Editorial Quick Hits: Big Ten, Ivy League unite to save football

This week the Big Ten and the Ivy League announced that they would be entering a collaboration to study head injuries in sports, most notably football, a game that may need to change if it is to survive. As much as we all love football Saturdays in the fall and the other sports that college football subsidizes, player safety must take the highest priority. We hope that the Big Ten-Ivy League collaboration will suggest practical changes that keep the game safe, fun and viable.

Lessons from Van Regenmorter

It's a shame there aren't more politicians like William Van Regenmorter. The ex-state lawmaker and long-serving Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, who died at 73 last week, provided a model for civil discourse even while passionately advocating laws granting what then were new rights to crime victims. He also won approval of Michigan's current sentencing guidelines, making sure penalties fit the crimes committed.

Rights taken for granted now ? to have a say in sentencing, for example ? give power back to victims who feel stripped of dignity by their attackers.

These rights are enshrined in law, thanks to the work of a studious and decent man who prevailed on the strength of his arguments, without ever raising his voice.

Current lawmakers should take note.

Students need individual instruction

As the statewide district for the lowest-performing schools prepares to launch this fall in Detroit, its leaders are weighing different ways to handle students who are clearly behind. Gov. Rick Snyder gave Chancellor John Covington wide authority following the district's creation last June to implement innovative ideas. Covington has proposed testing students in the first 15 schools falling into the district at their instructional level ? not their grade level. His goal is to take kids where they are and try to get them up to speed. Letting children advance to the next grade without being prepared is doing them a disservice. Snyder advocated such a student-centered approach in his address on education last year, when he said the state should reward schools that can prove students accomplished one year of growth in an academic year. And that's where the focus should be for these neglected students.

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