I am not writing in an attempt to down grade anyone, or make our nations problems seem smaller than they are. I am only trying to point out that many people have forgotten how to be grateful. Although it is true that I don't know what every person or family does behind closed doors, I do know when we are constantly bombarded by negativity, hopelessness, despair and rough times, we get caught up in it.
I truly believe that our nation has gotten into many of the wrong situations because we lost our gratefulness, our morals, our hope. We have put so much STUFF on our kids plates and then wondered why they cant handle failure. I believe if we all just get back to basics and take the focus off the kids to succeed at so much, they will in turn have more time for academics. It is sad when the headlines in our news is that Football, baseball players make millions of dollars and yet can't read-that makes me see that all the money in the world isn't going to make a person a success in life. For they can't even stand on their own two feet.
I am a grateful person, and I truly am grateful to WLUC6 for not only featuring individuals in "The Upside," but recognizing people for the small ways they are helping others in our part of the world.

As a general rule, I stay out of the personality conflicts on these boards, I typically read them and chuckle to myself, however this time around, I must comment on Citizen U. You seem to be living in a bubble not fully understanding the problems that this country is facing. "Just be happy" he says. OK, let's see, my husband has been laid off for 3 months, (please note, unemployment actually pays more than minimum wage, therefore we have opted to stay with that, as all jobs out there are exactly min. wage). I lost my job before him. I went from a quality job (at least here in the UP) to checking groceries. (please note with a college degree). I lost all benefits and have gone from meals that actually contained the food groups to whatever is left in our pantry. Winter is on the way and I have no clue how we will buy our two children the boots or jackets that they need, and the thought of a January heating bill makes me want to give up. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone else? I bet it does, because I know we are not the only family out there facing these kind of problems. So Citizen U, I must say that it is time you join the real world, come on out of the bubble you obviously live in and see that, while your life may be moving along just fine, the rest of us are wondering where we will get the money for a gallon of milk. You can take your "Why can't everyone just be happy?" attitude and bury it in the sand, the same place your head seems to be!!!

And don't you dare come back to me and tell me I should be greatful for what I have and love my children more. My time in unfortunately spent trying to feed the children I love so much, and I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not the school is able to turn the heat on!!!!!

With a little over $7000 per student that is $219,480 for every class of 30 students,thats sounds like quite a bit of money to me.There must be ways to use that money wiser to get the kids an education.I heard they payed $40,000 to repave the track at Westwood that they use a few times per year. What ever happened to the lottery?If they give away half the ticket sales every week as prizes there should be a few million every WEEK for the schools.

I would like to know how Granholm is the second highest paid govenor in the whole United States, and yet Michigan has the highest unemployment rate and now they are cutting MORE funding for schools. How is this even legal?

Ah the sweet smells of morning and the gratitude for waking up!
I am grateful for my slightly below the national poverty wage job. For with this job I pay a mortgage, electric, cable, car payment, car insurance, property taxes, health care premiums, food, clothes with no help from the government.
See I am content with what I have. I do not need extravegence, nor do I drink kool-aid or have my head buried in a sand box. I simply am grateful for everything I have. I believe too many people listen to the news and get their blood pressure up. They find no happiness for others gratitude or fortune. They get greedy, want more and than stomp on the people around them. Their benefit to society seems only to be their grumbling, hate, degrading everyone around them and making their immediate family and friends miserable. If their reality is to believe that by degrading, attempting to humiliate people around them or condemning others is successful, they are sadly mistaken. When a person is completely content with the life they have, there is happiness.

Wouldnt it be smarter to cut teachers wages to make up for the money being taken away for each child, atleast they will still have a job. Cutting money out for the kids schooling is totally nonsense.

Citizen u arn't is a moron. Everytime you post you prove it. Drinking more coolaid doesn't make you right or better. You must live by a beach, or have a big sandbox, because your head appears to be buried in it.

Thats a 1.74% cut. $3810 per year for a teacher with 30 kids in a class. 4.23% paycut for a teacher who makes 90k a year resulting in a check of $86190 for 9 months work or $9576 a month instead of $10000. $423 a month loss or one day a week for free. But spread out through the whole school budget is it too much to ask to keep a job? As a paid public servent who would dictate their pay? Take away more from your pocket by increasing taxes when millions are unemployed and losing their homes or teachers take a cut? Its your money. Is the govener wrong? But yes i wouldnt want to work for free one day a week. I only make $450 a week as it is.

I for one am content with what our govenor has done for us because I look at every state in this country and each and every one is going through the same thing we are. People quit watching the news and try playing cards or a game with your family. Stop belly aching that the person next to you is making more money. Start being grateful for what you have and more importantly try giving your kids a hug and telling them you love them.
From all these comment on here there's no wonder our kids are running around mugging, raping, and stealing. If all these comments are spewed out infront of your children, it no wonder we are so screwed up.
Be grateful for what we have here in the U.P. There's a lot of trash that is lying on the ground out there, try taking your kids out and expressing your concern for our wonderful earth. We do have so much to be grateful for up here. And maybe, just maybe its a miracle in disguise that we are forgotten about way up here in God's country.

Jenny must be losing the faithful. Used to be that people would comment to defend her, and in turn, blame Engler. It has nothing to do with Granholm turning her back on industry in this state. Imagine what it might be like if Jen hadnt refused to lessen the tax burden on industry in michigan. Turns out that personal income taxes must have a lot of pull in the states economics. Lose jobs and the state goes belly up. Might be a good idea to give some sort of tax incentives to keep business in business in michigan, instead of demanding more of the profits. Seems to work in other states, why not here? Oh, wait... lets go to europe and try and get them to invest in green energy that nobody can afford to switch to...what great ideas come from the liberal mind...... X

She's a peach. ...The center of it.

Please go back to Canada and sink their schools !!

Do you think leaving Michigan is going to help? Do a web search on school cuts. It’s EVERYWHERE, not just Michigan. This is far from a Michigan/Granholm issue... it's national.

Look futher into these cuts. Only 20 some percent of people have kids in school but we all pay school taxes and we all want the best for all kids. Sooo, she cuts were it hurts us all but the real truth is she wants to raise taxes and then say it's for the kids. Give me more money and I will replenish the cuts. Course in the mean time state gov stays the same size with no cuts. She has one more year to try and raise taxes. See the set up.
It is a known fact. She has said it in public. Mich. citizens are under taxed. Could that be because she comes from Canada?

$100 Trillion. I'd like to that actually broken down somewhere other than in his imagination. I have been told that Fox News isn't a news station anyway. LOL. I think they're trying to dumb down America so they can get more people to believe in there Democrap (pronounced: Socialist)ways.

Funny how the Fed's & Grandholm encouraged the Obama Admin to limit the pay on PRIVATE companies who continue to employ many in the USA/MI and would never look inward to control/cut their own pay. We must protect our future - THE KIDS. Our State Government continues to sit on their thumbs acting like a school kid that has been called on in class with their heads down in hopes the teacher will not see them. They are making the same $$ amount and feed the people a bunch of SH.. Wait for the Asian Carp, Jen will be serving/selling it as Sushi and telling us it tastes good! "If it looks like fish & smells like fish it must be............."

I believe the figure you used for the debt is without the unfunded liabilities of our social programs that have been robbed by the bums in Washington. The figure I used came from the Glenn ;Beck program that has figured in the unfunded liabilities. If the figure is wrong then I apologize.
If you watch his show at 5Pm on Fox you will see the
National debt board that I was referring to. And believe me when I tell you that it is getting worse by the day with the yahhoos we have in Washington.
Oh and by the way, I have an education and have been self employed and creating jobs for others my whole life!!

I've taken a 15% pay cut this year, had my insurance premiums increased, with no pay increase in 3 years - and I'm OK with "helping out". So, let's all get on board and take the same cuts (all, every tax funded employee). Why isn't every state employee required to take a cut?

See what happens when you take money from education? The estimated US population is 307,153,329. The national debt is roughly $11,955,043,287,192.30. That comes out to $38,922.07 per person. Which is still a lot, but far below the numbers Charles Foust posted.

You ask how on earth this woman was voted in for a 2nd term? It was all those folks that live in the SE corner of our state - where the high school graduation rate is less than 30%. And, those school districts get more $$$ per student than any of our schools up here get.
That's one reason...then add in the Union vote she got from all the Unionites down there and that's why Jennifer is in office!!!
But the good news - the Unions helped to destroy the auto industry, so many of those Unionites are now unemployed and feeling the pains of living on that income instead of their $40,000 - $50,000 auto industry salary. And many of them have moved out of state. So, maybe, just maybe, the rest of this state's vote will count come 2010 and 2012. And, we need to get those folks that don't vote (about 60% of our population) off the couch and into the voting booth!!! It can be done and now is the time!!!!

I never voted for this idiot & for those of you how did, I have a question for you - "How are you feeling now?" Why are they not taking paycuts and why is her husband employed by our state? I totally agree with so many other posts - that THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE!!! This governor does not care about Michigan - it just a pay check - she was not born here, her children do not attend school here - There are 100 other areas that could take cuts - but not our schools that are running on shoe string budgets as it is - Once again, she proves to the country what an idiot she is and how she is running Michigan into the ground!

Our governor doesn't think our future looks bleak enough now, lets just keep taking from the kids so they wont be able to run the state in when they grow up. I am a teacher and I have a hard enough time trying to keep my students in class with the materials I have so lets just take some more away and pray our future (the kids) don't fall through the cracks. We think the state is in bad shape now... just wait till these kids grow up without an education. They learn more on the streets than they do in our classrooms and its only going to get worse....

The answer has already been proposed. What we need is a Unicameral legislature with half the legislature at half the pay. Look it up and then get behind it. I think running state government at 25% of the salary cost and no benefits for legislators is the only way to go. Proposed by Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce a couple years ago it has not gained enough momentum to achieve the votes needed for a constitutional amendment. We don't need legislators with lots of time to think up new ways to spend our money.

To those of you that elected, and then reelected this socialist windbag, thanks a lot. Now our kids get to suffer even further.

Out of all of the areas of the budget that could be cut why is our Governor focusing on education? Could it be she doesn't realize the importance of a good education and how that education supports Michigan businesses, both large and small? Or is she just playing politics again with our children's future? Surely she can find other areas to cut, such as her salary and travel allowance.

I am glad to see some people of Michigan understand the Stupid decisions OUR ELECTED officials are making in order to protect THEIR cushy salaries and benifits!!! RE-ELECT NO_ONE! They all need to come live in the real world and struggle with the rest of us. Right now each citizen of the US owes $343,763.00 on the national debt! Wether they are 1 day old or 101yrs old.
How did we get here? We became complacent and allowed them to stay in office for DECADES and treat themselves to our hard earned money! I sure hope all of us that live to see another election will elect people that are there to serve us the taxpayers and not be self serving.
I too have had all I can take and am willing to serve this country for nothing but my exspenses involved in that service. I live on almost nothing now and am in a three year fight with the Social Security administration to receive the benifits I paid for my entire life!
The way they are spending and denying benifits owed is CRIMINAL!!! THROW ALL THE BUMS OUT!

I have a wonderful idea, instead of budget cuts for the schools ALL elected officials in Lansing work for FREE I mean really FREE as not getting any pay starting with the governor of the state. They are not doing anything postive for our state and talking money from education is plain stupid idea on their part, but of course it will not affect their kids so they do not care. Everything this governor has done is tear done,destroy and run people out of the state. And to take more money from our schools shows she does not care one bit about the children of this state either. I feel for the schools but more for the children as they are the ones who will hurt in the end.

Our Governor is no better that a terrorist. She wont work with other elected officals unless it is to HER benefit. She has dont NOTHING for Michigan. How about taking that 40 mil you spent on advertising and use it for education. What happend to all the promises of not cutting funding for education during her campain? The great state of Michigan will be no more if she keeps up the crap she has been doing. All I can we can do now is pray and vote for a replacment that will do some good here. Maybe her trip to China was a job interview to work for the Chinese government? That would be a great place for her to go!

Remember when granholm was running for her second term? She kept saying we were going to be "blown away." OK, we're blown away alright? The state is going to hell. We have the highest unemployment in the nation. Now she wants to make our kids the dumbest! Well, why do they need a good education? Oh, I know, to get all those jobs we have.

I agree with Kate. We need to impeach, if we can. I still cannot believe that she was voted into office for a 2nd term. I hope the residents of Michigan who voted for her, learn their lesson and choose wisely in 2010! Start doing your research on the next governor early and get all the facts straight! We need to make a good decision in order to clean up the mess she's made!

Are you crazy? A bailout for the schools, no way. We need to make sure we fund the executives bonuses at the banks that did such a wonderful job. We wouldn't want them going to another bank and screwing them up. After all, the kid's in Suttons Bay schools only have 3 seminar classes a day. We should be able to fit one more in there when we drop another group of teachers. Besides, heat for schools is over rated. The kids should be able to function down to 47 degrees without too much problem.

Why doesn't the House and the Senate volunteer to take a pay cut?! It is, after all, a PART TIME job!!
Has there ever been a proposal for a Bail Out program for our education system??

Can we impeach???? She needs to GO!! I am willing to work for FREE to balance the budget...Warning...I will start with salary cuts for our politicians. :0)and not our schools, police forces, veterans funds,

I think its time to leave Michigan! This is apparently what Granholm wants!