Financial assistance helped this 63-year-old find coverage she can afford. Elsie Brown of Detroit spent nearly 30 years of her life working hard, but when she was laid off she lost her health insurance. After her COBRA ran out, she went nearly two years without health insurance — a risky proposition for someone with high blood pressure and diabetes, both […]

Just a few odds and ends from the world of the Education Achievement Authority, Gov. Rick Snyder’s failed education experiment with Detroit students. First, although a vote had been predicted yesterday, various reporting suggests that Republicans in the House and Senate are still struggling to come to an agreement on what the expansion of the EAA should look like. Some […]

GOP Congressmen Walberg and Bentivolio are so busy trying to discredit the ACA, how can they have time for anything else? How many Obamacare “horror stories” have to be debunked for people to realize that the GOP spin machine is pedaling so hard it’s about ready to rotate off its axis? Better yet, let’s call it what it is: lying. […]

NOTE: In the comments of this post and another one titled “An EAA teacher elaborates on the treatment of special ed students: ‘These kids deserve so much better’”, there are multiple comments from the same person, making it look as if there more supporters of Nolan school principal Angela Underwood than there really are. The comments are from one of […]

As faculty and students at Eastern Michigan University gather at a rally today to urge their Board of Regents to sever their educational institution’s relationship with Governor Snyder’s failed Educational Achievement Authority experiment in Detroit, lawmakers in Lansing are whipping votes to pass legislation that will expand it statewide and codify it into law. Yesterday’s bombshell news that State Superintendent […]

NOTE: There are two comments at the bottom of this interview disparaging both me and the interviewee, former EAA Teacher of the Year Kim Jurczak. One goes by the name “Lyeyname” and the other by “Mypost”. Both comments came from the same IP address meaning that they were made by the same person masquerading as different people to make it […]

I don’t normally just reprint press releases but this one is so well done and so perfect that I couldn’t really add much to it. Ellen Lipton has been a fierce, fierce warrior in the battle to save Michigan’s public schools. Along with Sen. Hopgood, she was, for far too long, a lone voice calling out the Education Achievement Authority […]

Spin, baby, spin

Yesterday, EAA Chancellor John Covington and Republican Chair of the House Education Committee Rep. Lisa Lyons appeared on the Current State program to discuss the Education Achievement Authority. In clear defensive mode, both of them sought to characterize anyone who opposes the EAA as the only solution to the intractable problems facing the Detroit Public School system as “defending the status quo” and being “outright criminal”.

The audio, excerpts, and commentary after the jump.

WOW! NOTE: My commentary on this development can be found HERE. Not a good week for the Education Achievement Authority and its leader John Covington. First, MLive reporter Jeff Wattrick’s article from 2011 is being circulated again, reminding all of us that Covington’s so-called turnaround success in Kansas City fell apart after he left when the district he controlled lost […]

Pandering to the far right is bad for Michigan’s economy and our families Governor Rick Snyder refused to join the chorus who called for Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema to resign after the former member of Michigan’s House of Representatives. The party’s leadership was okay with a year of anti-gay comments but an especially vile anti-Muslim post made them […]

NOTE:There may well be a vote on the expanding the EAA statewide this week, probably tomorrow (Thursday). If you haven’t already, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE AND YOUR STATE SENATOR TO EXPRESS YOUR OPPOSITION TO HOUSE BILL 4369. If you need some ideas, have a look at the talking points prepared by the MEA by clicking HERE (pdf). NOTE […]