Kaufmann the scare monger

Susan Kaufmann is trying to scare Michigan voters away from the MCRI (Proposal 2) with half-truths and faulty analysis. Here’s a few of her misleading claims.

Kaufmann is truthful when she says several lawsuits were filed in California over Proposition 209, their version of the MCRI. Attempts were made to eliminate battered women’s shelters and women’s health programs. She conveniently forgets to tell people that these lawsuits failed. One reason they failed is the specific wording of the proposition which the MCRI includes. The MCRI applies to “public employment, public education, and public contracting.” This protects against frivolous lawsuits such as those filed in California.

Although Kaufmann is quick to point out a couple of frivolous and failed lawsuits, she doesn’t mention the lawsuit filed by a coalition opposed to California’s Proposition 209. In The Coalition v. Pete Wilson, opponents claimed the voter initiative violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and conflicted with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that Proposition 209 was “entirely consistent” with the 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act, and Title IX.

Also, Kaufmann claims that the MCRI will worsen this state’s economic climate. No data exists to even remotely support this claim. In fact if we use her own penchant for anecdotal “evidence”, look at the experiences of California and Michigan over the past 10 years since Proposition 209 passed. California’s economy has improved while Michigan’s has plummeted.

One of Kaufmann’s favorite issues to bring up is women’s wages. She likes to repeat the meaningless statistic that women earn 69 cents for every dollar men earn. This statistic is calculated by comparing totals wages for all men to total wages for all women. It completely ignores all the factors that contribute to wage levels such as education, profession, work hours, and length of time in the workforce. Detailed studies which control for those factors find that women earn up to 98 cents for every dollar men earn. Statistically, those 2 cents are meaningless since other unknown and reasonable factors may exist.

For several years, Kaufmann and others have been attacking the MCRI with half-truths, distortions, and blatant lies. Proposal 2 is about equal treatment. It is about fairness. It is about choosing content over color.

Vote Yes on Proposal 2.

[Letter to the Editor - Michigan Tech Lode. Submitted 09/27/2006.]

Follow-up: My letter was not printed. However Marc E. Angelucci, President of National Coalition of Free Men, Los Angeles chapter, did have a letter printed. In his letter he clarified the nature of the lawsuits. They did not seek to eliminate battered women’s shelters. They sought to get the same benefits applied to battered men. Based on this, I retract my characterization of the lawsuits as “frivolous”. I think it’s fair that if taxes are going to be used to support batter women, battered men should be able to get help too.

However Angelucci states that his lawsuit is still pending. According to my research on the Superior Court of Los Angeles website, the lawsuits were dismissed back in 2003. Perhaps they are in the appeal phase, but I cannot find any further information on them.

Regardless, the limitations of the MCRI to public education, public employment, and public contracting will prevent it from being used as justification for eliminating battered women’s shelters and health screenings.