A couple of years ago, I wrote this: I have been saying for years (since 2011, precisely) that Emergency Management is a model that will not work to solve the intractable problems that have led to financial crises in our state’s former urban manufacturing hubs. Emergency Managers are armed only with tools of DEstruction, not with tools of CONstruction. They […]

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made headlines this week at Harvard University. I’m still confused as to why Harvard invited her to speak at an event allegedly focused on public education–she never attended a public school, never sent her own children to a public school, never studied education, and has never taught anyone anything–and the reaction to her talk suggests […]

If you’ve been watching the ever-increasing demonization of teachers in Michigan over the past decade, you probably have asked yourself at one time or another, “Why the hell would ANYONE want to be a teacher in Michigan?” It’s a fair question. Republicans in our state legislature have cut their benefits, based their advancement on student progress when much of what […]

This is madness. A Michigan law passed by Republicans allows for schools that don’t meet specific requirements for academic achievement to be simply closed. Shut down. Kids thrown out. It’s a draconian step, one that essentially tells parents, “We don’t want to make the investments in your children’s schools needed to bring them up to par, so we are giving […]

Tomorrow, Friday, February 17, 2017, education activists in Detroit will hold a rally to protest the imminent closure of public schools there. The schools are slated to be closed under a draconian new policy in Michigan. The policy says that poor-performing schools that don’t show progress over a three year period may be shut down. 25 schools in Detroit and […]

In his inaugural speech, the newly installed President of the United States made the following comment: “An education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge”. Incensed, I immediately wanted to share my thoughts about these mean-spirited, belittling words–but I couldn’t. Because I was in Grand Rapids at the Michigan Music Conference […]

At a press conference on Wednesday, Donald Trump told the nation that CNN is “fake news”. That stunning declaration is part of a long-term strategy, honed by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, to discredit information sources that keep the citizenry informed about reality. For his most ardent followers, Trump’s statement just confirms what they already wanted to believe because […]

It takes a special person to teach in Detroit, Michigan. Although this has been the case for many, many years, it’s never been so true as it is right now. Not only are teachers dealing with a kids who are largely coming from families in deep poverty and working in schools that are falling down around them, for the past […]

It’s bad enough that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is fighting a federal ruling that the state of Michigan supply bottled water to Flint residents still contending with drinking water that is poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead. It’s actually REALLY bad. But he’s found another way to make his contempt for poor people known. In response to a lawsuit filed […]

Apparently Matt Lauer doesn’t know **** from Shinola when it comes to charter schools I happened to be watching The Today Show yesterday morning (which I have only recently returned to watching after NBC fired Billy Bush), and looked up to see anchor Matt Lauer in a hair net and booties, standing in the Shinola watch assembly room in downtown Detroit. […]

Last year, as part of the deal over road funding that led to Proposal 1 on the May 2015 ballot, a school financing report was commissioned by the state to determine what it takes to educate a child in Michigan. This week, that report was released and it shows, as anyone who is paying attention to education in our state […]