Senator Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair), Chair of the Senate Education Committee, has published an excellent guest editorial viewpoint in support of the Michigan Merit Curriculum in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press. Sen. Pavlov understands that high expectations and rigorous standards are just what our students need in order to compete in a 21st century global economy. Click here to download his column.
MDE on Common Core “Myths”
The Michigan Department of Education has produced an informational piece to address some of the more common “Myths” about the Common Core State Standards being circulated by ill-informed opponents. Click here to download this 2 page flyer.
Gerson Slaps Conservatives on Common Core
Michael Gerson, op-ed columinist for The Washington Post, takes on conservatives who oppose the Common Core State Standards as ill-informed and off base. Gerson is a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign, a visiting Fellow with the Center for Public Justice, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as a senior policy advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000-2006. Please click here to read his editorial.
Education Expert Explains Why Michigan Charter Model Works
Michael Van Beek, Education Policy Director at The Mackinac Center, was published in the May 18, 2013 edition of The Wall Street Journal for his Op-Ed demonstrating recent data showing the success of Michigan’s public charter schools. Click here to download the column.
GLEP Supports Common Core
A Guest Editorial Viewpoint supporting the Common Core State Standards, written by Jim Barrett, GLEP Chairman, was published by The Mackinac Center on May 16, 2013. Please click here to download the column.
Michigan Common Core school standards face political headwinds in GOP
Tim Skubick, MLive, May 15, 2013 at 6:30 AM
“I’m concerned about control coming from the federal government.”
Many moons ago, the quality of education you got in a Michigan school was pretty much determined by your ZIP code. One in Bloomfield Hills brought decidedly better schooling than one in Ontonogan – no offense to the good folks up there.
Then lawmakers, fearing the courts might stick their judicial nose into this inequity, got off their behinds and labored to raise up the lower schools with more state aid while financially sitting on the really good schools until the others caught up. Continue reading
The Conservative Case for the Common Core
There is significant debate over adopting and implementing the Common Core State Standards for public education in Michigan. The attached piece walks through the background of the CCSS from a conservative perspective. Please click here to download this document.
A fantastic read about a broken system. MPSERS must be reformed.
It’s becoming a tired drumbeat, but if you want to know what’s crippling traditional public schools, the answer is relatively simple: legacy costs.
How many times have we heard that before? Struggling cities, the automakers and many other entities all have the same refrain about the difficulty of managing expenses while paying the appropriate amount into their pension funds and keeping up with the promises they made in the past to cover retirees’ health expenses each year.
But the weight of the problem is now landing like a load of bricks on school districts. Because of the way their financing is structured, schools provide a very clear demonstration of the problem — and the way elected officials in Lansing are contributing to it.
Four new charter schools to open in Metro Detroit this fall
Detroit Innovation Academy and University YES Academy East will open in Detroit, Starr Detroit Academy will open in Harper Woods and the Academy of International Studies will open in Hamtramck. Click here to read the article at MLive.com.