Former state House Representative Paul Scott earned a reputation during his time in office as one of the most anti-teacher legislators in Michigan. In his position as the Chair of the House Education Committee, he oversaw some of the most egregious attacks on teachers since Republicans swept into power following the 2010 election. It was bad enough that, eventually, Scott […]

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, […]

CorporationsFirst

The move by Michigan Republicans to tie teacher pay to their students scores on statewide tests is being portrayed by the corporatist, anti-teachers’ union group StudentsFirst as a system to “reward excellent teachers”. The recently sent out a deceptive email encouraging people sign a petition to support these bills which are simply an effort to depress teacher salaries even further.

Click through to see the deceptive email.

Fearlessly leading from the rear… After the Republican-led Michigan legislature passed S.B. 59 – the so-called guns-in-schools-and-daycares bill — the Huffington Post asked anti-teachers union group StudentsFirst if they supported this legislation that would allow the carrying of concealed weapons in schools. It’s a fair question, right? If they truly DO put students first, a dubious claim at best given […]

After spending scads of money to defeat the recall of Paul Scott, a recall backed financially by the Michigan Education Association (MEA), Michigan’s teachers union, suddenly Michelle Rhee’s anti-teachers union group StudentsFirst wants to play kissy-face with them. From their recent press release: StudentsFirst Vice President of Communications Hari Sevugan sent a letter to Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook […]

Hoo boy, talk about putting lipstick on a pig. This is from Ben Smith at Politico, via a memo from Michelle Rhee’s anti-teacher organization StudentsFirst that spent an enormous amount of money on trying to keep Paul Scott from getting recalled last week: In Michigan, Rep. Paul Scott was targeted for recall by the Michigan Education Association because of his […]

I have a new piece up at A2Politico where I look at the Michigan Republicans attacks on teachers in our state. I also look at how, although teachers are fighting back, politically-speaking, they are also working hard to make things better for our schools, particularly the ones facing the biggest challenges. Teachers unions are also working to help poorly-performing districts […]