The Senate Education Committee seems to have foot-in-mouth disease lately. For the second time in a week, a Republican member from suburban Detroit stirs controversy.
The latest eyebrow-raiser comes from Sen. Patrick Colbeck of Canton Township. At a hearing Wednesday, he urged EAA Chancellor Veronica Conforme to consider work-study programs in the high schools, Christopher Klaver writes at Gongwer News Service.
Colbeck said he had seen such programs improve academic performance in other schools and getting the students into a work situation could teach them some additional skills, like the need for punctuality.
“A lot of these kids, if they had a job, would be the only one in that family or in that household with a job in a lot of cases,” he said.
WDIV has a video of the comment in this newscast segment by Kimberly Gill, who says in her introduction: "Is it just a poor choice of words or something more?" She adds:
We made several phone calls and his staff says Sen. Colbeck is in meetings all day and not able to accept our phone calls.
This Democrat from Dearborn Heights urges senators to "dispel some myths that we keep perpetuating in this committee.” (Facebook photo)
Committee colleague David Knezek, a Democrat from Dearborn Heights, didn't care for the broad-brush claim. His district includes some Education Achievement Authority schools, all of which are in Detroit.
Committee chair Phil Pavlov, R-Saint Clair, blocked Knezek from asking Colbeck for the source of his claim, according to the Lansing newsletter. Knezek then made this comment, WDIV's video shows:.
“The unemployment rate in Detroit is 10.2 percent. So you're not only . . . wrong, but he is wrong 89.8% of the time.
"Maybe we can dispel some myths that we keep perpetuating in this committee.”
Klaveer, the capitol correspondent, notes that the clash arose six days after Sen. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy, "came under heavy criticism for saying after a committee presentation last week regarding most struggling schools having a largely minority population that there was no way to 'fix' the situation by making African-American white.
Knollenberg began this week by apologizing for "a clunky choice of words" and telling a radio host: "I could have articulated it clearer."
Earlier coverage:
