An iPod for every student


Michigan Democrats got overboard
I am shaking my head. This is pure nonsense.

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.

We say that because the House plan also keeps alive, again without specifics, the promise of tax hikes.

I suspect this was done for the sound bites more than anything else. Pun intended.

To get an iPod with enough storage capacity to be useful, you pretty much need a computer to manage it. Many other MP3 players don't have the ability to carry non-sound files, which limits their usefulness. Even then, how do you tell if the student is listening to music or a teacher's lectures?

Recalling some of the teachers I had, I think recordings of them would put me to sleep.

I am not fond of public education buying electronics for students anyway, but I think the money would be better spent with a PDA or a laptop computer. Maybe one of those low cost ones that are being developed.

Better still, get books.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - April 6, 2007 at 02:17 PM  Tag


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