The Grand Rapids, Mich. school board is set to discuss the state’s school funding crisis Thursday as radical socialists take to the streets across the country to demand higher taxes for the nation’s struggling education system.

     Both of the events push for more tax dollars to support a school system that has failed students for decades, and serve as a slap in the face to concerned citizens focused on fixing the problem.

     Tomorrow, the Grand Rapids school board will host a “Community Forum on School Funding, Taxes and the State’s Structural Deficit” featuring Charles Ballard, economics professor at Michigan State University, and noted union apologist.

     Ballard released a union-funded “scholarly report” last fall during the state budget debate in Lansing which defended the state unionized workers’ lofty salaries and benefit packages that have plagued Michigan’s budget for years.  He was paid to write the report by the Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers.

     We fully expect Ballard to stick to the union line, and attempt to convince the Grand Rapids community to pony up more tax dollars for automatic raises and overpriced insurance for the city’s unionized teachers.  Ballard’s shtick likely will not address burdensome labor costs or union rules that are bleeding Grand Rapids schools to death.

     Ballard’s tax more, spend more mentality will also be echoed by protesters in Lansing and other states tomorrow as part of a “National Day of Action to Support Public Education,” led by radical socialist groups like Michigan’s By Any Means Necessary and North Carolina-based Destroy Industry.

     Is it a coincidence? Perhaps, but we highly doubt it.

     There is one problem, though. Michigan taxpayers are growing tired of the union’s racket.

     House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, made it clear at the Michigan Negotiator’s Association spring conference last week that he simply doesn’t have the votes in his caucus to raise taxes.  So a focus on generating more tax revenue to fix Michigan’s education funding crisis is misguided at best.

     School officials across the country are quickly realizing the stress that outlandish labor costs are putting on local school budgets, and are seeking common-sense contract concessions and reforms from their teachers unions in record numbers.

     Voters in Benton Harbor, Mich. recently supported their school board members’ decision to privatize services, by quashing a union-led recall effort over the decision.

     Central Falls, RI school superintendent Frances Gallo is being praised by her community and national education officials for standing up to her local teachers union. She fired the entire high school teaching staff after the union refused to commit to long overdue reforms needed to turn the chronically failing school around.

     The tides are changing, so why does the Grand Rapids school board seem to be left on the beach?

     Perhaps that’s a question Mr. Ballard could answer, because we certainly can’t find a good reason.

     If the Grand Rapids school board is truly concerned with the financial condition of the school district, it wouldn’t invite a union droid to advocate for the same old, same old. The board would be much better served by a roundtable of local business leaders familiar with successfully weathering rough financial times.

     Until the board decides to get tough with its very militant local teachers union to implement serious cost cutting and spending reform solutions, it will continue to do the same thing while expecting different results.

     And many believe that’s the definition of insanity.