Governor talks education with youth
By Erin Bozek-Jarvis, 16, Ben Harris, 15 and Maggie Guter, 13, with contributions by Danielle Jahnke, 13.

When first elected, Governor Jennifer Granholm held an inaugural event at the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum in Marquette. At the event, Granholm pledged to make youth issues a priority during her term in office.

One youth issue in particular, education, would become one of Governor Granholm’s cornerstones during her tenure of office.

“ The most important role of government is making sure that you are educated and go onto college,” Granholm told 8-18 Media during a recent interview.

Granholm wants every student to have a high expectation curriculum, no matter where they live in Michigan. Signed into law in 2006, the Michigan Merit Curriculum is aimed at giving students challenging course requirements in an effort to better prepare them for college.
Rigorous courses would not be possible without excellent teachers. According to the Governor, teachers are a crucial element of the new curriculum.

“ If you have the best teachers, those teachers will inspire in you a love of learning and that’s the most important love to have,” she said. “So to me, getting the right teachers, getting teachers to inspire young people to want to learn, and to ask those questions, to want to solve problems, is a huge challenge and that’s something we are focused on.”

Teachers, Granholm pointed out, are essential to make sure students who have more difficulty mastering the challenging subject matter do not fall behind.

“ I think one of the biggest challenges with the curriculum is that you have to have teachers that can inspire you in the way that you can best receive it. We’ve had to make sure that schools know that they (have) the flexibility to put, like for example, double math periods for the kids that maybe need some extra attention on it.”

According to Granholm, the effect of the new curriculum can already be seen in recent test scores.

“ The results speak for themselves,” Granholm said. “We’ve got record ACT scores, record Michigan Merit Exam scores, we have the record drop in the drop out rate. We’re not where we should be but we’ve made a lot of good progress.”

Granholm hopes that the new curriculum will allow more students to successfully go on to higher educational opportunities. The governor believes the higher number of college graduates, the better off the state would be overall.

“ One the states that has the highest number of people with college degrees is Massachusetts. Massachusetts has one of the lowest unemployment rates,” Granholm explained. “In the Midwest, one of the most well educated states is Minnesota. Minnesota has the lowest unemployment rate in the Midwest.”

Granholm urges the next governor to continue the effort of improving the education system to produce more well-rounded students who will pursue higher education. Focusing so heavily on education, Granholm insists, will also help fuel Michigan’s economy and boost business production.

In Michigan’s tough job market, Granholm recommends students to place a stronger focus on science, technology, engineering, and math. The governor states that jobs in these fields are the jobs of the 21-century.

One field that Michigan is currently focusing on is the development of ‘green’, or environmentally friendly, jobs. Governor Granholm said she and her administration have worked to make Michigan one of the leaders in green manufacturing.

“In the three sectors of solar, wind and batteries alone, and those are all clean energy jobs, just in the past year, we’ve been able to bring in 35 companies and 82,000 jobs that are projected to be created over the next decade,” she said.

The economy and education dominated Granholm’s public life as governor, but in her time off, Governor Granholm enjoyed other benefits her position offered.

“ Let me just say the best part about being governor, from just a personal point of view, is the view off of the porch of the Governor’s Residence on Mackinac Island,” she said. “It’s worth the price of admission.”

The rest of her personal time was taken up largely by her three kids: two daughters who attend the University of Michigan and one son in eighth grade. Governor Granholm admits being the children of the governor can be difficult. She said her younger daughter struggled the most with it.

“ Often when you’re a teenager you think people are looking at you anyway,” she said. “But in her case, people were looking at her (laughs).”

The Governor is grateful for the chance to have given her kids new and unusual opportunities.

“ It’s provided them with a window into stuff that they would never have been able to see,” she explained. “We’ve gone to places they would never have been able to visit. They’ve met people they would never have been able to meet. They’ve met the President several times.”

Granholm also enjoyed governing a state so rich with natural resources. She hopes the next person in her position takes advantage of the breadth of experiences Michigan has to offer.

“ I would strongly encourage the next governor to take advantage of every corner of this fantastic and beautiful state and especially the U.P.,” she said.

Governor Granholm also offered advice to the incoming governor about how to cope with running a state, when the economy is sinking and jobs are disappearing.

“ First I would say that it’s really important to recognize that just because you were elected doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to fix it overnight,” she reflects. “In order to repair and to make the next Michigan, they have to deploy strategies that are long-term strategies and they can’t be so egotistical to think that they’re going to be able to fix it overnight either because they’re not going to be able to.”

Granholm urges her successor not to look back but to keep Michigan moving forward.