Policy Conference On Mackinac Island: Gov't Geared Toward 21st Century

DETROIT (WWJ) - Members of Michigan's business and political elite will be on hand this week for the Detroit Regional Chamber's policy conference on Mackinac Island.

Among those community and business leaders gathering on Mackinac Island will be Tom Watkins, former state school superintendent now US-China business and education consultant.

Watkins tells WWJ there has been some movement toward streamlining and consolidation.

"I think that Gov. Snyder has taken on a number of issues given what we have gone through in the last decade. But we need to do more if we are going to be able to compete, collaborate on a global stage, we are going to have to have a govenment system set up for the 21st century not the 20th Century," said Watkins.

Watkins says structural problems need to be fixed in the school districts and government.

"To just pour additional resources into our local units of government and our school districts without fixing these structual problems would be the equivalent of pouring water into a glass with a hole in the bottom," he added. "And wondering why we could never fill the glass up. It needs to be a balance between sensible reform and appropriate investments."

WWJ Newsradio 950′s Roberta Jasina, Tom Jordan, Vickie Thomas and Charlie Langton. Stay tuned for live broadcasts from the island, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, May 29-31. (More about the conference here).