The Republicans’ goal is to “try to find a way to educate students on the cheap” Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Michigan Republicans have made their education “reform” plan quite clear: slash funding to traditional public schools, privatize schools to for-profit corporations, and knee-cap teachers to prevent them from collectively bargain for decent wages and benefits. This […]

Are you KIDDING me??? Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood | Courtesy photo Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood sits on the Senate Education Committee and has been trying to get information about the Education Achievement Authority and the schools under its purview. The EAA is a collection of the state’s worst performing schools and Hopgood along with others have been critical about the district’s performance. […]

Is it now too expensive to teach disabled children? [CC image credit: ~kawaii-bubble-wrap | deviantART] In April of this year, former Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced that Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic, a school specializing in serving disabled Detroit students, was slated to be closed. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, the school was found to be too expensive to keep […]

They love them some school accountability … until they don’t [CC photo by albertogp123 | Flickr] A couple of weeks ago, the Associated Press broke the story of an Indiana charter school run by a big Republican donor having its state-assigned grade, basically a measure of the quality of the school’s education, from a “C” to and “A” after he […]

The 1960s called, they want their racist rhetoric back I know we’re not a true “post racial” society. I want us to be. But I know we aren’t. But, at least in most public discourse, it’s definitely no longer acceptable to say racist things or to make derogatory remarks about specific races. Call it ‘political correctness’ if you want but […]

A little justice please? Early this month, I wrote two pieces about Brooke Harris, a teacher fired first from a Flint charter school for helping students to organize a fundraiser for the family of Trayvon Martin and more recently fired by the Education Achievement Authority (HERE and HERE.) At Brooke’s per-termination hearing, she learned that she was being accused of […]

So much for “PUBLIC” schools… As I wrote about earlier in the week, Brooke Harris, the teacher fired from a Pontiac charter school for helping students organize a fundraiser for the family of Trayvon Martin, is about to be fired again. This time, it appears to be because of her outspokenness about the poor learning environment in Education Achievement Authority […]

They’re being attacked from ALL sides This story is truly outrageous. Pontiac teachers have filed a lawsuit against the Pontiac school district for collecting money from their paychecks for health insurance coverage and then using the money to make their bottom line look better to the state of Michigan rather than paying premiums. As a result, the teachers’ health coverage […]

Hardy har har har Judge Daphne Means Curtis of the Wayne County Circuit Court today dismissed a frivolous lawsuit filed by the corporatist front group Mackinac Center today. The lawsuit attempted to make new Right to Work rules retroactive to before the time when the contract was signed. The contract was negotiated and signed BEFORE the odious anti-union law went […]

Message to teachers: Sit down and shut up. NOTE: The location of Brooke Harris’s pretermination hearing, which is now closed to the public, has been changed. See update below. In April of 2012, Brooke Harris, a teacher at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence charter school, was fired for attempting to assist her students hold a fundraiser for the family of […]

You knew this was coming, right?

Progress Michigan released a report this week that outlines how the corporatist group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is working hard to turn our students into nice little profit centers by handing over their education to for-profit corporations. The report also shows how this pernicious campaign is playing out in other states, as well.

Michigan is home to nearly a quarter of the charter schools in the country and roughly 80% of our charter schools are run by for-profit businesses. What is their funding model? To funnel the taxes used for public education into their bank accounts. They do this by getting all sorts of breaks our traditional public schools do not get, including hiring non-unionized teachers.

ALEC, a corporate-funded group that produces a copious amount of model legislation for their corporatist legislative members to use in their state legislatures, has their on all of that sweet, sweet education money and their plans are playing out perfectly in Michigan.

Click through for much more.