Speaking out

We delivered testimony on 20 September to the Senate Education Committee, asking its members not to move forward with charter expansion, new kinds of charters, or teacher privatization.

The bills before the committee would remove the numerical and geographic limits on charter schools, introduce a new kind of charter, the “conversion school,” expand “cyber schools,” and allow schools to privatize their teachers.

MIPFS submitted testimony on 6/21/11 to the state Senate Education Committee opposing the “tenure” bill package, dubbed by its supporters the “Teacher Quality Package.” We were very concerned that the bills would:

• mandate teacher evaluation systems that relied heavily on standardized tests;
• increase the administrative burden on districts while providing no additional resources;
• encourage strapped districts to do teacher evaluation “on the cheap”;
• provide incentives for administrators to hold down the ratings of more senior teachers so that it would be easier to remove them rather than cheaper, less experienced teachers during a reduction in force.
  

Remarks prepared for delivery at Ann Arbor rally on Michigan budget issues, Forsythe Middle School, 15 March 2011

Steven J. Norton, AAPS parent and Executive Director, Michigan Parents for Schools

The weather outside reminds me that our schools are surely our best shelter from the storm we face. A place of safety. A lifeboat, if you will. But for how much longer?

My name is Steve Norton, and I am a parent of two wonderful young kids in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. I’m also an advocate for public education in Michigan, and I was asked to provide the parent perspective today.

But the kind of education I’d like to speak about goes beyond multiplying fractions or constructing an organized paragraph. It has to do with teaching my children about the importance of living as part of a community, of treating every person with respect, and of working with your neighbors to make the community work for everyone. I fear that many of our leaders today in Lansing are offering a very different lesson, and that’s why I’m speaking out here today.

We sent this letter to Chmn. Cushingberry, other members of the House Appropriations Committee, Reps. Ebli (Monroe) and Warren (Ann Arbor), and Sens. Brater and Richardville, on April 5th. A copy of the final letter in PDF form is attached to this posting. Dear friends, As you may know, last week the Senate passed a bill, along party lines, that would cut $34 per pupil from school districts' allowances for this year. This and other cuts were part of an attempt by the Senate's Republican majority to close the School Aid Fund deficit of $377 million without any new revenues. While the $34 cut seems small, it is coming so late in the schools' fiscal years that it has the potential to be very destructive -- especially to districts which have little or no reserve.