We talked about this concept early in 2306 - as well as 2305 - when we discussed the advantages of state control of public policy making. They get to experiment and everyone learns from what succeeds and what fails.
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Writing recently in The New York Times, Duke University business professor Aaron Chatterji painted a discouraging picture of the states’ current status as “laboratories of democracy.” He argued that “just when we need their innovative energies, the states are looking less and less likely” to be generating new ideas for federal policy. Has the flame of state creativity somehow gone out?
That would be a tough case to make to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who is proposing a massive remake of federally funded job training, social welfare and health programs. Snyder has set out a “river of opportunity” plan that he hopes will make Michigan first in the nation in training for skilled trades, lift all third-graders to proficiency in reading and launch what he calls “Medicaid expansion done right.” To accomplish his aim, Snyder has created a new department designed to weave together an assortment of federal grant programs and to combine state programs dealing with health, welfare and families.
Key to the plan are federal waivers. Snyder estimates that his program could require 145 different waivers of federal rules -- “the mother of all waivers,” as he told the editorial board of The Detroit News. If he can pull it off, Snyder’s “river of opportunity” plan will unquestionably be the next big thing in intergovernmental policy.
