For the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to ensure that the utter and tragic failure of Gov. Snyder’s experiment on Detroit school children – the Education Achievement Authority – does not go down the memory hole. I told the story in 127 Eclectablog headlines and reminded people that these failures have been stacking up for four years […]

A Story for Anyone Who’d Do It All Over Again Josh Mailer didn’t know that his company needed Vice President of Human Resources. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have pulled the rooster boxers he’d just won on over his Dockers. Still—even as he sat down in the too bright second-floor office that he’d been called into as the Christmas […]

In 2012, Gretchen Driskell did what few thought possible and what fewer Michigan Democrats were able to do: she beat a locally-popular Republican incumbent, Mark Ouimet, to take back a state House seat, beating him by by six points in the Republican-leaning 52nd District. Two years later, she was such a strong candidate that the Republicans put up a weak […]

Fantastic news for the 600,000 low-income Michiganders who rely on the program for their health insurance. When the Michigan Legislature submitted their plans for a customized version of Medicaid expansion to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2013, there was no guarantee CMS would sign off on either of the waivers to require more “skin in the […]

If you don’t, you’re not alone. And this post is for you. Not everyone is great at meeting deadlines. If that applies to you, raise your hand. Plenty of people are paying attention to the deadline to sign up for 2016 health insurance. According to our friend Charles Gaba at ACA Signups, as of December 17 more than 5 million […]

NOTE: This post has been updated. On December 11th, the faculty of the Eastern Michigan University Department of Teacher Education, part of EMU’s College of Education, passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in the “leadership” of the EMU Board of Regents in response to their decision to remain in their partnership with Gov. Rick Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit […]

After over ten hours of behind the scenes negotiations among their caucus members, all but two Senate Republicans voted last evening to ban straight-ticket voting on Michigan ballots. The bill had been tie-barred to far-less-than-perfect legislation to permit “no reason” absentee voting. However, the tie-bar was removed before passage by the Senate and then sent back to the House where, […]

There are two things that worry me most about Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy and the national, even international, megaphone it gives him. The first is that he’s so outrageous that he makes a zealot like Ted Cruz seem “reasonable”, a terrifying prospect. Second, and equally worrisome, Trump is giving voice, cover, and even legitimacy (in some people’s eyes, anyway) to […]

Last week, the Board of Regents of Eastern Michigan University revisited their interlocal agreement with Gov. Rick Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit school kids known as the Education Achievement Authority. They had agreed a year prior to reevaluate their participation in the partnership with the EAA based on their progress on four specific items: A stronger partnership is forged between […]

The next election won’t just decide the future of reproductive rights, it will decide if the 20th century can be repealed Abigail Fisher was denied admission to the University of Texas, a school that’s more selective than Harvard, because her academic record wasn’t good enough. She sued because a handful of minority students along with 42 white students were granted […]

This week the Republicans in the Michigan House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 13, a bill that would eliminate the option of straight-ticket voting on Michigan ballots. While they claim it’s to make us all “more responsible” voters, the obvious intent is to make it just that more difficult to vote in Michigan. In fact, Progress Michigan recently showed how […]