This is the kind of crap that really pisses me off. 
How about they work on bringing freakin’ jobs into the state…
“We wonder how financially strained Michigan residents will feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else’s kid an iPod.”
I’ll tell you how I feel….I think it’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of. The last thing we need to be buying every school kid is an MP3 player. How about we take that money, pay our teachers a bit more and focus on the freakin’ fundamentals? Hmmm….better yet, how about our representatives take a paycut, pay our teachers more money and focus on the fundamentals? Ooohh…AND how about some tax cuts? Now there’s a novel idea.: 
So this is their plan: Raise taxes on the working class. Randomly throw money at groups we feel are underpriveledged or otherwise in need. Get re-elected.
Sounds like a piss-poor plan to me.
Unfortunately, this state is full of enough sheep that I think this kind
of thing has a real chance of becoming real.
Actually, it sound like detnews is taking that proposal a bit out of context. In this article, http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=6959&sec=24 states that the plan is “to equip every student in the state with an Ipod in the classroom.“
(my emphasis).
So, instead of just handing student ipods the first day of class as a gift, it seems that they will be kept in a closet, handed out when the curriculum calls for them, and collected afterwards, and used again for the next class — much in the same manner that schools currently deal with microscopes, film projectors, text books and, for that matter, desks.
James,
That’s an interesting take on the proposal and it does make a bit more
sense, BUT I still have to ask: why would an Ipod be necessary in any
class? C’mon…we got by with things called textbooks, film strips and
movies (on real film).
mike