicans. One of its central proposals is to reconfigure (and shrink) the Michigan State House from 110 seats to 82 new super-districts.

Fewer and larger districts means there are fewer people in the State House who have direct experience with farmers and those involved agriculture. Even though they’re the second or third largest industry in the State (statistics! depends on who’s counting), they lose an important connection. Michigan will be better when it has legislators who have a real connection with our farmers.

But there’s another group that loses out: our racial minorities. When we expand our districts, we pack minorities in some districts, leaving others with maybe one in 10 if that. And if we are going to rebuild our State we will need to hear everyone.

Diluting the voice of our neighbors doesn’t make us stronger. Only deaf.