In a series of legal maneuvers, Governor Snyder of Michigan and his emergency manager rushed to plunge Detroit into a historic bankruptcy. The judge was not pleased.
“Prior to her ruling on Friday, she criticized the Snyder administration and Attorney General’s Office for what appeared to be hasty action to outflank pension board attorneys.
“It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,” the judge told assistant Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.” […]”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If judge feels Michigan Governor and his handpicked hack are cheating, will she be able to do anything to block their action here?
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So true, its all about not paying the pension obligations. If this is allowed to stand, more states and city will use this to duck their pension obligations and start over while cheating people who have worked years for this retirement. This should not be allowed to happen, Just like you can’t declare bankruptcy and not pay your taxes or student loans, same should be for pension obligations which most governments currently have underpaid.
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Probably the case. Unfortunately this county judge has no jurisdiction over a Federal bankruptcy court, but why the case must go to a Federal bankruptcy court is unclear to me.
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The pensions should be paid. Unfortunately the county judge doesn’t have authority over the federal bankruptcy court.
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Why, Harlan, bless your heart!
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The question is how those promises will be kept and what other promises will be broken. I suppose that the federal government could keep the promise for Detroit, but I think that will create some bad incentives.
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There is a good article on the front section of the NYT about pension funds.
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For what it’s worth, I had coffee with an old friend just recently appointed to be the new principal of the premiere elementary school in my town. His zeal for the CCSS was astounding, and infectious. I didn’t dare to ask about testing. He was extravagantly gung ho. He thinks he knows how teachers should teach to improve scores, and he is creating an equity committee to address those matters.
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Again, Harlan, good commentary. FYI–my two comments are not sarcasm–I truly AM impressed by the aforementioned.
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“He thinks he knows how teachers should teach to improve scores, and he is creating an equity committee to address those matters.”
HU, I hope that you are being facetious with that statement!
He may think that teaching “to improve scores” is an important public education goal but that is a false one. And he may think he “knows how teachers should teach” towards such a false goal but he will be “spitting into the wind” with that kind of attitude. All that energy devoted to a false, invalid educational malpractice. Tis a shame, tis a shame. Just what public education needs to to have a “gung ho” (double entendre intended) new administrator to “lead” the go along get along teachers to the promised land of “rising test scores”. I pity the children.
What is an “equity committee”?
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I didn’t inquire specifically, but I will. I am assuming he means a committee to consider how best to deal with the poor and minority kids, the achievement gap kids.
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I am on my district’s Equity Committee. We are charged with making recommendations to the school board about pragmatic and effective means for closing the racial achievement gap. We have bold conversations with one another about our experience with race and what we see as loopholes where minorities are falling through.
It’s a little bit of a “hopey” thing, as I have heard you phrase it, but we did come up with five very specific recommendations at the end of last year. If you care to know what they are I will tell (might be not necessary).
In our state I see CC and RttT very disheartening and disruptive at the elementary level. I have less feedback from high school teachers (and the one who says she likes it is a little nutty and always roots for underdogs and unpopular ideas).
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:. . . closing the racial achievement gap. . . ”
And how is this “achievement gap” determined?
Thanks!
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Our state has plenty of higher ups cheer leading for CC and RttT. I guess they think they have to.
And our state sup does it too.
It feels like we teachers are a bunch of kids they are trying to excite about going to spend the weekend with a mean witch who feeds us twigs and bark and makes us dig holes to bury slop and we should be excited about it.
Yay! Raise to the Top!!
And that is not whining, it’s just like ugh, really? You are excited about this??
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I have to agree with Duane. We already have plenty of administrators who sound like the one Harlan described and they are barking up the wrong tree, targeting improved test scores –which are not the be-all and end-all of student learning– rather than focusing on providing an enriching, well-rounded education for the whole child. (How often were kids required to take standardized tests at your private school, Harlan?)
It’s not clear if this is a charter or a neighborhood public school, or if “premier” is intended to mean it’s a new school or an established school with a proven track record, but starting off by planning on telling teachers how to do their jobs so they can “improve scores” sounds rather ominous. I have been a principal at a few schools and I found that teachers are most likely to be in need of an administrator who sets a positive tone and provides teachers with guidance and supports as needed, someone who demonstrates respect for teachers and their professionalism by providing fewer administrative constraints and more autonomy in the classroom, and someone who is prepared to marshall supports for low-income students who are struggling. It sounds like the “equity committee” is a decent first step towards addressing the latter. Not so sure about all of the former.
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Race, raise.
Race, raise. Whatever.
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You ask: ” (How often were kids required to take standardized tests at your private school, Harlan?)”
Required? Never. When the MEAP was offering money we came in on Sunday and administered the test so those who wanted the scholarship could get it.
However, everyone was “expected” to take the PSAT and did (after all it was a college preparatory school), as well as the SAT the next year, and a whole mess of kids took various AP exams, all eleventh graders the AP Lang exam, at least one section in 10th grade of European History, various 5th year language classes in Latin, Spanish, and French, many in Biology, a sprinkling in Chemistry, some of the Physics exams, a solid knot of Calculus AB, and a few for Calculus BC. Those in Economics usually took both APs.
Hardly anyone took the AP Lit exam, because it seemed like a bore to most by that time; it was one more damn exam during the two weeks of AP, and often it was close to prom the previous weekend. By then (May) everyone was into some college, though perhaps not their first choice, and they also had a Senior Project to do, and many of those were more interesting to them than any standardized exam.
So, in short, the minimal necessary to apply to competitive colleges.
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The People of Michigan repealed the Emergecy Manager law. Everything Snydely and his Emergency Minions do under its pretext is illegal and will eventually be reversed, hopefully with damages and criminal conspiracy indictments.
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Thanks, Jon. As a retired Illinois teacher I have recently had to reassure a retired Chicago Public School Teacher that it ain’t over until WE say it’s over–we IL teachers who have been putting up with the pension garbage for YEARS (while our General Assembly has been taking pension “holidays” & using our pension funds as their own, personal credit cards–we have been ruminating, recently, as to whether this UNO Charter School $98 million was stol…er, “taken” from our Teachers Retirement System monies), and we KNOW that the same is being done with the CTPF (now WHO said, “Never let a crisis go to waste”–?!), and we’ll stand by them, too, as we’re all in this together. (Our unions may not sue, but our Retired Teachers Assn. is NOT a union, & most certainly will.)
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Exactly. These people need to be thrown in prison.
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I saw this on the national news tonight. My prayers are with the people who will not be receiving the pensions they deserve. I live in a county that includes a poor city and they did the same thing to the their retired city workers. While it is true that that city is poor, it is also true that money was being mismanaged. Of course, the people in charge were not the ones affected.
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So all the billions of dollars that the public employees had taken out of their paychecks for each pay period and were placed in the pension fund are gone, kaput. Tough luck. The contract that was made with these employees is declared void and invalid by the governor and his minions. They just spit on the contract as if it were nothing, a mere legal fiction. Gee, can I arbitrarily declare my car loan null and void, I refuse to pay any more because I was a dope and didn’t manage my money properly? News flash to the bank: I won’t be making my mortgage payments anymore, tough luck, you lose. Is that how it works?
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I don’t think they are going to get away with it. You piss the police and fire, game is over. Even Pinochet wasn’t that stupid with the military.
I expect criminal charges will be filed against Snyder, et al. when this is over with.
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Thank God for alert, intelligent, honest judges!
The same government officials who treat other people’s children badly are also treating other people’s parents like they are dirt. These pension robbers are stealing the livelihoods of seniors, which is likely to increase homelessness of the aged, especially those who have no kids to take them in.
Thank goodness our founding fathers had the foresight to recognize the need for this three part system of checks and balances, to save us from corrupt government.
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@ Cosmic: As you probably know, it isn’t “government” that is “corrupt.” It is certain people IN government that are corrupt.
In Michigan, the “corruption” label may well fit the governor, and the state attorney general.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this Detroit bankruptcy plays out.
And yes, Michigan circuit judge Rosemarie Aquilina is one of those willing to speak truth to power.
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Yes, Democracy, I do realize that “it is certain people in government that are corrupt”. But I come from a state where the last two governors were convicted and sent to prison for corruption, and it seems that there are many more like them but who have managed to somehow slip under the radar and avoid prosecution –and I have to wonder why.
I think the scales were tipped in favor of politicians who can be easily bought, at least in part, because of the “corporations are people” ruling by SCOTUS.
Maybe I’m jaded, but when it’s apparent that we have so many politicians, in high positions across the country, who think they are above the law and/or are playing in the hands of big business, I can’t even fill up one hand counting the number of people in government today who I feel I can trust to be honest and working for the best interests of the common man.
So, I can’t help but feel very grateful when some judiciary comes out of the woodwork and tries to stop those in government who think they can play by their own rules, like in MI and CT recently. I hope that happens more often now. (And I find it interesting that it’s been largely female judges.)
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That judge is a brave soul! About as rare as snow in July, as far as getting justice that goes against the corporate raiders. I hope that his decision is upheld in higher courts. I’m sure there are MANY other major cities watching to see how to raid the public workers retirement and health care funds.
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The United States is hopelessly insolvent. The idea that promised pension benefits will be met is fantasy.
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Sure is the case in a growing list of industries and careers that have had their contractual pensions/health care obligations erased in one night! Airline pilots and stewardesses, steel workers, and now corporate robbery is setting it sights on public workers. I would love seeing this vicious money grab by the ravenous bankers, leaders of every stripe being shot down. I wouldn’t hold my breathe to see that justice rendered. Not in this country where bankers are now writing the rules they will follow,
polluters merely claim the rivers and oceans are pristine, and companies like MONSANTO get Congressional laws passed that give them legal immunity to well deserved charges of the destruction they knowingly perpetrate in their madness to money. As Jimmy Carter opined, “WE DON’T LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY!” What political construct we do exist in, is a fearful thing to ponder!
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I don’t even know where to start. First, We voted to repeal the EM law last fall, yet Snyder appointed Orr anyway. How it that even possible? Yet it seems to be just accepted now. Why aren’t people outraged? Second, the pensioners are being vilified and robbed of their rightfully owed pensions, when in reality, for decades the city took out loan after loan from the pension fund, which they now can’t repay. But it’s now somehow the fault of the retirees for having too extravagant union pensions. If the pension board and the city government would have left the fund alone, i dont think we would be in this mess. It’s sickening.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Red Wings seek new hockey arena OR Detroit public school funds used for Hockey Arena!
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate approved legislation Wednesday to help finance a downtown Detroit project that would include a new home for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.
Team owner Mike Ilitch this week announced plans for a $650 million multi-use development, which would include an events center where Red Wings games could be held. He has said for years he’d like a new arena for the team, which now plays at the aging Joe Louis Arena.
The bill approved by the Senate would allow use of tax dollars collected by the city’s Downtown Development Authority for the project. DDAs capture shares of local tax revenue to support development activities such as marketing and buying property.
Senate Democratic leader Gretchen Whitmer opposed the measure as a drain on funding for Detroit’s public schools.
The city’s DDA has been allowed for nearly two decades to pay down general obligation bonds with about $12.8 million a year that otherwise would have gone to education, she said. Now that those bonds are paid off, the bill would tap that same revenue stream for Ilitch’s project instead of finally steering the money back to education.
“This is a direct subsidy by school kids to allow a billionaire to build a hockey arena,” Whitmer said. “That’s the Republican agenda we all know and love. … It makes me sick. I hear my colleagues say, ‘Oh, this is for Detroit and we’re all in favor of Detroit now,’ because one billionaire called you.”
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said the Ilitch project would be an economic boon for Detroit and Michigan, pumping more than $1.9 million into the economy and creating about 8,300 construction jobs.
The bill was approved on a 27-11 vote and returned to the House. To take effect, it must be enacted before the 2011-12 session ends this month.
It was approved yesterday, July 25, 2013.
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