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MEA President Steve Cook sent a letter Tuesday to all state representatives expressing MEA’s support for House Bills 4465 and 4466, which seek to provide more flexibility and local control for districts in establishing graduation requirements for students.

In the current legislative environment, bills worthy of MEA support can be rare, but sponsors Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, and Joel Johnson, R-Clare, were inclusive of a variety of education stakeholders, including MEA, in developing these bills.

“Aside from our support, I offer our thanks and appreciation for the efforts of Representatives McBroom and Johnson as they ushered this legislation through an exhaustive and transparent process that engaged many different stakeholders in the education community,” Cook wrote in his letter. “Those discussions led to better bills and our ability to support them. MEA continues to stand ready to similarly engage on other education issues with representatives from both sides of the aisle.”

Buena Vista teachers met Monday and decided to continue working this week, even though they learned on Friday that the district had run out of money to pay their salaries on time. Despite the teachers' selfless action, the Buena Vista School Board voted Monday night to lay all of the teachers off.

At an emergency meeting last night, the Buena Vista Board of Education voted to lay off its employees, effective May 31. This action came mere hours after teachers voted to continue working this week, despite having no guarantee when they would get paid for that work by the cash-strapped district.

“Yesterday, we again saw proof that Michigan’s educators put their students first, with the decision by the teachers of the Buena Vista Education Association to continue working this week,” MEA President Steve Cook said. “These dedicated educators wanted what is best for their students — to give their school district and the state the time and assistance necessary to work out a plan to keep school open for this final month of the year.”

“But last night, we yet again saw proof that politicians, administrators and other so-called ‘leaders’ consistently put money first and our kids last,” Cook said. “Faced with a selfless offer of help from their employees to continue working, without the guarantee of a paycheck next payday, Buena Vista’s school board and administration gave up on their students and employees and laid everyone off. “

Ironically, the Buena Vista Board of Education’s move comes during the launch of national Teacher Appreciation Week.

Members of the education community are roundly panning Gov. Snyder’s secret “skunk works” voucher workgroup.

As outrage continues to spread throughout the education community, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan announced Wednesday he is taking over the previously secret education “reform” taskforce established by the Snyder administration and a Mackinac Center official.

Members of Snyder’s administration had been holding secret nighttime meetings with corporations to develop a school voucher plan for Michigan. The group, dubbed “skunk works,” purposefully excluded educators from the discussion in favor of benefitting the information technology corporations that would profit from the scheme.

Earlier this week, Flanagan pulled his staff from the workgroup after realizing its controversial agenda to develop “value schools,” which would replace traditional public schools with a voucher system.

As MEA President Steve Cook explained: “Their goal to create so-called ‘value schools’ would spend less than half what we currently spend to educate a student, putting those remaining meager funds on debit cards for parents and students to purchase their learning – not unlike food stamps. Such schools would use long-distance video conferencing instead of qualified, professional teachers working with students.”

Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration has been holding secret meetings with corporate special interests to develop a plan for introducing school vouchers in Michigan.

Members of Gov. Rick Snyder's administration have been holding secret meetings to develop a school voucher plan for Michigan, the Detroit News revealed Friday in a special investigative report.

The clandestine meetings have been taking place since December, and are being headed by state employees and one of the leaders of the far-right Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The workgroup is developing a "model for K-12 public education with a funding mechanism that resembles school vouchers," the News reported.

School vouchers allow already-dwindling public education funds to be diverted to for-profit private schools, leaving Michigan public school students to struggle with overcrowded classrooms, less instruction and fewer basic supplies like books and pencils.

As is stands, school voucher plans violate the Michigan Constitution, which bans public aid to nonpublic schools. Because vouchers rob kids of the resources they need to succeed, voters overwhelmingly rejected a 2000 constitutional amendment that would have allowed the use of vouchers. Voters rejected a similar proposal in 1978.

It appears the will of the people and the state Constitution matter little to the Snyder administration's secret workgroup, however. The group is hatching a plan under which Michigan would open a number of so-called "value schools," which would replace the instruction students receive from teachers with long-distance video conferencing, the News reported.

Sen. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, told the Detroit Free Press, “I’m not going to punish anybody for something they did legally.”

Penalizing school districts and higher education institutions that negotiated “fair share” agreements with employees prior to the implementation of Michigan’s so-called “right-to-work” law is not on the agenda of Republicans in the Michigan Senate, who this week passed education appropriations bills out of committee without the penalties.

That’s in sharp contrast to the state House, where Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted recently to eliminate grants for K-12 districts, penalize universities by 15 percent and not increase funds for community colleges — all because they followed the law and negotiated in good faith with school employees.

Between last December’s passage of right-to-work and its March 28 effective date, many school districts, colleges and universities negotiated fair share agreements with their employee associations. The agreements require that employees who benefit from union representation pay their fair share toward the cost of representation. Michigan’s new right-to-work law bans fair share agreements, but only for contracts not in place by March 28.

Extremist politicians have relentlessly attacked employers for negotiating fair share agreements, insisting they should have followed a law that wasn’t yet in place. Those attacks have included being called before McCarthy-style committee hearings in Lansing about the agreements, as well as threats of funding cuts for schools or universities that entered into contracts with employees prior to the implementation date.

While Republicans in the House are attempting to follow through on their threats and take away much-needed resources from students and school employees, Republicans in the Senate seem to be taking a more measured and responsible approach to the issue.