Tag Archives | Michigan Education Association

Will a cyber school website ever be a champion for our students or make a difference in their lives?

By on May 6, 2013 in Corporatism, Education, Michigan Republicans, Rick Snyder, Teachers

That’s not a relationship built for education

Last year, Michigan’s Republican-dominated legislature passed a bill that was then signed into law by Governor Snyder that expands cyber schools in our state. Michigan already has nearly a quarter of the county’s charter schools and upwards of 80% of them are for-profit, run by corporations who make decisions based on their impact on the corporate profit statement.

I’ve been concerned about this ever since the law was passed because cyber schools rob our children of the human contact and relationships that are essential for helping them become happy, productive adults with the social skills needed to be successful. The bill was, ironically, part of a package of bills the Republicans, without a trace of irony, called Parent Empowerment Education Reform (PEER.) Except that kids who “attend” cyber schools won’t actually have any peers, at least not the kind of peer you can interact directly with.

Rita Pierson is an educator who feels deeply about this topic. A teacher for 40-years, she has come to see the essential value of the relationships teachers develop with their students. She gave a TED Talk recently where she speaks in direct terms about this topic and her message is one legislators in Michigan would benefit from hearing.

Watch it after the jump.


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AG Schuette is denied, lawsuit challenging Michigan’s Right to Work law goes forward

By on April 4, 2013 in Labor

Michigan citizens: 1, Attorney General Bill Schuette: 0

Back in January, I wrote about a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the MEA, the AFL-CIO and others that challenged Michigan’s Right to Work law since it was passed in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. Because Republicans locked citizens (and Democratic lawmakers) out of the building during the vote, the plaintiffs say the law should be invalidated.

This could be a HUGE deal because Republicans passed the legislation by a margin that was larger than than the margin they hold in the House after last November’s election. They would be forced to bring more of their GOP caucus over to vote yes on this legislation which may be difficult do, politically speaking.

Yesterday, Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette overruled a request by Attorney General Bill Schuette to throw the case out of court.

Details after the jump.


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Michigan GOP to teachers: We’re not done with you yet

By on March 28, 2012 in Education, GOPocrisy, Michigan Republicans, Teachers

Improving education by attacking teachers?

Michigan Republicans are not done with teachers yet, not by a long shot. Now they are going after their pensions and healthcare.

Lawmakers and Michigan’s largest teachers’ union are locking horns over how to bring the state’s school employee retirement system — underfunded by some $44 billion — back into the black.

The Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, commonly known as MPSERS, is the state-run school employee retirement system comprised of both pension and retiree health-care benefits.

Last week, the state Senate made an initial attempt to address the promised, but underfunded, benefits primarily through increased contributions by employees.

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Snyder to reward successful schools, punish those who don’t “progress”

By on February 8, 2012 in Education, Rick Snyder

Penalizing struggling schools solves what exactly?

The Detroit Free Press has an article in today’s edition titled “Rick Snyder’s push to tie school funding to performance still needs a scale”. They quote Governor Rick Snyder from last April:

“In my 2013 budget message, I will be proposing that school districts receive a bonus beyond the per-pupil state foundation allowance for demonstrating student growth in reading, math and other … selected subjects,” Snyder said.

“By rewarding growth, and not only proficiency, students who have fallen behind their grade level are not forgotten. Instead, they are viewed as having the most to gain.”

While the article doesn’t have a new information in it, it raises a question many have been asking for some time.…


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Michigan Gov Rick Snyder to make another fake concession, this time on school funding

By on January 20, 2012 in Education, Rick Snyder

Rick Snyder is the master of the “fake concession”. He takes money away from something, gives a little back and then paints it as a “concession”. It’s not.

He did it on the Earned Income Tax credit in late April:

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s proposed budget eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which helps the working poor, especially those with kids.

In a dramatic concession, he’s agreed to give qualifying families $25 per child . This represents 5.8% of the EITC the average family would have received.

He will now tell everyone he made a concession. But, if his budget passes in May as it most likely will, he will have actually slashed an important bit of assistance for many poor Michiganders with families by 94.2%.

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Will new Mich House Education chair Tom McMillin work with Mackinac Center to destroy the MEA? – UPDATED

By on November 28, 2011 in Uncategorized

With the ouster of Republican Paul Scott in a recall election earlier this month, Michigan Republicans chose a man considered “one of the most conservative members of the House Republican Caucus” to take his place on the House Education Committee, Tom McMillin. This retaliatory choice was predictable (and predicted). Rick Pluta of Michigan Public Radio described it as “a horse head in the MEA’s bed” a la The Godfather.

“If you didn’t like Representative Paul Scott, and what he stood for, and what he was trying to do, [then] State Representative Tom McMillin might give you something to cry about,” explains Rick Pluta, Lansing Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network.…

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MEA steps up to help Benton Harbor schools with massive donation of supplies

By on November 23, 2011 in Benton Harbor, Education, Emergency Managers, Teachers

While state officials mull over appointing an Emergency Manager for Benton Harbor schools, the state’s largest teachers union, the Michigan Education Association (MEA), has stepped up to help teachers there with much needed supplies. They put out a call to MEA teachers (flyer HERE (pdf)) to make donations and teachers across the state responded.

When Republican lawmakers pushed through more than $1 billion in cuts to public education earlier this year, bad financial situations in school districts across the state were made even worse. A prime example of this is in Benton Harbor, where the cuts have caused an unsustainable lack of basic school supplies across the district.…

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Michigan GOP takes first steps toward eliminating teachers from the classroom

By on November 22, 2011 in Education, Michigan Republicans, Teachers

Republican sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 619 recently passed the Senate. This bill represents what could be the first steps toward eliminating large numbers of teachers from Michigan classrooms.

A proposal in Lansing would remove most restrictions on the ability of students to attend school over the Internet, in their pajamas, without setting foot inside a classroom.

The proposal would remove caps on enrollment in and the number of “cyberschools,” or those in which students learn online through a teacher in another location.

Students either spend a portion or the entire school day learning in front of a computer — an option some lawmakers say expands opportunities for students who learn differently than others.

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Anti-teachers union StudentsFirst wants to “collaborate” with Michigan teachers union

By on November 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

After spending scads of money to defeat the recall of Paul Scott, a recall backed financially by the Michigan Education Association (MEA), Michigan’s teachers union, suddenly Michelle Rhee’s anti-teachers union group StudentsFirst wants to play kissy-face with them. From their recent press release:

StudentsFirst Vice President of Communications Hari Sevugan sent a letter to Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook Tuesday seeking collaboration on improving an anti-bullying bill moving through the Michigan legislature.

The bill is intended to address bullying in Michigan schools, but a Senate amendment to the bill would actually allow bullying based on religious or moral grounds.

StudentsFirst believes that, just as the law would protect a child from being bullied because of the religious beliefs he or she holds, it should also protect a child from bullying that is somehow grounded in someone else’s religious beliefs.

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Yet another boot on the face of Mich teachers – a year in prison for sending emails

By on September 27, 2011 in Education, Michigan, Michigan Republicans, Teachers

You know what I hate? I positively detest the phrase “union thugs” or “union goons”. It implies this organized group of people willing to harm others to make sure they get their way.

When you look at what Republicans are doing to unionized teachers in Michigan, you realize that when Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof says making our state a Right to Teach state is good because it is “an opportunity to let teachers get farther away from union goons”, what you’re seeing is a classic case of transference. They are accusing others of the behavior they themselves are exhibiting.…


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