This is actually a very funny article in The 74, the unofficial voice of the privatization, union-busting movement.
The Republicans in the state legislature want to abolish the State Board of Education (which they don’t control) because of the state’s plummeting test scores.
The legislators do not consider that the state’s total embrace of choice without accountability (the DeVos plan) might be responsible for the state’s decline.
That would require some thought and reflection, which is in short supply in Lansing.
In a move to radically upend Michigan’s governance over schools, Republican lawmakers are seeking to eliminate the elected state board of education. While many believe it’s unlikely the legislation will pass, both its authors and detractors agree that some action is necessary to arrest an alarming decline in local academic performance.
The proposal is spearheaded by state Rep. Tim Kelly, chairman of the House Education Reform Committee and a longtime critic of the state board. He led a similar effort last year in response to its guidance on the needs of transgender students, accusing members of “practicing social engineering with every progressive agenda that comes down the pike.”
That push attracted dozens of cosponsors but ultimately fell short. Abolishing the board would require a constitutional amendment passed by two-thirds of both the state House and Senate, followed by public approval of a ballot measure in the next election. Kelly, recently nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as assistant education secretary under fellow Michigander Betsy DeVos, has assailed the board as a superfluous institution muddling the question of exactly who has jurisdiction over Michigan schools.”
The elimination of districts and the promotion of choice and charters has coincided with a dramatic drop in the state’s performance on the federally-funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.
In 2015, Michigan ranked 41st and 42nd in the country, respectively, for fourth-grade reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — down from 28th and 27th in 2003. It experienced more modest drops in both eighth-grade reading and math as well, fanning worries of a comprehensive downturn in school quality throughout the state.
Michigan is witnessing systemic decline across the K-12 spectrum,” read a 2016 report from The Education Trust-Midwest. “White, black, brown, higher-income, low-income — it doesn’t matter who they are or where they live, Michigan students’ achievement levels in early reading and middle school math are not keeping up with the rest of the U.S., much less our international competitors.”
Some local observers have laid blame for the poor results at the feet of school choice advocates, most notably U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. After the widespread expansion of charter schools and open enrollment across school districts, the quality of Michigan schools is no better than it was two decades ago, and arguably a good deal worse. Analysis from Phil Power’s Center for Michigan has found that close to one-third of Michigan charters occupy the state’s bottom quarter of academic performance. About one-quarter of traditional district schools were grouped in that category.
I wonder what Betsy would say? My guess is that she would respond that Michigan needs vouchers, which voters overwhelmingly rejected in a state referendum in 2000. Betsy and her husband Dick DeVos sponsored the referendum. Then Michigan could have three low-performing sectors, not just two.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are the citizens of this country getting dumber?
Betsy spent the last 20 years and billions (2-3 total) in political contributions to get everything that she freakin’ wanted regarding privatization of schools, market-based management of schools, busting of unions (teachers and other school workers), fighting any accountability for privately-managed charter schools or voucher-funded private schools and, of course, “choice”.
So after she has gotten everything she wanted, what are the results?
Even pro-privatization, corporate ed. reform site The74 is admitting that over in Devos-land Michigan, the state’s schools — and Detroit schools especially — are a total mess, whose quality is sinking like an anchor.
Mind you, this is a decline not just in the schools of poor or minority communities, but something that has damaged schools of all ethnic and socio-economic groups — poor, middle, upper income … black, brown, white … “no matter where you live” in Michigan, your schools got wrecked or significantly worse (though, of course, the the poor and minorities got the the worst of it)
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
THE 74:
“In 2015, Michigan ranked 41st and 42nd in the country, respectively, for fourth-grade reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — down from 28th and 27th in 2003. It experienced more modest drops in eighth-grade reading and math, fanning worries of a comprehensive downturn in school quality throughout the state.
” ‘Michigan is witnessing systemic decline across the K-12 spectrum,’ read a 2016 report from The Education Trust–Midwest.
” ‘White, black, brown, higher-income, low-income — it doesn’t matter who they are or where they live, Michigan students’ achievement levels in early reading and middle school math are not keeping up with the rest of the U.S., much less our international competitors.‘ ”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
No joke. Secretary Devos openly states in all of her speeches that she wants to spread what she did in Michigan (and to a lesser extent, in Florida and Ohio) to the rest of the country.
Politicians are always looking for convenient scapegoats like teachers or state boards of education. Michigan should do some soul searching. The reckless for profit education policies of the past twenty years are catching up to them. The belief that the market will improve education is a falsehood along with the wonders of “choice.” Instead of investing in strong public schools, Michigan has numerous sub-par schools of diminished capacity, and waste and fraud are rampant. The decline in scores on the NAEP reflect the failure of the state to be good stewards of taxpayers’ funds. It also represents a disinvestment in public education, and the false belief that corporations have the answers in education.
New Mexico voters changed the State Constitution doing away with the State Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Schools. The Superintendent became a Cabinet level position for the Governor. Ex-Secretary of Education Hanna Skandara became the second Secretary of Education. That was the biggest mistake this state ever made when it comes to education. This eliminated a lot of the local control for community public education. There is a push to go back to the State Board of Education and making sure that communities, through their Boards of Education, have more control of their children’s education.
DeVos can’t point to any improvements in Michigan’s public education system that are attributable to ed reform.
Which would seem to be a problem for the “evidence-based” policy crowd of ed reform, but is not. They just send out more cheerleaders and plow more money into gimmicks and garbage.
I think Michigan voters and citizens will eventually figure it out, though. People in Ohio did. Ed reformers aren’t embraced in this state anymore- they face real questions about what they have contributed. It took 15 years.
Someone should do a study on how all the absolute lowest quality ed reform landed in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
It’s almost like these states were targeted for the worst, most corrupt ed reform scams and rip-offs.
Ohio actually EXPORTS bad charter schools- one of the worst charter chains in Pennsylvania started in Ohio. The operator was living in Ohio and running schools in Pennsylvania. I didn’t look but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they had an operation in Michigan too. No one even knows if they’re transferring state funding from one state to another and no one will ever find out unless there’s a lawsuit or an indictment.
This must be another national ed reform initiative, abolishing state boards. Ohio ed reformers are pushing for the same thing.
They have to come up with an excuse for why the public education systems in these states get weaker and weaker every year these people are in power, so I guess the plan is to blame state boards for ed reform’s failures.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.