Governor Who Oversaw Soaring Unemployment Will Teach Class on Job Creation

This has to be one of the
funniest higher education developments since the
announcement that Paul Krugman would be paid $225,000 to do
research at City University of New York’s income inequality
initiative: Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will teach a
course on job creation at the University of
California-Berkeley.

As the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy points out, Michigan lost roughly half a
million jobs during Granholm’s eight-year reign. Even so,
UC-Berkeley believes she is qualified to teach Public Policy 290:
“Creating Jobs through Better Government Policies for Innovation
and Education.”

She will cost the
university quite a pretty penny, too:

That is the only class Granholm will teach in the fall. In the
spring, she’s listed as contributing to another course in Public
Policy taught by another instructor. Granholm is listed as earning
$84,331 in 2013 at the college.

Granholm’s husband, Daniel Mulhern, is listed as earning
$180,000 in gross pay in 2013 and is schedule to teach one class in
the fall and two courses in the spring.

Granholm is not entirely, or even mostly, responsible for
Michigan’s high employment levels during the 2000s. But it would be
quite a stretch to say that her government growth policies had any
lasting positive effects. Granholm’s favorite tools for trying to
get Michigan’s engines running again were subsidies for
government-favored industries (like
Hollywood),
brutally high taxes on small business, green energy
boondoggles, and anything else she could find in the lefty
corporatist playbook.

Perhaps Granholm will surprise us all and begin her first
lecture with a candid confession that nothing she tried worked and
that the best method for the government to promote job growth is to
get out of the way. Only time will tell.

It does look like Granholm will at the very least be doubling
down on the necessity of environmental regulation for job creation,
though. According to The College Fix:

In addition to job growth, the course aims to assist politicians
with the rollout of new environmental protection rules.

“The class will coincide with the rollout of EPA rules regarding
CO2 emissions, wherein states must formulate state-specific plans
for cutting carbon pollution,” the guide states.
“The final state-based reports will be delivered to candidates and
office-holders of both political parties in each of the
states.”

In the meantime, I wonder if UC-Berkeley is looking for a former
Michigan politician to teach, say, “Ethics in Government” as well?
Because
Kwame Kilpatrick probably needs a job. (Maybe he could Skype
from federal prison.)