The Detroit News has a report out today that is both shocking and unsurprising. In it, they reveal that, since its inception in the fall of 2012, the Education Achievement Authority has spent nearly a quarter million dollars in travel, gas, a chauffeur for Chancellor John Covington, on furniture and other miscellaneous, non-education-related items. And they put it all on […]

Last week, a vicious fight broke out between two students at the Education Achievement Authority’s Pershing High School. With a non-functional walkie-talkie and no other adults around to help, teacher Tiffani Eaton had to act fast as the two brawling boys thrashed around the room, punching each other, and knocking over desks. She grabbed a broom handle and whacked one […]

Hung out to dry with no alternatives and no union to help protect her A teacher at the Education Achievement Authority’s Pershing High School found herself with no way to communicate with security and no tools to disarm an exceedingly violent fight in her classroom. School rules prevented her from leaving the room and the walkie talkie she carried to […]

Although I was unable to attend the Senate Democrats’ hearing on expansion of the Education Achievement Authority earlier this week, I was allowed to submit written testimony. Since it allowed me to sum up my impressions based on nearly 20 interviews with former and current EAA teachers and an administrator, I am reprinting it here. April 22, 2014 Chris Savage […]

On Tuesday of this week Senate Democrats, led by Senators Bert Johnson and Hoon-Yung Hopgood, held a hearing about Governor Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit students known as the Education Achievement Authority. They took testimony from Michigan State Board of Education Vice President Casandra E. Ulbrich and from EAA teachers Delbert Glaze, Jordan Smellie, Mechelle Seiglitz. They also heard from […]

One of the recurring themes in the conversations that I have had with various teachers and administrators who work or have worked for the Education Achievement Authority is that when financial benefactors or members of our state government came to visit, the entire school transformed. Schedules were altered, often on the fly, to accommodate the visitors’ schedules. Kids ate lunch […]

The best government corporatist money can buy I have confirmation from two independent sources in the Michigan legislature that multi-millionaire Dick DeVos is using the threat of massive financial support for Republican primary opponents of vulnerable Senate Republicans to force them to vote for the bill that would expand the Education Achievement Authority statewide. The same approach was used to […]

Eastern Michigan University is under increasing pressure from public education advoctates, its own faculty and student body, and from former students to end its partnership with Governor Snyder’s failed education experiment on Detroit students known as the Education Achievement Authority. I have published open letters to the EMU Regents HERE and HERE The impact is being felt. There are now […]

In a shocking development few saw coming, Education Achievement Authority Chancellor John Covington quit his job this morning to take a new position at a university somewhere in Illinois. Some EAA staffers have suspected Covington was interviewing for other jobs over the past few weeks. “He’s never around the office anymore,” said one EAA office staffer. “And he’s been out […]

Earlier this week, I published an open letter to the Regents of Eastern Michigan University who made the decision to partner with the Education Achievement Authority, Governor Rick Snyder’s failed education experiment on Detroit’s children. In it, he admonished the Regents for betraying the history and legacy and mission of EMU by supporting an education model that relies on untrained, […]

“Your support for the EAA is a black-mark on this university’s history” Yesterday, Eastern Michigan University’s Board of Regents met and, as part of the meeting, they took public comments. Below is the commentary of Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the EMU Special Education Department, Steve Camron. It does a fantastic job of outlining why EMU’s partnership with Governor […]