Governor Rick Snyder’s Education Achievement Authority has stalled in the legislature, in the face of questions by Democrats and Republicans about its effectiveness. The state-run district now has 15 low-performing schools. The governor would like to expand it to 50 or more schools.
It is ALEC dogma that local control must be replaced by state control. State control has not worked to improve education anywhere. New Jersey has districts that have been under state control for nearly 20 years.
Michigan will have a long wait to see improvements from its EAA. Maybe never.
It might be time to try research-based efforts to help children, families, and communities.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We can always hope that one day, the real cause of the lack of success by most students who fail will be addressed at the level where support is needed—early childhood instruction in literacy and basic math in addition to more support for schools that service children who live in poverty.
And laws that give those public schools some teeth.
This is a good site for EAA info that was released as a response to a FOIA request. One Michigan lawmaker said he has never had to file a FOIA and he’s “offended” that this lawmaker had to do that in order to receive correspondence and documents on a “public” school system:
http://027.housedems.com/resources/publications?utm_source=Legislative+Newsletter+Template&utm_campaign=14.02.12.EAAUpdate&utm_medium=email
I hope this means that elected lawmakers are done “relinquishing” public schools to private foundations and appointed boards.
That’s not what we’re paying them for. I don’t care how much antipathy they feel towards public schools, or whether privatized systems are their preferred ideological outcome or they’re claiming passive “agnostic” status while abandoning existing public schools. They have a duty to do their job, and this is their job.
The EAA legislation has technically passed and is, even more technically, in “conference.” That means that as soon as 1) Gov. Snyder and top funder Dick Devos can twist arms for House votes it will go through — surprise! or 2) sit until the Nov. 2014 state elections when Snyder wins (and it looks that way as Democratic challenger Mark Schauer is 8% points and 5 million in funding behind) the EAA will become state wide, thus codifying a two tiered system of education in the state: 1) one for poor minorities who don’t have the resources to fend this off and 2) everyone else for as long as they can hang on…
“It is ALEC dogma that local control must be replaced by state control.”
Yep, the epitome of conservative thought, state control instead of local control.
The smart “ALECS” will I hope soon really be found out and properly castigated, debunked and suitably bashed for stealing our government. Hopefully the above is just the beginning. The pimps prostituting our politicians are stealing our country from the rest of us.