Alert Flash: Your voices are being heard on EAA bill
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 — Steven Norton
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| FLASH - The pressure is working! Help stop the EAA "state takeover" bill in committee! | ||
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Friends,
To all of you who have sent messages regarding HB 6004 - the EAA or "state takeover" bill: Thank You!!
For those of you who haven't yet had a chance to contact your State Representative, the time is NOW. (Want background? Read our first message on the bill.)
The House Education Committee met this morning, but they did not take a vote on HB 6004. Apparently, they had not yet agreed on a revised version ("substitute" in Legislative lingo) that had enough votes to pass.
Representatives were hesitant to support the bill, in large part because they were hearing from their constituents about how destructive this bill, and other related measures, would be.
Now the House Education Committee is meeting again tomorrow (Thursday) morning, where we presume they will try to pass HB 6004 out of committee.
Your voice is having an impact - now is the time to ramp it up!
So we're reprinting an alert sent out by other supporters of public education. I think it speaks for itself, and it's useful too!
House Bill 6004 and Senate Bill 1358 must be stopped, and we need your help to stop them!!!! The bills would create a Governor-controlled Education Achievement Authority (EAA) that would usurp our local control and kill public education as we know it. We should be focusing on proven quality education reform, not setting up a system of "haves" and "have nots" that will make all of our state's children one large experiment. The following representatives sit on the House Education Committee, and your phone call could sway them to oppose the EAA--please call and tell them to stop the experiment and VOTE NO ON HB 6004:
Rep. Thomas Hooker (Maj. Vice Chair) (517) 373-2277 Rep. Jon Bumstead (517) 373-7317 Rep. Hugh Crawford (517) 373-0827 Rep. Ray Franz (517) 373-0825 Rep. Kurt Heise (517) 373-3816 Rep. Aric Nesbitt (517) 373-0839 Rep. Margaret O'Brien (517) 373-1774 Rep. Amanda Price (517) 373-0838 Rep. Deb Shaughnessy (517) 373-0853 Rep. Ken Yonker (517) 373-0840 One more thing
It's not often that I read a message from a school superintendent like the one issued today by Bloomfield Hills super Rob Glass. Here are some key sections:
"A package of bills designed to corporatize and dismantle public education is being hastily pushed through this current ‘lame duck’ legislative session. If we do not take immediate action, I believe great damage will be done to public education, including our school system....
"I’ve never considered myself a conspiracy theorist—until now. This package of bills is the latest in a yearlong barrage of ideologically-driven bills designed to weaken and defund locally-controlled public education, handing scarce taxpayer dollars over to for-profit entities operating under a different set of rules. I believe this is fundamentally wrong.... We must never stop improving. This is not a laissez faire plea to defend the status quo. This is about making sure this tidal wave of untested legislation does not sweep away the valued programs our local community has proudly built into its cherished school system." [Read the full message here.]
Powerful words - and coming from a community you might expect would feel insulated from all this. But that's the point: all of us are affected, or will be, if these measures become law. We need to say NO, and that time is NOW!
Together, we can make a difference!
Steve Norton
Executive Director
Michigan Parents for Schools |
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