For the past seven years, the city of Flint has been under the control of the state of Michigan. All government decisions made there were made by an unelected Emergency Manager or, later, a Receivership Transition Advisory Board. In the meantime, the city had its water poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead, saw 12 people die from an Legionnaire’s Disease […]

It’s well-known that Republican Mike Bishop is deeply embedded in the pockets of the super-wealthy like skabillionaire Matty Moroun so it’ll likely come as no surprise to you that he disdains unions and is all in for gun manufacturers and their corporate front group, the NRA. In fact, his website used to crow about his pro-gun, anti-union stances. Here’s a […]

In April of 2012, control over Muskegon Heights schools was handed over to an un-elected Emergency Manager, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. By July, Emergency Manager Donald Weatherspoon had signed a contract to turn the entire public school system over to the for-profit charter school operator Mosaica. Two years later the district was still insolvent and having to borrow almost […]

We’re on the verge of a historic catastrophe Is Donald Trump “unhinged” or “unleashed?” And is there any difference? That’s the question that the Washington Post‘s well-sourced reporters Philip Rucker and Robert Costa are currently ruminating over: “This is now a president a little bit alone, isolated and without any moderating influences — and, if anything, a president who is […]

Repeat after me: Primaries are good. Primaries are good. Primaries are good… I used to believe that primaries were a waste of precious fundraising dollars and that they unnecessarily bloodied up our general election candidate. But in 2014, after Mark Schauer was defeated in his run for governor after facing no primary opponent, I changed my views. I came to […]

And a new report suggests Democrats could need as much as an 11 percent popular vote advantage to take the House A new report from the Brennan Center finds Democrats will need a massive landslide in November to retake the House: Because of maps designed to favor Republicans, Democrats would need to win by a nearly unprecedented nationwide margin in […]

Paul Ryan warned us. If we return Walberg to DC, savage attacks on Medicare and Medicaid are coming. Since Republicans took full control of the government in 2017, their goal has been destroy the Affordable Care Act. But all they’ve been able to do is uninsure Americans and drive up their premiums. Rep. Tim Walberg voted for the version of […]

I’ve been seeing a number of thoughtful, well-intentioned posts lately from very intelligent friends, wondering how and why Betsy DeVos could be so uninformed about schools and education, and whether she could be convinced to move in better directions by talking with and listening to experienced teachers and ed policy experts. The answer is “no,” and here’s why… I understand […]

Secretary of Education and Saturday Night Live fixture Betsy DeVos is fond of saying that picking a school should be as easy as choosing an Uber or a Lyft. She bases this belief on the economic theories that buttress much of the neo-liberal and conservative approach to education reform: As economist Milton Friedman had theorized decades earlier, Ohio legislators believed […]

Seven years ago the GOP decided its existence depended on a plot to destroy the Obama coalition. It worked. In the debate over whether Democrats should prioritize persuasion or turnout, Connor Lamb may have made a decent case for at least some persuasion this week, at least in districts Donald Trump won by 20 percent. But a piece in the […]

Despite state spending of nearly $80 million to improve early reading skills in Michigan school kids, reading scores have actually gone DOWN since 2014 in our state. Not even the threat of being held back a year by state law was enough to frighten and threaten these children into learning to read better. Michigan’s Republican Attorney General, a man who […]