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 […]

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.

Why don’t we like thee, Governor? Let me count the ways…

Recent polling conducted for the Democratic Governors Association and leaked to Politico.com shows Mark Schauer with a lead over Rick Snyder.

Details and more await you just a click away

Yet somehow they’ll blame the teachers…

The Michigan township of Buena Vista, in the news recently for its racist Township Clerk, is back in the news today with the announcement that the school district has closed its doors over a month before the end of the school year. Why? Turns out the school district had taken $580,000 in state funding for a program for incarcerated youths that it no longer runs. With an outstanding bill of $400,000, the state cut off its funding and it now has no money.

The district’s 27 teachers had agreed to work without pay for a week while the district sorted out its mess but, this morning, the schools were closed.

Details after the jump.

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!

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.

Sunlight extinguished

A couple of weeks ago on Tax Day, April 15th, Congress passed a bill that gutted the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a law passed just last year to stop insider trading by government employees and elected officials. Later that day, President Obama signed it into law. The justification for the removal of disclosure provisions in the STOCK Act is that putting the financial information of congressional aides and executive branch staffers would endanger national security.

Details after the jump.

I’m feeling burned out on politics. Here’s some garden porn: – fresh picked asparagus from our garden: Self-portrait by Anne C. Savage G’night.

THIS is leadership

State Representative Sam Singh from East Lansing gave a terrific speech on the House floor last week, asking Republicans to “open their hearts” and do the right thing with regard to the expansion of Medicaid. “I’m not asking you to listen to me,” he said. “I’m asking you to listen to your Governor, to small business owners who will be penalized if their employees can’t find affordable health insurance and to the hospitals that are often the economic engines of your districts.”

Watch after the jump.

Because the poor simply haven’t been screwed over enough already, right?

Two bills passed by the Michigan House of Representatives this week have the effect of punishing one group and one group only: the poor. One bill, House Bill 4118 would force Michiganders applying for a renewal of their welfare benefits to undergo drug testing if they are “suspected” of being on drugs. The other, House Bill 4388, would kick families off from welfare if they have a child who skips school.

As egregious as this legislation is, what’s worse is that Democrats aided and abetted the Republicans in the passage of both bills.

Details await you after the jump.

The Michigan branch of the Center for Progressive Leadership is taking applications now for their summer Local Candidate and Campaign Manager training. If you’re considering a run for office in Michigan or are interested in helping to run a campaign, this training is for you. Though I have never taken the training, I know many people who have and they all rave about it. Details are below, deadline is May 15th.