Who better to discuss education issues than the Teacher of the Year?! I am honored and exceedingly pleased to announce Eclectablog’s newest contributor, Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year Gary Abud, Jr. I normally introduce new contributors with an interview but Gary and I have already done an extensive interview (which you can read HERE.) Gary and I first connected […]

The Republicans’ goal is to “try to find a way to educate students on the cheap” Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Michigan Republicans have made their education “reform” plan quite clear: slash funding to traditional public schools, privatize schools to for-profit corporations, and knee-cap teachers to prevent them from collectively bargain for decent wages and benefits. This […]

You knew this was coming, right?

Progress Michigan released a report this week that outlines how the corporatist group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is working hard to turn our students into nice little profit centers by handing over their education to for-profit corporations. The report also shows how this pernicious campaign is playing out in other states, as well.

Michigan is home to nearly a quarter of the charter schools in the country and roughly 80% of our charter schools are run by for-profit businesses. What is their funding model? To funnel the taxes used for public education into their bank accounts. They do this by getting all sorts of breaks our traditional public schools do not get, including hiring non-unionized teachers.

ALEC, a corporate-funded group that produces a copious amount of model legislation for their corporatist legislative members to use in their state legislatures, has their on all of that sweet, sweet education money and their plans are playing out perfectly in Michigan.

Click through for much more.

Caring teachers shouldn’t be treated this way

The following is a guest post from Carina Hilbert who blogs at the blog The Grumpy Language Teacher blog.

In this piece, Carina describes the closing of her school where she was doing what she was called to do: educating our students. As you read it, it is very clear that this is an educator who puts her students above all else. More importantly, you see a school system where progress was truly being made. Despite this, her high school in Albion is being closed due to budget constraints.

It’s a sad testament to our lack of investing in our public schools that dedicated teachers like Carina Hilbert are seen as “unaffordable”. I look forward to the day when Michigan teachers are seen as the valuable assets they are, not as “expenses” to be trimmed because our state government isn’t willing to make the necessary investments in public education.

Read her essay after the jump.

Eclectablog himself wasn’t able to attend the grassroots-organized rally in support of the public school system in Lansing this morning; fortunately I was able to attend, with a contingent of my fellow Bloomfield Hills-based public school advocates. Yes, that’s right: Even in Bloomfield Hills, where most of the residents seem to think that the deliberate, systematic destruction of the Michigan […]

This story has legs

After my piece on the exploitation of Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year Gary Abud by anti-union groups like the Mackinac Center and StudentsFirst to promote their anti-union agenda, I was interviewed by Tony Trupiano on his Night Shift radio show about it. The segment ran Friday evening and you can listen to it after the jump.

Michigan’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ deserves better than this

In May of this year, Gary Abud, a science teacher at Grosse Pointe North High School, was chosen as Michigan’s 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a teacher who has only been at it for six years. Well-respected by both his students and his coworkers, Mr. Abud was a worthy choice.

To reward him for his outstanding achievement, the anti-union corporatist Mackinac Center — an ALEC and State Policy Network affiliate that is funded, in part, by the Koch brothers — did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out how much money Mr. Abud makes. Once they found out, they proceeded to use him to promote passage of House Bill 4625, a bill I call the “‘Teach to the Test’ Teacher Pay Act”.

Click through for my interview with this amazing educator.

Save Michigan’s Public Schools

As I wrote about yesterday, two friends of mine, Rochelle Noel and Betsy Coffia, have organized a huge rally in support of Michigan’s public schools. It happens next Wednesday, June 19th, 2013.

Last night, Rochell and Betsy appeared on the Night Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show to talk about the rally. Tony will be the Master of Ceremonies at the rally. Listen to it after the jump.

ForProfitSchoolsFirst Last month, I wrote about yet another Republican attack on teachers in the form of House Bill 4625. This bill, as I said then, would make teachers’ pay primarily based on student progress. Current law says that teacher pay should be using job performance and job accomplishments as a significant factor. House Bill 4625, introduced by Republican Pete Lund, […]

Grassroots power in action! NOTE: This post has been updated. See below. A little under two weeks ago, my pals that run the Facebook page Save Michigan’s Public Schools announced a rally to support education and teachers in Michigan. Their page is the premier online resource for all things education in our state. It was started by Ann Arbor educator […]

This MUST stop

The story of 22-year Cody Bailey being installed as president of a for-profit charter school in Michigan (posts are HERE and HERE) has rekindled my outrage about the demonization of teachers and the systematic kneecapping and dismantling of our public school system here in Michigan. Operating under the guise of “education reform”, corporatists like Cody Bailey, the Mackinac Center, and the DeVos family are engaging in an unsubtle effort to convert our nation’s schools into profit centers for corporate “education” businesses. Their approach has three primary components.

Click through for much, much more.