Tag Archives | Education

Bound Together gives Pontiac students confidence and hope

By on May 17, 2013 in Education

Good people are fighting every day for Michigan’s students. This organization is among them.

Just when you begin to despair over the seemingly endless battles public education is facing in Michigan, you find a reason to feel optimistic.

In Pontiac, one of the Michigan school districts that’s struggling the most, an organization called Bound Together is providing an environment where children in grades 1 through 6 can come to learn, to express themselves and to gain confidence that can lead to a better future.

Established in 1994, Bound Together is an independent after-school program that offers tutoring in math, reading and reading comprehension three days a week, followed by a nutritious meal.…


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Day 4: Buena Vista schools still closed due to lack of funds. Why hasn’t Governor Snyder acted?

By on May 10, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder

Just not raining hard enough in Buena Vista Township, I guess…

This is front page of the Buena Vista School District website this morning. While it says that school will be closed on Thursday, apparently nobody has been to work yet today, either, because the school is still closed today. This is the fourth day the school has been closed because it has no money to pay teachers and staff.

This is truly outrageous. Where is Governor Snyder in all of this? Why is he waiting and allowing this to go on?

It’s gotten so bad the Congressman Dan Kildee has weighed in (and not subtly):

Gov.…

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Michigan Republican legislation aims to make high school diplomas worth even less

By on May 8, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans

No need to know math if you’re working at Walmart, I guess…

Republican legislation was passed out of the House Education Committee yesterday that reduced graduation requirements by allowing students to graduate without learning a foreign language or taking mathematics through Algebra 2.

House Bill 4465 would allow students to replace the Algebra 2 requirement with completion of a “formal career and technical education program or curriculum” and eliminates the 2-credit foreign language requirement for some students. House Bill 4466 reduces the requirements for mathematics from 3½ credits to 3.

The bills will now head to the full House. All Republicans on the Education Committee voted for the two bills along with Democrat Theresa Abed voting with the Republicans on both.…


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Michigan Republicans celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week by voting to strip more school funding

By on May 8, 2013 in Education, GOPocrisy, Michigan Republicans, Taxes

Make yourself heard

As I reported yesterday, the Michigan House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted to eliminate the sales tax on aviation fuel. This bill is in addition to House Bill 4539 which if passed, will eliminate the sales tax on gasoline sales in our state. My piece said that this would take $770.1 million out of the School Aid Fund (SAF). However, that amount is only for the repeal of the gasoline tax. According to a statement by State Rep. Brandon Dillon, yesterday’s repeal of the aviation fuel tax will remove another $55 million . That means if both bills are passed, $825.1 million more will be taken from our kids’ schools. This represents over two-thirds of the $1.2 billion Governor Snyder has asked for for road repair.

Click through for more including details on how you can make your voice heard on this issue.


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UPDATED: Michigan Republicans aiming to carve another $770 million from schools to pay for road/bridge repairs

By on May 7, 2013 in Education, GOPocrisy, Michigan Republicans, Taxes

This is getting ridiculous

Michigan Republicans are getting ready to inflict further catastrophic damage on our state’s schools with the passage of a package of bills designed to pay for road and bridge repair, a major priority of Governor Rick Snyder. The bills say nothing about education or the School Aid Fund but the impact is there to the tune of more than $770.1 million.

Click through for all the gory details and information on how you can take action TODAY!


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50 Lansing elementary phys.ed, art & music teachers being replaced with 10-20 part-time consultants

By on March 27, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Teachers

Why doesn’t this make me feel any better?

Last week, I wrote about Lansing Public Schools firing all 50 of its elementary phys. ed., music and art teachers to save $6 million in their shrinking budget. The post has gone fairly viral getting over 30,000 views.

Apparently the school system got an earful from folks outraged that an essential part of kids’ education was being forfeited, in part to pay for corporate tax cuts. They have now responded.

Click through for details.


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Starving Michigan schools: Capital City Lansing schools eliminate ALL art, music and phys. ed. teachers

By on March 23, 2013 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Teachers

A generation of future entrepreneurs denied essential skills

To hear Governor Snyder tell it, Republicans haven’t reduced school funding. Everything is great for Michigan schools, he will tell you. If you want the real story, however, start attending your local school board meetings and listen to the decision-makers grappling with ever-shrinking budgets that have them choosing between offering our educators the wages and benefits they deserve and shutting down schools and eliminating programs. The reality is that our state government is starving our K-12 public schools and those chickens are beginning to come home to roost.

This past week, the Lansing Public School District announced that it is firing all 50 physical education, music and art teachers.

Details including the unintended long-term consequences of this action after the jump.


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Michigan Sen. Colbeck introduces “patriotism” bills modeled after bill pushed by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann

By on February 1, 2013 in Conservatives, Michigan Republicans, Tea Party

Draped in a flag, carrying a cross

With all of the struggles Michigan faces right now, it’s good to know that things aren’t so bad that religious zealots and “patriots” like Senator Patrick Colbeck have time to worry about censorship in the teaching of American History in our classrooms. This week, Colbeck introduced a bill to remedy this egregious (and essentially nonexistent) problem. The bill is modeled after legislation promoted and passed in 2001 by far-right conservative and tea party goddess Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Bachmann’s bill copies a law passed in North Carolina in 1997.

Details after the jump.


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How much would you pay someone to take a bullet for your child?

By on December 16, 2012 in Education, Labor

Why would you hire a greedy parasite to watch and teach your children all day?

Teaching is a tough profession. It has always been, but lately it has become so much tougher thanks to the anti-union attacks teachers and other public employees. It’s becoming harder and harder to understand why anyone would want to be a public school teacher these days.

The anti-union attacks on teachers have been around for decades, starting with idea that teachers get paid a full-time salary but really don’t work full-time; that their cushy workdays end at 3:00 and they have summers off. This is a very shortsighted view and, if you know anyone who teaches, you know how hard they work and how much of that work goes well past 3:00 and the month of May. Often the lines between their personal life and professional life are blurred. To most teachers, teaching is really a calling more than a job.

And yet, we treat these treat these everyday heroes as if they are not worthy of our respect.

Much more after the jump.


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UPDATED: Michigan GOP education “reform” drawing fire from across the state, Muskegon Hts. charter failing miserably

By on December 4, 2012 in Education, Michigan Republicans

Rushing through an ideological experiment because they can — not because it’s smart

Michigan Republicans have embarked on what they are calling “reform” of our state’s K-12 school system. They are rushing to implement plans long proposed by conservative, anti-teacher groups like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy with laws that would increase the number of charter schools, impeded the ability of teachers to bargain collectively for better working conditions, wages and benefits, and privatize as much of the provision of education in Michigan as possible.

However, they are facing a stiff headwind, one they clearly did not expect. Teachers and administrators from all across Michigan are voicing their concern and outrage at this rushed attempt to impose an ideologically-driven model for education on our state.…


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