From a reader in Michigan:
A Message to all Supporters of Democracy
The people of 77 the 83 counties in Michigan voted successfully to repeal Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law. Governor Rick Snyder and the extremist-controlled Michigan legislature are now attempting to circumvent the will of the people by passing new legislation that is every bit as unconstitutional, anti-democratic and vile as the law the people have just rejected. The proposed bill, HB 6004 “Educational Achievement Authority”, violates our State Constitution and will substitute unelected bureaucrats with dictatorial powers for local, duly elected representatives of the people. Tell Governor Snyder and the Michigan Legislature to vote no on any legislation that attempts to circumvent the will of citizens who voted to repeal PA 4, the Emergency Manager Law.
That’s why I created a petition to The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, and Governor Rick Snyder.
Will you sign this petition? Click here: http://signon.org/sign/stop-the-takeover-of-1?source=c.em.cp&r_by=562537.
Please forward this to your email address contacts and add to your Facebook page. It is important that this petition be circulated ASAP as the Michigan legislature is currently holding hearings on HB 6004. We have had over 1300 citizens add their names so far, but we need thousands of signers to sufficiently represent and reiterate the will of Michigan’s citizens.
Thanks for all you do.
I’ve read that no one accepts computer generated petitions. They are too easy to forge.
The petition for Walker’s recall election was all signed by hand.
When lobbyists, business interests and the politicians they have bought come up against democracy, you would think they would respect that-well, at least the politicians would. Not so in this situation. All the world is a corporation, and they are the CEO’s, fighting to claim and guarantee their control, their profits, even their golden parachute exit/contingency plan. THESE are the “free stuff” wanters we really need to be wary of, but they are really “our stuff” wanters.
As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” This corporate takeover of PUBLIC education is so fast it is hard to keep up with. More on the situation in Michigan:
What’s the Matter with Michigan?
from Teacher in a Strange Land
“It’s a complex issue (which makes it even more dangerous). In a nutshell, the proposed Michigan Public Education Finance Act (which would replace the existing School Aid Act of 1979) erases school attendance boundaries, allowing students to take their assigned chunk of funding and use it anywhere they like (if the receiving school agrees), including taking courses in multiple locations. The legislation also throws a big, juicy bone to the Wild West of on-line education, reinforces test-based “performance,” and gives students $2500 per semester for early graduation.
Reading the entire plan is an exercise in disbelief, anxiety and invisible hand-euphemism overload–a “dynamic choice” system, blah blah blah. Would the good people of Michigan really allow their public education system (which was once highly regarded) to be exploded and then re-marketed, in pieces?”
Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2012/11/whats_the_matter_with_michigan.html
What will schools look like in 2022 when the bottom line is profit for shrareholder dividends? I suspect our elected leaders will be crying about the condition of our education system and the profiteers will be laughing all the way to the bank. What will happen to America’s next generation of school age children when the principal is being pressured to create greater efficiencies by driving down costs?
Did anyone see the lastest news reports about Snyder’s secret donors? Gov. Snyder ran a fake campaign about “transparency” but of course that doesn’t apply to him. Who are his secret donors? I’m sure he and his team are creating spin right now. The secret donors paid for over $100,000 in security at his mansion. Snyder is a multi-millionaire. Why on earth would he need an outside donor for personal spending? He is a corrupt fraud. Do you think some of the donors are people who will profit from the privatization of education? I also saw a commercial that there is no press corp in Lansing. Is this true?
Children with disabilities, their parents and teachers have been living under former Governor John Engler’s tyrranical rule since his 1996 Executive Orders 1996-11 & 1996-12 (reorganization EO’s 1996-6 and 1996-7) that stripped our “elected” State Board of Education of one-hundred percent of its elected authority over the laws, rules and policies that promulgate un-special education in Michigan. Since these EOs, there have been 3 superintendents with dictatorial authority (Arthur Ellis, Tom Watkins and Mike Flanagan) and all have damaged and eroded special education programs and services across Michigan.
Dictator Ellis was first with his R.340.1832e. This rule, created to alow our Intermediate Schools Districts to become mini-Pfifedoms with the power to override ALL of our MI state-imposed special education rules (the bread and butter, special education teacher caseloads, special education programs and program sizes and special education student age spans) and has resulted in nothing short of a free-for-all. ISDs have created “1832e” programs that are a mish-mosh of students with every disability and eligibility area under the MI sun and the number of students in these programs and on teacher caseloads is different from ISD to ISD. Special education teachers are having very real nervous breakdowns due to their caseloads and programs/class sizes, or they are irritable to the point of cranky. And who is the only unelected bureacrat to wield the power to say Yea or Nay to these ISD Alternate Special Education Plans? He is none other than our very own State Superintendent. Our very own Yertle the Turtle.
Dictator Ellis retired from the MDE just prior to promulgating R.340.1832e. The 2nd dictator in line to the MDE throne was Tom Watkins. To be fair, Tom was not quite as dictatorial by nature as Arthur Ellis or current State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. Still, a dictator is a dictator is a dictator and Tom Watkins promulgated R.340.1832e with one change. When Art Ellis left his reign of terror this rule, had he pushed it through, would have allowed the ISD Superintendents to override the state-imposed rules with “NO” oversight. Mr. Watkins was not quite comfortable with that and pushed the rule through with the requirement that the State Superintendent would review all ISD Special Education Plans.
Third and currently the MDE dictator in residence (and Governor Synder’s very own education policy advisor!) is Mike Flanagan. Mr. Flanagan like Mr. Ellis has held students with disabilities in disdain. These students hold no value in his quest to raise standardized test scores for students, Grade 3-12. In fact, Mr. Flanagan has ignored the fact that far too many MI students with an IEP take our state’s “alternate” assessment known as the MI-Access. A test designed to be given to the 1% of students with the most moderate to severe cognitive impairments is given annually to students with learning disabilities and ADHD. Education-Heaven forbid that students “might” not be proficient on the MEAP. And don’t dare ask your school district for the achievement gap data for students with IEPs in 8th and 11th grade. This is the dirty little secret in districts across MI and the U.S. and especially in our more economically stable districts, if there is still such a district around.
So to bring you to the special education-bloody present, under Dictator Flanagan, the Michigan Department of Education unleashed criteria to determine if a student is eligible for special education under a Specific Learning Disability (SLD). The MDE with zero elected oversight created the most regressive and restrictive SLD criteria across the U.S. A MI student must be at or below the “9th percentile” on a curriculum based measure or norm-referenced standardized assessment (Can you say abuse of the Woodcock-Johnson III) to even be considered for special education programs and services. MI has always underidentified students with learning disabilities but with this 2010 criteria these students will receive less and less, and ultimately increase our dropout rate and lower our graduation rates. Renowned SLD expert, Dr. Sally Shaywitz has referred to the MDE’s criteria as “egregious” and “flies in the face of research.” Egregious is the perfect word other than malfeasance to describe the abuse of power, elected or otherwise reflected in the Michigan Department of Education’s continuing erosion of special education programs and services under the autocratic leadership? of Mike Flanagan.
I could go on and on about the devastating impact of emergency managers, whether they are called emergency managers, non-elected autocrats, non-elected dictators, or pick your word to describe “non-elected authority,” but you only need ask students with disabilities, their parents and teachers about the adverse impact of non-elected authority and if that doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you and send you straight to this online petition to stop HB6004 and the MI Public Education Finance Act of 2013, then do some reading on the past and present history of countries and people led by dictators and you will understand that dictatorships are never the answer, and neither are emergency managers in MI cities or school districts.
Yikes! I am sorry about the typos in my previous response. I was typing quickly and should have reviewed before hitting the post button.
A great blog posting in the spirit of EduShyster: http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/blog_posts/who-will-win-rick-or-the-governor