Commentary

h3. At a meeting in Lansing last Tuesday morning, staffers from the "Center for Michigan":http://thecenterformichigan.net/ presented the results of their year-long series of "community conversations" about education, held all around the state. Three panels of experts, officials and education policy specialists met to talk about the key questions facing public education in Michigan. Among the take-aways: From the community conversations - * Michigan residents gave public schools a mixed review, though they were significantly more positive about their own schools than about Michigan public schools as a whole. * The public is willing to pay more for public education, if the money will be used in a concrete way to improve our schools. * Many key reform initiatives, like increasing educational "choice," are not so high on the list of public priorities. From the panels - * There's broad agreement that preschool available to every child is an important goal - but the way to pay for it is less clear. * There's agreement that it's important for teachers get the schooling, job training, and job feedback they need to constantly improve, and that this task is harder than is often acknowledged. * There are serious and deep disagreements about what kinds of policy measures are needed to improve public schools and how much they should cost. But most noticeable, perhaps, was the extent to which political operatives representing the current policy direction were out of step with the concerns expressed by Michigan citizens.

h3. "Education is not complicated," say some lawmakers. Really? We keep hearing the same confident claim in Lansing: the way to fix struggling schools is to get rid of the adults keeping the kids back - the school administrators, the teachers' unions, the incompetent or corrupt school boards. Sweep them aside, replace them with business-like management and inexperienced but enthusiastic teachers, mix in a little technology, and you will see a miracle. If only it were so. But it is not. The same blind beliefs are behind the bills to expand the Education Achievement Authority statewide after only three months. Not only that, but the changes were forced on the local community rather than being built with them. We cannot rely on management magic or quick fixes to help kids. We need solid strategies, with good track records, and the resources to implement them for the long term. When will we finally have *that* conversation in Michigan?

In January 2012, we had an exchange of press releases with the Michigan Association of Public School Academies over the issue of segregation in charter schools. We remain concerned about this issue and will be reporting on it more in the coming months. In the meantime, we offer up copies of the press releases as an example of how important issues can be used to serve a political agenda.

*The Muskegon Heights "model," where education is turned over to charter schools and the local district remains as a shell to pay off the district's debt, looks to be spreading to Highland Park as well. Is this an omen? What can we do?*