Nolan Finley

Nolan Finley: Michigan parents still fail their children

How hard a whack upside the head will it take to awaken Michigan parents to the reality that unless they scratch and claw to get their children a high-quality education, they are condemning them to a life of bleak servitude to those who are smarter and better skilled?

When The Detroit News and Your Child of Michigan teamed up in 2005 to measure the commitment to education in Michigan, it was shocking to learn that only 27 percent of parents felt a college education was essential to their children's success.

Now, two years later, it is appalling that the needle hasn't moved, despite the collapse of the state's economy and the confirmation that the domestic auto industry's glory days are gone for good.

Education ought to be the singular preoccupation of parents. Without an education, without training, without a degree, without a certificate, without a tradesman's license, their children are most likely doomed to a meager and miserable existence.

Perhaps Michigan parents haven't noticed, but the 21st century isn't producing many jobs that pay big money for low skills.

The flattening of the world, globalization, the knowledge economy are all real forces that are already altering the way we live. From here on out, workers will be paid based on what skills and expertise they offer to an employer, not on which country they live in or what labor union they belong to. Unskilled workers in America will be worth no more than unskilled workers in Asia.

The quality of life gap between those with education and skills and those without them will only widen.

Faced with those facts, parents who allow their offspring to go out into the world unprepared to do anything but grunt work are guilty of child abuse.

Today, I'd rather be a child who is beaten, emotionally battered, malnourished and physically neglected than one who is under-educated.

For the current generation of children, education will be the overriding factor in determining how well they live and how much they enjoy their lives.

Only parents can fix schools

It is interesting in this poll how sharply confidence in the state's public schools has fallen. And yet, it is not matched by a corresponding increase in parental involvement in the schools.

If parents believe the schools are cheating their children, why aren't they packing school board meetings and jamming classrooms to see what's going on?

There are some glimmers of hope. Acknowledgement of the importance of a high-quality education has climbed, as has the understanding of which careers will offer the best opportunity in coming years.

But the sense of urgency is still missing, as is the awareness of what it takes to get a child ready to go to college and succeed there.

I keep coming back to the word "essential" in both this poll and the previous one. Why does that word matter? Because our polling indicates that children whose parents see education as essential to success and happiness are three times more likely to graduate from college than those whose parents say it is important.

Parents in the "essential" group are far more likely to prepare their children for college, to push them to attend and to make the financial sacrifices to get them through.

I don't speak to this issue as an elitist or as a person of privilege. Neither of my parents went past the eighth grade. They worked in factories that no longer exist. To pay for college, I started working in an auto parts plant while I was still in high school. That plant also is shuttered.

An education wasn't easy to get, but it saved my life. And it is the only thing that will save Michigan.

The education deficit won't be erased by politics or policy. Parents first must decide that they want the best for their children, no matter how much harder they have to work, how many more sacrifices they have to make.

They must answer the wake up call and do whatever it takes to give their children the education essential to success and survival in 21st century.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. You can find more of his columns at detnews.com/finley. Read his daily blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/ and watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.