Gov. Rick Snyder is determined to prove that privatizing critical state services is a big money saver for the state. What his spreadsheets and dashboards fail to take into account are the unseen and unbudgeted prices paid when those private for-profit groups fail to act professionally. First it was Aramark who got busted for: Running out of food Making unauthorized […]

What happens when the evidence showing that vouchers do not improve student learning, or “fix failing schools”, becomes too obvious to ignore? Well, if you’re Betsy DeVos, you just flip the rhetoric (i.e., lie). Just as Ms. DeVos and President Donald Trump are poised to dump $20 billion into a federal voucher program, a new study shows that students receiving […]

In what can only be described as a laughable op-ed in The Detroit News today, multi-millionaire Republican and Foreclosure King David Trott attempts to portray a Republican bill to roll back consumer financial protections under Dodd-Frank and kneecap the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal bureau that has “won almost $12 billion in refunds and relief for an estimated […]

Last week, the Koch brothers-funded group American for Prosperity held a “Day at the Capitol” event in Lansing, Michigan where they spelled out their corporatist agenda for Michigan (you can see the agenda HERE.) Numerous Republican legislators were on the agenda: House Speaker Tom Leonard Speaker Pro Tempore Lee Chatfield House Majority Floor Leader Dan Lauwers State Representative Lana Theis […]

When Rick Snyder became the governor of Michigan in 2011, he famously labeled the citizens of Michigan as “customers” and set about to run the state “like a business”. This approach to governing has had tragic impacts on our state. In their fervor to save money, the corporatists that run our state have driven our education system into the ground […]

Betsy DeVos, Pr*sident Donald Trump’s pick to be his Secretary of Education, is rightfully being exposed nationally for her anti-public education agenda. As I and Mitchell Robinson have been explaining repeatedly, Betsy DeVos isn’t just unqualified, she’s DANGEROUS. She’s never attended a public school. She’s never sent her children to a public school. She’s never taught in ANY school. She’s […]

The news that Betsy DeVos will not divest her financial interest in Neurocore, a Michigan “biofeedback” company, should alarm anyone who cares about the health and safety of our children. Because this is not simply a financial issue; it’s part of a disturbing trend in Ms. DeVos’ involvement and activism in education, and her potential confirmation as Secretary of Education. […]

With the bombshell news yesterday that two former Flint Emergency Managers are being charged with felonies in their connection to the ongoing tragedy known as the Flint water crisis, the calls to repeal Michigan’s anti-democratic “financial martial law” are rising again from around the state. The corporatists that see Emergency Management as a key to accomplishing their dual goals of […]

The image at the top of this post was once the Twitter banner of billionaire Betsy DeVos until she got busted for it. What makes the image so controversial is the blatant product placement. Those little white boxes that look like something out of the movie Repo Man are for a “boxed water” product sold by the company Boxed Water […]

Like Barry Goldwater’s campaign to “Save America” in 1964, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign unearthed a marginally suppressed anger rooted in white supremacist racism, fear, and capitalism. Goldwater’s opposition to big government and civil rights had come at a time when the country was wounded and struggling to move forward. It came at a time after a presidential assassination, […]

NOTE: This post is a companion piece to this week’s episode of The Sit and Spin Room podcast. Click HERE or scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to the podcast or find it wherever you get your podcasts by searching for “Sit and Spin Room” on iTunes, Stitcher, etc. The news that President-elect Donald Trump had nominated […]