In the ongoing effort to learn what is happening in the states under the guise of “reform,” here are reports from readers in Michigan:

This is a pretty good list. Let me expand a bit: as with much of the country, we had a huge wave of victories by “tea party” backed candidates in the 2010 election cycle, where anti-government folks consolidated control in the state Senate and took back control of the state House. They started by embracing the new governor’s priority for a business tax cut, giving up to $1.7 billion in tax reductions to business but effectively raising taxes on lower income families and removing about $1 billion in funding from education at all levels. (School operating funding is centralized in Michigan, and is determined each year by the legislature.) Schools now face this dramatically reduced funding level as the “new normal,” and funding for next year does not even keep up with inflation.

Against this backdrop, what we have here is a strange alliance of so-called “reformers” with local reactionaries who campaigned on the promise to “downsize government” and in particular to “get government out of our schools.” Last summer, a package of bills that was designed to “reform” teacher tenure by eliminating seniority and making tenure nearly meaningless was rammed through the legislature with considerable help from Students First (which spent some $1 million in media buys to secure key Senate votes). Added to the bills at the last minute and never discussed in committee was a huge new teacher evaluation outline. While there is still discussion about what model will become the mandatory state evaluation “tool,” already in law are requirements that at least 50% of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on value added measures using “objective measures of student growth” (i.e. test scores). Other factors must be included, but there is no minimum weight for anything other than test scores.

Bills were introduced, and passed, that removed most caps from the number of charter schools in the state and effectively removed numerical and enrollment caps from fully online “cyber” charters. Most Michigan charters (70-80%) are managed by for-profit management companies, and amendments to require non-profit EMOs were uniformly defeated. Many of the for-profit charter managers here were formed with both ideological and religious motives, to layer on top of the financial interest.

Most recently, a “parent-trigger” bill came back to life after languishing in the Senate for several months, and a spate of bills have been introduced that would water-down the state graduation requirements because they are too “college-prep” in focus.

While ideas from ALEC and national lobbying groups have played a role and provided a lot of money, much of this legislation was a product of state politics and a huge ideological shift here. It remains to be seen what will happen in the next cycle.

And here is another:

Since Michelle Rhee and ALEC came to Michigan with the purpose of influencing our legislators, the following legislation has been passed under the guise of ‘student choice’ and ‘keeping effective teachers in the classroom’: (1) no seniority, reduced tenure rights and removal of ‘just cause’ in the case of dismissal – teachers can be fired for any reason; (2) evaluation based on student achievement and a subjective number system that is demoralizing to teachers; (3) no retiree health benefits for new hires (THIS will attract the brightest and best to the profession?!) (4) cap lifted on charter schools with little accountability to the taxpayer; (5) increase in the number of cyber schools with no regard for quality and very few safeguards for students and taxpayers; (6) Emergency Managers can now swoop in and take over struggling communities and school districts, removing elected officials. Legislation in the works is the ALEC parent trigger act, reducing graduation requirements, reducing teacher pensions, and eliminating certain requirements for teacher certification (paving the way for the Teach For Awhiles). In addition, our legislature cut business taxes and took millions from the School Aid Fund – another attempt to choke off funds to our community schools so that they will be forced to close. All of this, and the majority of teachers and parents remain either ignorant or apathetic.The reader added this postscript:

And I also must mention the increase in the number of standardized tests our students are being subjected to…..in order to evaluate teachers. I was actually at a meeting where an administrator stated that ‘we need one more measure for our teacher evaluation tool’ (in addition to the three or four we already have in place). She didn’t even try to make it sound like it was ‘for the student’. Also, there was talk of not subjecting our students to the MEAP (Michigan’s standardized test) next year, but……Michigan is under contract to Measurement, Inc. to the tune of $68 million. But it’s all about the kids, right?