There are few people who deserve a valentine from Michigan governor Rick Snyder more than Dick and Betsy DeVos. From funding his campaign to paying for ramming Right to Work through by threatening/bribing Republicans in the legislature, the DeVos family has been there for Rick Snyder every step of the way. In fact, it could reasonably be said that Rick […]

Get your panel on! As I have mentioned before the amazing Netroots Nation conference is coming to Detroit this summer (July 17-20). I was honored to be asked to announce it the 2013 Netroots Nation conference in San Jose last year and I absolutely could not be more excited. If you are interested in putting together a panel for Netroots […]

What, do you think we’re STUPID? While Governor Snyder and his pals in the legislature ponder giving us all a tax credit that won’t even pay for a trip to the grocery store, Michigan voters have another idea: Fix the damn roads and fund our damn schools. While lawmakers in Lansing are debating the best way to provide tax relief […]

Sometimes conspiracy theorists are right Two things happened this week that are raising questions in the education community. The first is the “coincidental” power outages that occurred in Detroit schools the day before the all-important Count Day yesterday. The outages resulted in with Detroit Public Schools being closed on the day when they count kids to determine how many attend […]

They can hear you now Updated below. After reports that Republicans would try to rush through a vote to expand Governor Snyder’s failed education experiment in Detroit – the Education Achievement Authority – they chose not today. GOP spokesperson Ari Adler was typically snide and derisive when asked about it. “The campaign against this bill is clearly well organized but […]

You know how Republicans are all about supporting “job creators”? It’s their reason for fighting any increases in the minimum wage, regulations that protect the environment or people, and a plethora of other things that Democrats fight FOR every day. Well, Republicans in Tennessee have made it clear that their adoration and idolization of “job creators” comes to a screeching […]

Last night’s forum on Governor Snyder’s failed education reform experiment in Detroit — the Educational Achievement Authority — drew close to 200 attendees who packed the Little Theater at Pioneer High School, nearly all of whom stayed for the entire 2+ hours. Professor Christopher Robbins from Eastern Michigan started off the evening with an overview of the politics and the […]

Quick, before anyone hears about the all of the problems! The folks at Oakland Schools have posted an urgent call for people opposed to the expansion of the Education Achievement Authority to contact their state legislators THIS MORNING. Why? Because Republicans are in a mad tear to pass the legislation this week. I’m guessing all of the negative publicity they’ve […]

Please proceed, Ms. Land In August of last year, Terri Lynn Land was caught on tape admitting that her campaign had “talked to” Super PACs about helping with her campaign. Apparently Land was quite proud of those conversations because the month before, at the Macomb County Republican Party’s Lincoln dinner on July 29th, she bragged about it again. At that […]

Today’s interview is with a former EAA teacher named Chris Turkaly. Chris taught at Nolan Elementary-Middle School in the EAA for awhile before moving to Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School. During his time there, Chris struggled. He had already spent several years teaching in challenged schools in California but coming to the EAA was a completely different experience. Instead getting […]

You can’t unskew a poll this skewed up Updated twice below. Karl Rove, the man who was absolutely certain that Mitt Romney was going to pull out an astonishing victory over Barack Obama despite all evidence to the contrary, has commissed a new series of polls that say Republicans are going to take back the Senate. Michigan was among the […]