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Sat, 05/10/2014 - 2:13pm — MIPFS Staff

MIPFS Executive Director receives human rights award

PAA Board of Directors Member honored

Steven Norton, executive director of Parents Across America affiliate Michigan Parents for Schools, and member of the PAA Board of Directors, was the 2014 recipient of the David McMahon Human Rights Award given by the Michigan Education Association. The McMahon award is given annually to recognize "individuals or groups outside the MEA which distinguish themselves by courageously accepting the challenge of moral and ethical leadership in the field of human and civil rights."

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Tue, 04/22/2014 - 11:36pm — Steven Norton

Senate weighing school takeover bill

After a bruising vote in the House, the Michigan Senate is slated to take up the latest version of HB 4369, the state school takeover bill. Most people, including us, have been calling this the "EAA bill," but that's a misnomer. The latest version of the bill doesn't even mention the Education Achievement Authority by name, though it would allow the EAA to continue operating and even expand.

What the bill does do, however, is to cement in place a state school takeover system originally rushed into law over four years ago in a desperate attempt to win a share of Federal "race to the top" funding. (We didn't get any.) At the time, everyone agreed that the provisions being rushed into law were less than half-baked, and lawmakers promised to re-visit the provisions and replace them with sound policy. Naturally, that never happened.

But the EAA is still an important part of this story, mainly because of the lessons it - and other examples of state intervention - should have taught us about what happens under state takeover. What are some of those lessons?

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Mon, 03/24/2014 - 12:42am — Steven Norton

Now for another episode of "Lansing Knows Best!"

House Bill 4369 (the "EAA expansion bill") passed the state House of Representatives late last Thursday. After close to two hours of maneuvering and floor speeches, it passed by the thinnest of margins: 56-54. The bill now goes back to the Senate either for its approval or for more changes.

Why is this legislation so important - and so dangerous? This bill is not just about the EAA - in fact, the EAA is not even mentioned by name in the document (though it does allow the EAA to continue and expand). Its impact would be much more sweeping if it becomes law.

This legislation would enshrine state takeover as the best and (nearly) only way to "help" students in struggling schools. On top of that, the bill opens the door for many different organizations to run such schools on behalf of the state - they might be like the EAA (because that has gone so well), or they might be for-profit charter management companies. Both the Governor and the state Superintendent have said they want more "options" for state takeover. That should make us all feel much better.

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Mon, 01/27/2014 - 3:53pm — Steven Norton

"One rogue school board member"

This is how a legislator described a close colleague and dear friend of mine: "one rogue school board member." The school board member in question is Elizabeth Welch Lykins, trustee of the East Grand Rapids Public Schools, committed proponent of strong public education, and member of the MIPFS board of directors. Though she was not singled out by name, every person knew who was being described.

"One rogue school board member." The phrase itself is designed to belittle and marginalize. But it fails in that attempt, because it is so disconnected from the truth.

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Sun, 12/15/2013 - 5:02pm — Steven Norton

A Parent Proposal to Assist Struggling Schools

h3. Strategies to turn around troubled schools need to address specific local challenges and be owned by the local school and district community h4.
With the recent push to pass a bill on the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) "before the winter 2013 legislative break":http://www.miparentsforschools.org/node/205, it's more important than ever that parents start talking about real alternatives that work. For the last year, MIPFS has worked with parent groups, educational leaders and lawmakers to develop a positive program that will actually help struggling schools. This article outlines our proposal. Existing law does not provide enough assistance to local schools in diagnosing and solving their difficulties. To compound the problem, the law provides for complete state takeover as the only remedy for schools which fail to improve. The parents’ alternative is based on these core ideas: * Any effective school improvement strategy must focus on the particular circumstances of the school or district that is a candidate for intervention, and be tailored to address local needs and shortcomings. * Diagnosis of educational problems is best done by experienced and disinterested specialists, but the solutions to those problems will be most durable if they are hammered out and implemented by all relevant stakeholder groups. * Unilateral state intervention must be a last resort, and must be focused solely on implementing the changes identified as necessary in the independent review. * The goal of state intervention for school improvement is not to take over management of the school but to identify and see implemented educational and organizational changes, which are critical to the long-term growth of student achievement.
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Sat, 06/15/2013 - 4:28pm — Steven Norton

Who has "fact issues"?

h4. Gov. Rick Snyder claims that that he and his administration have been investing in kids, that there has been "no reduction" in state support for K-12 education. He says that "it's not about partisanship, let's just do the right thing." We agree with those sentiments: support for strong, community-governed public education should not be a partisan issue, and we should definitely "do the right thing." We're still waiting for the governor to propose, and the legislature to pass, a budget that does right by the children of Michigan. Gov. Snyder then goes on to say that people who argue he's been cutting K-12 education "have fact issues." But it is the governor's facts which need a second look. *Bottom line: Gov. Snyder's budgets took advantage of the depth of the recession to dig the hole even deeper in the first year to accomplish business tax cuts and other changes, allowing the weak recovery in subsequent years to look much better by comparison - but only if you ignore what things were like before or what things might have been like today had different choices been made. Between the end of earmarked school aid revenue from the Michigan Business Tax, and the diversion of funds to pay for colleges and universities, K-12 schools lost over $1.1 billion, or nearly $740 per pupil, each year because of the changes Gov. Snyder pushed through in 2011.*
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Thu, 05/30/2013 - 2:31pm — Steven Norton

When did we become the enemy?

h3. MIPFS and affiliated groups' statement on the latest "skunk works" revelations The evidence is piling up that the Snyder administration was closely involved in the effort to construct an alternative "education" system whose top priority is to minimize public school costs, not improve education. According to emails obtained by the _Detroit News,_ top advisers to Gov. Snyder helped put the so-called "skunk works" group together or approved of its creation as early as September 2012. *From the parent perspective, one of the most disturbing discoveries was a statement by Gov. Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore. "Frankly, there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing the education community in a fratz," Muchmore wrote not long after the "skunk works" story first broke.* *Thousands of parents, educators, and other concerned citizens who care about quality public education expressed their outrage at the secrecy and narrow vision of the "skunk works" project. Since when did we become the enemy? What kind of distorted lens must members of the Snyder administration be using that they see in concerned parents an opponent to be overcome rather than a constituency to be heard?*
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Thu, 05/23/2013 - 5:30am — Steven Norton

Action alert: stop vouchers for vendors!

Stop "vouchers for vendors" - let's not make the same mistake as Louisiana!

Dear friends,

The Legislature is in the final days of setting the school aid budget for next year. Parents and other supporters of public education from around Michigan have been saying loud and clear that we want resources to support our local public schools and not be diverted to pet projects or questionable initiatives.

But there is one section of the budget that should worry every Michigander. In his proposed budget, the Governor added a new section that doesn't directly spend any money but has the potential to cost our schools a great deal. This section, Section 21f, would require every school district to allow their students to take two fully online courses per semester.

That doesn't sound too bad, does it? But wait - our school districts will have to pay for the courses, but they don't get to approve who provides the courses or whether the class is rigorous enough to count for academic credit. In some versions of the budget proposal, our schools even have to pay the full amount up front, even if the student doesn't finish. Even better, some versions say that it's the online provider, not the school, which gets to decide if a student has finished and earned credit.
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Mon, 05/13/2013 - 10:36pm — Steven Norton

What's up with road funding and schools?

Why will funding roads take money from schools?
So, what's up with roads and schools?
 
Dear Friends,

First off, let me thank the hundreds of you who have already contacted your State Representatives about road funding and the threat to our schools. Your message is important and is getting through.

Many people have asked for a bit more information about this whole deal - and I certainly understand, because it's somewhat complicated. I'm reprinting our earlier action alert below, but let me sketch out what is happening on this issue:
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Tue, 05/07/2013 - 2:46pm — Steven Norton

Open letter to Sec. Arne Duncan

h4. We released this open letter on the occasion of US Education Secretary Arne Duncan's visit to southeast Michigan. Sec. Duncan visited two schools in Detroit, one of them an EAA school, and the Perry Child Development Center in Ypsilanti. Our letter points out the conflict between the educational values Sec. Duncan has espoused, and which are the foundation of Perry's High/Scope model, and the urgent direction of education policy in Michigan.
Open Letter to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan Dear Secretary Duncan, On behalf of Michigan parents and others concerned about public education here, I would like to welcome you to our state. Michigan is home to some of the best ideas and programs in education as well as some of the most serious challenges our schools, and communities, face. We welcome your effort to learn more about the hopes we cherish and the obstacles we confront in our local efforts to educate our children. Unfortunately, I fear that your tour may leave you with an incorrect impression of what is in fact happening in our state. The current direction of state policy is not to offer an excellent education to all children. Instead, key Michigan policy makers have adopted an extremely narrow and barren notion of "education" and have focused on how to deliver it at the lowest cost possible. These proposals take us in precisely the wrong direction.
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