It’s no secret that many Republicans in the Michigan legislature want to destroy public education in our state and funnel tax dollars into the coffers of for-profit charter schools. For anyone paying attention, that’s a given. What is surprising, to me at least, is how brazen they have become. Detroit Public Schools is on the brink of bankruptcy. According to […]

Bowing to immense pressure from faculty, students, employees, education activists, as well as the general public, the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents finally gave notice that it is ending its intralocal agreement with Gov. Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit school children known as the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) this afternoon. The move came after what can only be described […]

On Monday, Michigan Democrat David Knezek introduced Senate Bill 734. The bill contains a single sentence: The local financial stability and choice act, 2012 PA 436, MCL 141.1541 to 141.1575, is repealed. Wouldn’t it be beautiful if the entire anti-democratic failed experiment known as Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, a law and policy that has done so much harm to our […]

Over the past couple of months, multiple Colleges in the Eastern Michigan University system have passed resolutions of “No Confidence” in the EMU Board of Regents. These groups include the Colleges of Education, Arts & Science, Technology, and Health & Human Services. Yesterday, the entire Faculty Senate did the same. You can read their resolution HERE. In their resolution of […]

Four state Senators, Phil Pavlov, Joe Hune, David Robertson, and Goeff Hansen have had quite enough of uppity Detroit teachers who have staged “sick-outs” to draw attention to the deplorable – unconscionable, really – conditions in their schools. Images and stories of dead vermin, mushrooms growing out of the wall, disintegrating floors, walls, and ceilings, and clear evidence of black […]

Darnell Earley, the former Flint Emergency Manager and current Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager will resign on February 29th according to a statement released by Gov. Snyder this morning on the state website. Earley, who has denied he was responsible for any of the problems in Flint or Detroit Schools, is quoted in the statement as basically saying, “Mission Accomplished”: […]

The outrageous working/learning environment in some of Detroit school buildings has gotten national and even international attention over the past few months. Over the past month, teachers have staged multiple “sick-outs” to protest the deplorable conditions they are forced to try to teach in, resulting in multiple school closings. Detroit Public Schools (DPS) Emergency Manager Darnell Earley has tried twice […]

NOTE: A big thanks to Eclectablog reader Meaghan Allen who sent me the video shown below along with some most-excellent analysis of it. Despite widespread reporting otherwise, many defenders of the Emergency Manager policy in Michigan and of Gov. Rick Snyder’s role in the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water continue to claim that the Flint City Council voted to move […]

In the ongoing scandal of the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water by the Snyder administration and the heart-wrenching reports of the dilapidation of Detroit Public Schools, there’s another untold story being reported today by the Detroit Free Press. Because the schools are old and may contain lead in the water lines, students cannot drink, shower with, or swim in the […]

[All photos by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog] As lawmakers and other political movers and shakers in Michigan gathered together in the cozy warmth of Michigan’s State Capitol Building for Governor Snyder’s 2016 State of the State Address, over 500 protesters from around the state gathered in the frigid cold outside to demand substantive action by the state government […]

Most of you don’t know that I have literally written thousands of speeches, not for myself, but for many leaders in organized labor, titans of industry, and some serious politicians, some of whom are serving today. These speeches are written within the guidelines of confidential agreements and I have always taken this job very seriously, paying a great deal of […]