Despite the traffic choking, mid-March snowstorm that pounded the Southern half of Michigan all day, Lawrence W. Reed arrived from Midland in ample time for his March 16 ERC Forum appearance at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial.

Reed, 50, is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based research and educational institute. The Center's mission is to equip Michigan citizens and other decision-makers to better evaluate public policy options from a free market perspective.

Following his introduction by ERC chairman, Ed Joseph, Lawrence Reed seized the opportunity to turn the March snow into a free market object lesson. He recounted a lesson learned from his mentor, the late Leonard Read, who vowed never to complain about the weather. The ERC speaker recalled that his ever-optimistic mentor taught him, “When tempted to complain about the weather, just be thankful it's still God and not the government who's in charge!”

Appeals Court Rules

For Mackinac Center

On March 18, 2004, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the Mackinac Center was within its First Amendment rights when it quoted MEA President Luigi Battaglieri who, in talking to reporters, said of the Center, "I admire what they've done." >>Read The Detroit News story.

Talking about his work as president of the Mackinac Center, Reed said, “We view problems from a free enterprise perspective, instead of asking, 'What big government scheme should we adopt?'” The center's focus is on Michigan public policy. He said the Center does this by employing the internet, economic commentaries, special events, and the publication of high school debate materials.

The Mackinac Center sponsors two robust, innovative web sites, www.Mackinac.org, and www.MichiganVotes.org. Reed explained that the Center is a nonpartisan research and educational organization devoted to broadening the debate on economic issues. “The other side argues for more government regardless of the problem,” he said.

MichiganVotes.org tracks every bill introduced in Lansing, and is updated daily. Reed said, “For the first time, legislators know that the world can see what is in the hopper.” Interactive features allow any visitor to the web site to track the votes of his own legislator, and to enroll in a system that provides electronic notification of any action involving topics of interest selected by the web visitor.

According to Reed, reaching young people is another primary goal of the Center. Over the past year, the Center has hosted debate workshops with attendance of from six to 700 kids each. In addition, the Center maintains popular internet resources such as, “Ask the Debate Coach,” and “Ask the Economist.”

Reed said, “We view ourselves as economists, as opposed to social experts, and education is an economic issue.” For its outspoken positions on education, Reed said, “We have been the target of the MEA.” The MEA is an East Lansing-based Michigan school employee union, with school teachers making up 46% of its membership, according to The Detroit News.

“We believe in a competitive education marketplace, and view more choice as a good thing,” he said. Reed offered an example of the savings available through competitive contracts for school support services. “We have studied what could be saved in custodial costs and have the data,” he said.

Reed said, “We aim to take the battle to the doorstep of the other side.” He said, “The MEA is involved with more than education, and on the wrong side of almost every issue.”

The Mackinac Center found that many schools had never investigated their own cost data. The Center's survey determined actual school costs and compared them to private costs. In Michigan schools studied, custodial costs ranged from $1.13 to $2.34 per square foot. He noted that costs obviously would have been much higher if the buildings had not been idle during holidays and summer vacation.

The Center compared these costs to actual costs borne by a private business, Meijer, and discovered that custodial costs for the 24/7 operation were just 47¢ per foot. In one school district alone, private cleaning services could save taxpayers $1 million per year. Reed said that even the MEA union has elected to contract private firms for its own security, custodial and food services, but fights school districts that try doing the same.

Using an automobile analogy, Reed described the MESA K-12 health care plan used by many Michigan school districts as “a scandal -- Cadillac benefits at Rolls Royce prices.”

Reed also argued for reform of teacher certification. He said teacher's colleges are not doing their job, and alternate teacher certification methods should be implemented. But, he said, “The union fights any change.”

Another area requiring taxpayer vigilance, Reed said, is the field of textbooks. He cited examples of bias and error in State-approved textbooks on economics and Michigan history.

One evidence of the Mackinac Center's success is the MEA's lawsuit filed against the Center. The Center had merely quoted the head of the Michigan Education Association, Luigi Battaglieri, who said of the Mackinac Center, “And so, quite frankly, I admire what they've done over the past couple of years [,] entering into the field as they have, and pretty much being the sole provider of... research to the community... to the public, to our members, to legislators and so on.”

His pronouncement came at a news conference called by the MEA to launch a union-backed think tank to counter the Mackinac Center. The suit objects to the Center's use of the quote, and demands the Center's contributor list, and that the Center “never again use the name 'MEA' in any publication.”

Reed sees it as a free speech issue, and asks, “Do MEA-member teachers know that their union takes their forced dues money to fight the first amendment?” He said, “The Center will not be intimidated or bullied.” Reed said he is “anti-compulsion,” and believes the best safeguard for union members is “transparency in the way unions utilize their members' dues.”

Although legal action is still pending, according to Reed, “It has resulted in very helpful national publicity.” Thomas Bray, writing in The Detroit News, calls the suit an attempt to “harass” the Mackinac Center. Oral arguments were presented at the Michigan Court of Appeals on February 5, 2004. Note: On March 18, 2004, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the Mackinac Center was within its First Amendment rights to quote MEA President Lu Battaglieri after he told reporters he admired what the Mackinac Center had done. >>Read Court's opinion.

Reed said that too often, each year's legislative budget debate tends to focus on only the proposed budget additions. He said that once an item gains inclusion in the annual budget, it tends to be safe from future scrutiny.

According to Reed, that is how the State found itself spending $100,000 annually on free food for visitors at a State welcome center. After the Mackinac Center questioned the legacy program, the “Taste of Michigan” program was reviewed by a new legislature and scaled back.

Another expense uncovered by the Center was the State-owned and operated Porcupine Mountains Downhill Ski area located in the U.P. running at a $200,000 annual loss. After being brought to the attention of a new legislature, the State eliminated the losses by turning operation of the DNR facility over to a private vendor.

Reed said that because City and County officials often don't know the actual cost of their own services, merely requesting competitive bids for a municipal service could result in big savings. He cited operation of correctional institutions and trash hauling as examples.

“In 1994,” Reed said, “Flint was faced with declining population and realized it was spending too much to pick up its garbage.” By advertising for bids, Reed said the city saved $1.4 million of its $5.1 refuse collection budget without even awarding a private contract. According to Reed, that's because as a result of the City's pursuit of cost-saving options, the municipal employee's unions offered to implement work rule changes, including accepting mandatory eight hours of work for eight hours of pay. >>Read, Is There Gold in Garbage?

Reed lauded the restraint shown in Lansing recently, as the government dealt with Michigan budget issues. Instead of overspending beyond its means or raising taxes, both the legislature and the governor have held the line on income tax increases. Reed believes years of groundwork laid by the Center were partly responsible for this restraint.

He said, “Liberals behave as if they believe government should be in charge just to prove their government has compassion.” Concluding his Forum remarks, Reed optimistically said, “We are winning the battle for limited government, and much of it is by focusing on young people.”

Reed holds a B.A. in Economics from Grove City College and an M.A. in History from Slippery Rock State University, both in Pennsylvania. He taught economics at Midland's Northwood University and chaired the Department of Economics. He designed the university's unique dual major in Economics and Business Management, and founded its annual, highly acclaimed "Freedom Seminar." In 1982, he was a candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 4th district. He moved to Boise, Idaho, in 1984 to direct a policy institute before returning to Michigan in 1987 to head the Mackinac Center.

Under his leadership, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has emerged as the largest and one of the most effective of over 40 state-based free market think tanks in America. In 1994, he was elected to a one-year term as President of the State Policy Network, a national organization whose membership consists of those state-based groups. Michigan Governor John Engler and many of his administration's officials have frequently cited the Mackinac Center as influential in shaping administration policies.

In 1994, Reed gave the commencement address to graduates of the Colleges of Education, Health, and Human Services and Extended Learning at Central Michigan University before an audience of 6,000. CMU conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Public Administration. In 1998, Grove City College presented him its "Distinguished Alumni Award."

In the past ten years, he has authored over 800 newspaper columns and articles, 200 radio commentaries, dozens of magazines and journal articles in the U. S. and abroad, as well as five books. The two most recent are Lessons from the Past: The Silver Panic of 1893, and Private Cures for Public Ills: The Promise of Privatization, both published by the Foundation for Economic Education. In that time he delivered more than 700 speeches in 40 states and ten foreign countries. He is also a frequent Michigan radio commentator and has given more than 400 radio, television and newspaper interviews. Lawrence W. Reed and James Shikwati Shikuku discuss policy papers of the newly-formed Inter-Region Economic Network in Nairobi, Kenya

Lawrence W. Reed and James Shikwati Shikuku discuss policy papers of the newly-formed Inter-Region Economic Network in Nairobi, Kenya

Since 1985, Reed's interests in political and economic affairs have taken him as a freelance journalist to 58 countries on six continents, including five visits to Russia, three to China, four to Nicaragua, two to Poland, two to Kenya, as well as to such places as East Germany, Japan, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, Greece, Italy, Australia, Slovenia, Croatia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Israel, Egypt and Malaysia.

From firsthand experience, he has reported on hyper inflation in South America, voodoo in Haiti, black markets behind the Iron Curtain, reforms and repression in China and Cambodia, the stunning economic developments in Eastern Europe, and civil war inside Nicaragua and Mozambique. Among many foreign adventures, Reed visited the ravaged Cambodia in 1989 with his late friend, Academy Award winner Dr. Haing S. Ngor; recorded a native voodoo ceremony in a remote region of Haiti in 1987; traveled with the Polish anti-Communist underground for which he was arrested and detained by border police; interviewed presidents and cabinet officials in half a dozen nations; spent time with the contra rebels during the Nicaraguan civil war; and lived for two weeks with the rebels of Mozambique at their bush headquarters at the height of that country's devastating guerrilla conflict.

Reed was elected in 1994 to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York -- one of the oldest and most respected economics institutes in America and publisher of the journal, Ideas on Liberty, for which he writes the monthly column, "Ideas and Consequences." In 1998, he was elected chairman of FEE's board of trustees.

In 1993, he was appointed by Governor Engler to the Headlee Amendment Blue Ribbon Commission, and in 1994 named to a task force of the Secchia Commission on Total Quality Government, charged by Governor Engler with streamlining state government.

On a local level, Reed has served on boards of directors of Eagle Village in Osceola County, Midland's Voluntary Action Center, the Midland-Morning Rotary Club, and the Saginaw Valley Torch Club (president, 1998-1999), and a Charter public school in Winn, Michigan.

The Eastside Republican Club Forum is held on the third Tuesday of the month from September through June. Admission is free and the public is always welcome. For more information, contact chairman Ed Joseph at (313) 343-2900.