By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

LANSING, Mich. – Education reformers in Michigan have been hoping that a union-led petition drive to eliminate the state’s emergency manager law would not reach the November ballot.
    
And the state’s Board of Canvassers may have given them their wish Thursday by rejecting a formal request to put the measure on the ballot, the Detroit News reports.

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But the reason for keeping it off the ballot – the type size of a headline on petitions that circulated around the state was not big enough – could actually work in favor of the public service unions who want to overturn the law.

The Michigan Education Association and the state’s other public service unions have been circulating petitions for months, trying to force a popular referendum on the emergency manager law.

 The law, promoted by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and passed by the GOP-dominated legislature, allows the state to appoint emergency managers to run financially failing school districts and local governments. Under the law, the emergency manager has the power to void union collective bargaining agreements that cost schools and communities too much money.

It’s an excellent way to deal with stubborn unions that refuse to make concessions for the common good. That’s particularly true in school districts, where labor costs often take up 80 percent of the budget, and students often suffer when the unions refuse to give anything back.

But union activists hate the law, and were able to gather 203,328 signatures of registered voters, about 40,000 more than necessary to put the question on the statewide ballot.

At a hearing Thursday, the Board of Canvassers, voting along party lines, deadlocked 2-2 on whether the proposal would be allowed on the ballot. The two Republicans who voted against it noted that the type size of a headline on the petition was too small and did not meet specific state criteria.

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Union supporters at the meeting became very vocal, screaming and sticking fingers in the faces of the Republican boad members, according to a report in the Detroit News. Union leaders vowed to appeal the ruling in court.

Technically the Board of Canvassers may be correct in its ruling.

But we wonder if Michigan voters might resent the fact that some officials want to keep them from having the final word on the matter. If a judge overturns the Board of Canvassers decision and puts the question on the ballot, some may side with the unions out of resentment toward those who tried to prevent the referendum.

The people of Michigan should have a right to judge the emergency financial manager law on its many merits. Supporters of the law should focus their efforts on defending it in the court of public opinion, instead of trying to block a public election based on a silly technicality.