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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

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Republicans plan to privatize teaching

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 09.01.11 | 12:05 pm

Senate Republicans are reportedly preparing legislation that would allow schools to privatize instructional services.
 
The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals reports that Senate Education Committee chair Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair) is preparing an education reform package that would allow school districts to hire teachers through a private company and avoid expenses associated with union jobs.

“I look at it as offering options,” Pavlov said. “If there is something out there that can offer school officials the same options at a lower cost, schools need to take a look at that. It needs to part of the conversation on reform.”

Pavlov said he’s still ironing out the details on the language of a bill, but it is slated to be part of a package that also includes lifting the cap on state university-chartered public academies and creating a mandatory school of choice program for the state.

The privatization piece would require teachers from a private firm to have all of the same qualifications as current instructors. The difference would be that school districts could take bids for instructional services once an existing contract expires.

The Michigan Education Association says the planned legislation will allow for-profit businesses to take over the state’s public schools.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Pavlov isn’t doing this to make the education of the children
    better, he is doing it because the republicons see themselves as the “Ruling
    Class”, and the working class as over paid peasants and that unions have created
    the “middle class” which is why they are in the process of destroying the
    unions.

    Here are some of the programs and laws that union workers have fought
    hard to create, many of which we still protect from regular attack by wealthy
    interests: Social Security, Medicare, the 40-hour work week, overtime pay,
    child-labor laws, family/medical leave with employer-paid insurance,
    unemployment insurance, temporary-disability insurance, workers’ compensation
    insurance, and the minimum-wage law. And we have much more hard work ahead of
    us, such as the need for affordable access to health care for everyone and
    human-rights protections for workers making our products both here and abroad.

    Don’t vote for republicons or DINO’s and put people in
    that will work for the interests of the American
    people not big business.

    • Thomas Allen

      Here Here!

      Take away a teacher’s right to bargain for a fair wage and decent (at best) benefits and we might as well start homeschooling our kids because there’s going to be no one left who wants to teach.

  • http://www.facebook.com/diana.menhennick Diana Menhennick

    This is just getting way to intrusive and micromanaging local government control. Why should MY TAX DOLLARS pay for teachers who have no connection to my community? The school of choice program is all about head counts and money. Does anyone give a crap about the future of the children? Why is it that privatization, contracting for services and cutting taxes is the only thing the current dictatorship can come up with to address the mess the state of Michigan is in?

    • CarmanK

      It really is the great TBAGGER LIE. They were always promising to produce more for less, remember they were going to run govt like a business. But, there is not a single privatization effort that has cost taxpayers less and there are multiple instances across the country where taxpayers got shoddy work and inferior productivity..The republicans are still pushing the same failed ALEC agenda. I am worried about our post office. The repugs have set them up to fail, and you know who will pay dearly for that one. Does anyone know when they were ever able to send a piece of mail by UPS or FED EX for 50 cents??

  • Thomas Allen

    If the recent mass exodus of 5000 teachers in WI is any indication, you can guarantee that it will happen here and learning will be a thing of the past. Subcontractors posing as teachers will simply be on site to act as classroom crowd control.

  • Anonymous

    I would urge all who oppose Pavlov’s proposed Mandatory School of Choice legislation to make your thoughts known to your state reps and senators. Educating our children is NOT about making money – it’s about providing a quality education. They should be concentrating on how to do that better, not cheaper!

  • Anonymous

    Hooray!!!
    Maybe my property taxes will finally come down!!
    Retired, on social insecurity.

    • CarmanK

      Not very likely. Privatization has not worked in any of the industries the repugs have introduced the practice. They cannot produce more for less, when they have to do favors for their political buds. Cheny and his no bid contracts in Iraq, billions of tp dollars wasted, Private Prison systems are going out of business already. They can’t produce the services and bldg maint and still make a profit. Private education costs upwards $10 to 18,000 per year and that’s low balling. The public school system was costing $5,000 to $6,000 per child all inclusive. PG County, MD is already under demand to repay imported teachers for the abuses that they suffered by private agencies . The fines in the millions. Education for profit is going to cost taxapyers millions and most certainly fail a generation of kids. This reminds me about the experiment to teach children sight reading instead of the proven VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. that little experiment put thousands of kids at a disadvantage in the market place as they aged. My brother was a victim of the “learning experiment” that failed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Bowman/100000646564835 Gary Bowman

    How do ALL you teachers who voted Republican feel now!!! How do all you teachers who never supported union workers by buying non-union cars feel now!!! This proves one thing. Seems as though some teachers forgot to do their homework!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1580611162 Betsy Rose

    I also hope people will wake up and stop voting for republicians the party of the billionaires. They don’t give a dam about anything but filling their pockets with as much as they can steal. They have no morals, ethics or values. They are beyond the lowest of the lows and proud to be that way.

  • http://mywikibiz.com/Directory:Jon_Awbrey Jon Awbrey
  • nomoremyths

    This has to do with dominance of students and workers. This is another angle to indoctrinate the young masses. My teens are graduated, but I feel for the youth and families coming up. Now the Murdock empire media, Regan consumerism and deregulation, and Koch political allegiance to pollution and profit has been cast over this country. Quite frankly, there’s not much standing in their way, not even a Supreme Court, to prevent corporate dominance and abuses from ravaging our and under-educating citizens and suppressing the freedoms earned that have cost so many lives. Selfishness and greed comes by way of sell-outs in suits with side parts in their hair and absolute ignorance spewing from their mouths, not hard-working middle class America. These selfish, wicked souls best know now they are messing with an educated and angry lot of people that still hold Freedom, Equality, and Democracy as primary core values=F.E.D. UP.

  • Anonymous

    Dems in the Senate HAD BETTER GET READY TO FILIBUSTER!!!!

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