news


By Tom Watkins It began at Macomb County


Community College, and they took it to the White House.


“Too often, community col-


leges are treated as an after- thought, if they’re thought of at all,” President Obama said in a speech at Macomb County Community College last year.


The recent White House


Summit on the value of com- munity colleges was called to help revitalize our economy and invest in our people. The White House meeting collided at the intersection of “good politics” and “good policy.”


Community colleges are


the grand entranceways to en- hancing knowledge and skills, giving individuals a boost up life’s economic ladder while strengthening our communi- ties, state and nation.


President Obama should


have started his remarks at the White House summit on community colleges with this remark: “Our community col- leges are the Rodney Danger- field of higher education. They just ‘don’t get no respect’ — respect they deserve and continue earning every day.”


Wayne County Community


College is one of the nation’s best. Students are being taught by instructors who are focused on teaching what they know best, and students are saving themselves and their families a ton of cash.


Given the troubling, tumul-


tuous, transformational times we are now living in, our com- munity colleges are truly a life saver for many.


The president invested $2


billion into revamping our country’s community college system. This much-needed shot of federal funding will help to boost academic pro- grams and raise graduation rates. Yet, is hardly enough.


The president also supports


funding open-source e-learn- ing courses so that schools don’t have to build more classrooms to admit more stu- dents. (See my 2005 Wayne State University report on the value of e-learning: “Exploring E-learning for Michigan: The New Education (R)evolution.”)


While this good news of


financial help for commu- nity colleges was delivered in Michigan by the president of the United States, the soaring rhetoric has yet to translate into the resources we need to invest to stay ahead of our global competitors. Having just returned from China, let me assure you, they are not slowing down.


Be clear, investing in our


community colleges pays divi- dends for us all.


Michigan’s 28 community


colleges make a significant difference in helping prepare students and employees for our hyper-competitive, dis-


Tom Watkins


ruptive, and technologically driven global economy where ideas and jobs can now move across the globe effortlessly. They are doing this important work with ever shrinking re- sources from Lansing.


Thirty years ago, on aver-


age, Michigan’s community colleges received nearly 50 percent of their funding from state appropriations and an- other 25 percent each from property taxes and tuition. Today, the state’s contribu- tion is less than half that — 20 percent — while the other 80 percent is derived from prop- erty taxes and tuition, accord- ing to Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association.


In the last Michigan budget


cycle, community colleges were one of the only areas not reduced. Yet, staying even is falling behind as cost contin- ue to rise.


Community colleges are


supported by state appropria- tions that have declined or been flat and property tax rev- enues that are threatened by serious declines in property values.


Making up the difference for


the loss of revenue from state and local property taxes by adopting huge tuition increas- es is unrealistic, especially in the depressed economy Michi- gan currently finds itself in.


We could uses more of our


federal tax money returned to Michigan in the form of an investment in our community colleges.


Another reason for invest-


ing in our community colleges is how responsive they are to local needs by providing re- education for laid-off workers. These colleges are also agile in providing classes on demand by employers.


It has been argued that our


country’s university system stands on tradition — change for it is like turning an ocean liner. In contrast, community colleges respond like a speed- boat in providing education to meet immediate community and business needs. Commu- nity colleges are agile, inno- vative and think creatively to solve the educational needs of the students and local em- ployers.


My support for community college education is personal


THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE Good politics and good policy: Supporting our community colleges


as well as professional. I am a product of Michigan’s ex- cellent community college system with degrees from Michigan State and Wayne State built upon the solid edu- cation I received at Henry Ford Community College in Dear- born. I would not have had the exciting and rewarding career I enjoy without the education- al foundation provided by the excellent instructors at Henry Ford. They are there to teach and they do so with passion, excellence and hands-on expe- rience.


As Michigan’s economy


evolves, many of our residents are using community col- leges as the means to tap into change. Gone are the days when one could leave or drop out of high school, enter an auto factory and emerge with a middle-class income.


Michigan’s community col-


leges carry a heavy load and will continue to do so as Mich- igan transforms itself from a “heavy lifting” state to one with a knowledge-based econ- omy.


Community colleges are


essential to Michigan’s abil- ity to move from the state that “put the world on wheels” to the state that provides the education and skills to all its citizens to compete as we re- invent ourselves.


Today’s students/workers


need to be able to learn con- tinuously, think critically and adapt to a changing economy.


We cannot and will not com-


pete with developing nations on low-wage and low-skilled jobs. Our future depends on skilled, knowledgeable and flexible workers who can pivot rapidly and stay ahead of our global competitors.


That workforce is being


prepared today by a commu- nity college near you.


At a time when national


data suggest that one of every five students at our finest and more costly universities require developmental and remedial assistance to gradu- ate, the value of a quality, less-costly community college education comes into sharper focus.


Perhaps former president


Bill Clinton captured the value of our local community colleg- es best when he reflected, “If community colleges had yet to be invented, there would be a mad rush to do so today.”


A month away from the


critical mid-term election, spotlighting education is good politics. Investing in our com- munity colleges is also good policy.


Tom Watkins is an educa-


tion and business consultant in the U.S. and China and served as Michigan’s state superintendent of schools from 2001 to 2005. He can be reached at tdwatkins@aol. com.


The Eddie Long Sex scandal:


Silence doesn’t make the issue of church molestation go away


By Anthony Asadullah Samad The ongoing (and ever-increasing) sex scan-


dal of one of Black America’s most prominent (and extravagant) “mega-preachers,” Bishop Eddie Long, got the nation talking.


They’re not just talking about the event


itself. Black America is in a debate, on Face- book, on Twitter, on blogs and chat rooms, in editorial commentary as to whether we, as a community, should even be talking about this.


Is that a question that we even have to ask? This is beyond gossip. The depth of the


truth will never be known, but when photos of Bishop Long posing in body suits in his bath- room show up on the Internet, sexual impropri- ety is at least “a given.”


This is one of the biggest skeletons in the


closets of the Black church. A huge skeleton that fell out of the Catholic church a decade ago. It might not be just a skeleton bone in the Black church. We might be stumbling up on a whole graveyard. We know this is not a singular occurrence in a single church.


The presence of gay men in Black churches,


and not just in the choir, is significant. This is an issue waiting to break in probably every city in America where in some church, somewhere a worshipper has been violated.


A whole bunch of preachers are, as my


grandfather used to say, as “nervous as a ho in church,” because they are the whores in church. So when it breaks, it’s gonna break big. And it’s not as if the people don’t see it.


I was in a conversation with a single mother


a couple months ago where she was looking for a church home for her son. She wants him to know God but is “concerned” about the huge gay male she sees in the churches she’s at- tended.


Her solution? Put him in the Nation of Islam


where he can get “manhood” training. It is now the silent concern in the Black


church that has nothing to do with “homopho-


bia,” but everything to do with “predator-phobia” (the label Long’s alleged victims assigned to him) and young boys getting sexually “turned out” in church.


The issue here is, should it be public conversation about molestation in the church, or are we expected to be silent on this issue?


Long Sometimes, God makes examples, even of his


witnesses, to bear witness to a greater lesson of truth.


This is not about the politics (and hypoc-


risies) of Black homophobia — even though Eddie Long, himself, is on record as being anti- gay and has even been called a homophobe in published reports.


This is about the continuing crisis of church


exploitation (notice I didn’t say religious ex- ploitation) of spiritually vulnerable worship- pers and what I call “the devils in the pulpit.”


The church house is supposed to be the safe


house for those spiritually and emotionally af- flicted. Yet, we see another instance where the guise of “being pleasing in the sight of God” exploits those looking for spiritual guidance.


Certainly, Bishop Long has his supporters


and they have been vehement in their support. And his church has done a lot of good in the Atlanta community.


But is the good worth the damage being


done to young men (the number yet to be deter- mined) seduced by the trapping of “God-given” prosperity?


No amount of good can cover an evil deed


done in God’s name. Anthony Asadullah Samad, PhD, is a na-


tional columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum. com) and author of the upcoming book, “REAL EYEZ: Race, Reality and Politics in 21st Cen- tury Popular Culture.” He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com


Moderator: Juliette Thorpe Okotie- Eboh, Ph.D.


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Diverse Panel of Women from Government, Education & Leading Industries


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Page A-5


Keynote Speaker: Denise Ilitch Vice Chair of U of M Board of Regents Owner and Publisher of Ambassador Magazine


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