If not for mediocrity, NWI wouldn’t have too much

Sept. 22, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

It is often suggested that I criticize in a more genteel manner: use honey, not vinegar. Privately, thinking individuals have agreed with me.

But some have argued that leaders will listen to my arguments if only I state them in a nicer fashion.

Nonsense. I spent 10 years being nice to Northwest Indiana leadership. After a decade, little has positively changed, while much has deteriorated.

Kindergarten through 12th-grade education exists in name only, and public higher education is a joke — reflecting an acceptance of a statewide, two-tier higher-education system — one for whites and one for minorities. While our leadership makes excuses, this reality is beyond question. It is a funding comparison.

Excuses are irrelevant. As University of Chicago political scientist David Easton indicated, what matters is output, i.e., results, leadership and effective policy. What has been the local output?

Last week, 150 Northwest Indiana business and civic leaders were informed by Tim Sanders, director of Northwest Region for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., that there is great interest in NWI by businesses, but once they find out about our lack of work-force quality, we don’t hear from them again. The response by our leadership is to get a $300,000 grant to study what skills we should develop to attract business.

That room must have been filled with the very incompetence and mediocrity that plagues NWI. A $300,000 study? Have any of them heard of reading, writing and arithmetic — areas in which we are the lowest in the state? What did they not understand about Sanders’ data, which showed NWI with the lowest percentage of college graduates in the state? NWI’s public universities are mediocre because they are underfunded.

Lake County government tried to reduce its work force by two positions, out of 2,500, but could not. It is the most incestuous place in NWI. The result is the largest budget ever for the Lake County government. How can one not call this mediocrity, if not downright incompetence?

Gary’s leadership wants to spend its political capital on an irrelevant license bureau, while the state holds back tens of million of dollars for higher education and the Gary leadership has never made a squeak. Looking at outcomes, it would be difficult to find a state legislative delegation as mediocre as the one representing Gary.

Hammond’s mediocrity follows Gary. Retail development is fine if it brings money in to cronies of Tom McDermott Sr., like Dean White. But where education could bring real money — like $10 million annually in tax money just to match what Fort Wayne receives for higher education — the junior McDermott is speechless. Ditto for former Mayor Duane Dedelow.

Our new Regional Development Authority requires advanced transcripts for testifying in front of them. Why would anyone believe these people were picked because they have a track record of results, rather than because they are political cronies, when they can’t answer questions without preapproving the question? Just as gambling made promises but achieved nothing, so will the RDA.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in mediocrity among NWI leadership. By their very nature, the only way to move these people is like what you do with mules — hit them with a 2-by-4 to get their attention.

That, sadly, is the nature of mediocre people.

Maurice M. Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. His opinions do not represent Purdue University. Contact him at [email protected]