Tag: Corporatocracy

Trump names Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education: It’s Game, Set, Match for public education

Trump names Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education: It’s Game, Set, Match for public education

Game. Set. Match. The news that Donald Trump has named Betsy DeVos as his choice for Secretary of Education is just another brick in the wall for Mr. Trump’s plan to turn the US into a giant flea market, selling off the bits and pieces of a once great nation for parts to the highest bidders. I had to laugh in […]

Read more ›
The charter school debate is over

The charter school debate is over

The charter school “debate” is no longer about charter schools vs. public schools (charters are not public schools — that myth has been exploded), or even about “for profit” vs. “not for profit” charters (the evidence HERE suggests this is really a difference without a distinction). No, the real issue here is about the true purpose of education, and whether […]

Read more ›
Progress Michigan launches unprecedented education program exposing DeVos family funding of anti-public education policy

Progress Michigan launches unprecedented education program exposing DeVos family funding of anti-public education policy

Anyone who has followed the state legislature in Michigan since Republicans assumed nearly total control in 2010 will tell you just how devastating their policies and laws have been to public education in our state. From stripping funding from schools to pay for enormous corporate tax cuts to taking away local control and handing it over to non-educator Emergency Managers […]

Read more ›
The paradoxical world of education reform

The paradoxical world of education reform

I used to think that anyone who rose to a position of power and prominence in the world of education had to be smart, well-informed, and have significant teaching experience. The last few years of following the education reform debate, however, has disabused me of that notion. It seems as though so many of the people who hold positions of authority and […]

Read more ›
Charter school funding fiascos: Misplaced priorities and warped values

Charter school funding fiascos: Misplaced priorities and warped values

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the charter school industry, and it doesn’t look like things are looking up any time soon. In the wake of a devastating segment by John Oliver on the charter school business, and calls from civil rights groups like the NAACP and Black Lives Matter, the public is finally starting to question the […]

Read more ›
New report shows Michigan massively underfunding education and the scandalous impact of that is all around us

New report shows Michigan massively underfunding education and the scandalous impact of that is all around us

Last year, as part of the deal over road funding that led to Proposal 1 on the May 2015 ballot, a school financing report was commissioned by the state to determine what it takes to educate a child in Michigan. This week, that report was released and it shows, as anyone who is paying attention to education in our state […]

Read more ›
Limiting charter schools’ ability to destroy public education seen as “morally wrong” by the guy who gave them their start

Limiting charter schools’ ability to destroy public education seen as “morally wrong” by the guy who gave them their start

Back in the early 90s, Michigan Gov. John Engler – the first of Michigan’s corporatist governors – oversaw the creation of the for-profit charter school industry in our state. Pitching it as “forcing schools to compete”, he signed legislation that opened the floodgates for charter schools to siphon away tax dollars intended to educate children into the coffers of private […]

Read more ›
VIDEO: Dem. Adam Zemke excoriates House GOP who put the profit statements of for-profit charters over Detroit kids

VIDEO: Dem. Adam Zemke excoriates House GOP who put the profit statements of for-profit charters over Detroit kids

“This package [of legislation] is a handout to criminals.” – Rep. Adam Zemke Gary Naeyaert is a “member of Team Jesus” and the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP is Betsy DeVos’s project to destroy public schools in Michigan to make way for the proliferation of for-profit charter schools that siphon tax dollars into the bank […]

Read more ›
Appeals court ruling brings an end to big box stores ripping off local communities’ tax dollars

Appeals court ruling brings an end to big box stores ripping off local communities’ tax dollars

Back in 2013, I penned a piece titled “Multibillion dollar Meijer, Inc. finds another way to screw Michigan cities and kids” that went somewhat viral, getting over 60,000 hits. The gist of the piece is that Meijer, along with other so-called “big box” stores in Michigan, have used something called “dark store” valuation when determining the value of their store. […]

Read more ›
Michigan corporate tax cut chickens finally come home to roost in GOP’s budget crater

Michigan corporate tax cut chickens finally come home to roost in GOP’s budget crater

Cluck, cluck… When Michigan Republicans took control of our legislature in 2010, they, along with our new Republican CEO Governor Rick Snyder, proceeded to enact a sweeping tax cut for corporations. It was all to bring new employers into the state which, in time, would lead to a more robust economy and a rising tide that would lift all boats. […]

Read more ›
Gov. Snyder’s ongoing experiment with privatizing prison food services still an abject failure

Gov. Snyder’s ongoing experiment with privatizing prison food services still an abject failure

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is clearly not a man who ever concedes he has made a mistake. After his privatizing of state prison food services went horribly awry with Aramark employees having sex with prisoners, bringing in drugs, and the many and repeated cases of vermin in food, he finally fired them. You would think he’d admit it was a […]

Read more ›
Quantcast
Quantcast