House and Senate Bills that are still "out there"

The following House and Senate bills are still not "dead". Some of them were proposed last winter and spring, but remain in committee. This does not mean they can not be revived.

Although many bills have been passed that have been harmful to our profession and NOT AT ALL about better education, the efforts of our members to contact their legislatures have helped to modify some of the most damaging parts of some of this legislation, including the removal of the teacher privatization language that was part of the original charter schools bill. Your contacts have also helped to stall the progress of other legislation.

We can not give up yet! I include the list below as a an opportunity for you to tune your ears into legislation that may require you to again act!

As always, thank you for your work through emails and phone calls in lobbying for what is good for Michigan schools, children, and employees.

HB 4306 – Pending on House Floor
Requires school districts to solicit bids to outsource certain support services.

SB 729 – Pending in Committee
“Right to Work for Less” for MEA members only.

Senate Joint Resolution B – Pending in Committee
Calls for salary reduction and temporary pay freeze for public employees.

HB 4140 – Pending in Committee
Allows for statewide public employee health care plan.

SB 593 – Pending in Committee
Creates a defined contribution retirement plan for all school employees hired after 7/1/2011.

HB 4420 – Pending in Committee
Removes community colleges from the MPSERS retirement system.

HB 4052 – Pending on the House floor
Ban use of taxpayer funded equipment and facilities for union or political activities.

HB 4059 – Passed House, Pending in Senate Committee
Prohibits public employer contracts that pay union officials for conducting union business.

HB 4466 – Pending on House Floor
Changes provisions concerning striking public employees (increased fines, group rather than individual fines).

HB 4929 – Passed House, Pending in Senate Committee
Prohibits public employers from collecting union dues.

HB 5023 – Pending in Committee
Expands the list of employees subject to penalties for striking.

HB 5024 – Pending in Committee
Prohibits mass picketing and sets fines on individuals and unions for violations

HB 5025 – Pending in Committee
Requires annual authorization by employees to have union dues deducted from their paychecks by the employers.

HB 5026 – Pending in Committee
Repeals the prohibition against advertising for strikebreakers (scabs).

SB 619 – Passed the Senate, pending in House Committee
Removes all controls and caps on cyber schools.

SB 620 – Pending on the Senate floor.
Creates “conversion charter schools.”

SB 621 – Passed the Senate, pending in House Committee
Expands list of schools that can provide service to students in private schools and receive state aid.

SB 622\SB 623 – Passed the Senate, pending in House Committee
Removes all limits on ability of students to attend college level courses while in high school

SB 624 – Pending in Senate Committee
Bill mandates schools of choice.

Cyber School Bill - ACTION NEEDED!!

Attention Members,

On Wednesday, Jan. 18 @ 9:00 AM, it appears that the House Education Committee will be voting on SB# 619, which proposes unlimited cyber schools. If this bill is passed out of committee, it goes to the House floor. SB#619 has already passed the Senate. It is one of Governor Snyder’s NUMBER #1 priorities for 2012!

Michigan has 2 cyber schools which have just completed 1 yr. of a 2 year "experiment." Neither of these 2 schools passed AYP -Adequate Yearly Progress. In fact, the Michigan Virtual Academy received a warning letter that they were far below AYP.

Other states that have already implemented unlimited cyber schools are beginning to report that laws allowing caps to be lifted on these online schools are appearing to be nothing more than a giant siphoning of public money by corporations who back the cyber enterprises. And, just as Michigan is finding, the results of the instruction are not acceptable.

WRITE or CALL the House Education Committee TODAY and tell them to vote NO on SB 619 that lifts the cap on Cyber Schools.

Tell them that:
1) Cyber schools are not proving to be effective education
2) Cyber schools are just a way for corporations to take public money meant for public schools
3) While computer instruction is a great tool of education, it needs to be utilized as an addendum of a live teacher’s instruction;

WRITE OR CALL NOW! Please use your own phone and home email!

Tim McMillon – R - House Education Chair
Email: TomMcMillin@house.mi.gov
Phone: (517) 373-1773
Toll Free: (866) 969-0450

Thomas B. Hooker – R – Majority Vice Chair
Email: ThomasHooker@house.mi.gov
Phone: (517) 373-2277
Toll Free: (855) 866-4077

Kurt Heise – R – Plymouth
Email: KurtHeise@house.mi.gov
Phone: (517) 373-3816
Toll Free: (855) 737-5878 [855-REP-KURT]

Lisa Brown (D) is this area’s representative on the House Education Committee.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!!!!! BILL WAS PASSED

The House of Representative passed SB 618 late evening today......there will be a cap of 300 in 2013, 500 in 2014, and unlimited thereafter.


It now looks like the Michigan House will vote on SB 618 (the Charter School bill) this week; perhaps as soon as tomorrow. There are several Repbulican representatives who do not agree with this bill that lifts the cap on charter schools in Michigan, but they are reportedly under extreme pressure to vote in favor of this bill.

Email or call your state representative right away. Contact information can be found at http://msg4svc.net/cdhgi/430108/45/95024/3132/0/S/0/0/wqsy.html .

Here’s what to say:

Urge them to vote "No" on SB 618.

1)Tell them that unchecked expansion of charter schools will hurt your district and your students by siphoning even more resources away from your neighborhood schools.

2)Tell them that the research conducted on charter schools by independent experts, including Western Michigan University’s Gary Miron, demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools.

3)Tell them that this bill’s lack of requirements for charter schools to meet the same accountability and transparency standards is totally unacceptable to you as an educator and as a citizen of Michigan who pays taxes that support public education.

WRITE your MI House Representative TODAY!!!

1)The research conducted on charter schools by independent experts – including Western Michigan University’s nationally-recognized charter school researcher, Gary Miron – demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools.
2)Publicly paid tax monies should not be spent on “for profit” companies that want to siphon off funds that should go to public schools. A public school’s profit is the children and their education.
3)The legislature needs to focus their efforts on providing the necessary support for all schools to provide what research says will yield the greatest results for our children: small class sizes, more and better teacher training, greater parental involvement and adequate resources, supplies and tools for student learning.

4)Increasing the number of charter schools should only come with the requirement for the same accountability and transparency standards that is expected of public schools. SB 618’s minor improvements in charter accountability do nothing to outweigh the unrestricted expansion of charter programs.

A letter from MEA regarding CHARTER SCHOOL Performance

I am publishing to the blog today a letter that was written by the president of the MEA, Steve Cook. Please take a few minutes to read it as it outlines the research done on charter schools and the truth behind their performance in this state over the last 20 years. President Cook has sent this letter to every representative in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Dear Representative:

I am writing you to reiterate the position of the Michigan Education Association regarding Senate Bill 618, which is currently awaiting action on the House floor.

The MEA continues to oppose SB 618, along with the rest of the Senate’s so-called “education reform” package (SBs 618-624, 709-710). As a whole, these bills are a collection of unproven concepts that do not help our neighborhood schools provide a better education to all students.

Of particular concern in SB 618 is the unlimited expansion of charter schools through removal of the charter school cap. The premise behind charter schools was that through the innovation and creativity they could achieve, charters would not only be successful in and of themselves, but also help neighborhood schools improve. But that simply hasn’t come to pass through our 20-year experiment with charter schools.

The research conducted on charter schools by independent experts – including Western Michigan University’s nationally-recognized charter school researcher, Gary Miron – demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools. While some high-performing charters may outperform their neighborhood counterparts, that is the exception, not the rule – and the lessons they are learning in those quality charters are not translating to traditional neighborhood schools, either through collaboration or competition.

A cursory glance would reveal that a list of schools deemed to be failures in the early 1990s, when charter and choice experiments began, are still deemed to be failures in the eyes of most observers. The competition created through these experiments on our students has failed to produce any broad, meaningful improvement in the education available to all children or in the operation of school districts.

Since our support of the McPherson Commission’s recommendations in 2002, MEA’s position on charter schools has been consistent – increasing the number of charter schools should only come in concert with an increase in the accountability and transparency standards for those charters. SB 618’s minor improvements in charter accountability do nothing to outweigh the unrestricted expansion of charter programs, often run by for-profit entities that siphon even more resources away from our neighborhood schools.

MEA urges you to vote no on SB 618. Rather than focusing on expansion of unproven concepts, we hope you’ll look to provide the necessary support for all schools to provide what research says will yield the greatest results for our children: small class sizes, more and better teacher training, greater parental involvement and adequate resources, supplies and tools for student learning.

Sincerely,

Steven B. Cook, President Michigan Education Association

House Educ. Committee votes to lift caps on Charter Schools without requiring many of the same requirements placed upon public schools.

After being on vacation for 2 weeks, today the House Education Committee approved the House version of Senate Bill 0618. This was the bill that was part of the Senate Education Reform Package proposed earlier in the fall (please check earlier blog posts for more information). SB 0618 is the piece of the package of bills that lifts the cap on charter schools that can be authorized by community colleges and state universities. Michigan already has the sixth-highest number of charter schools in the nation. The bill’s critics have also noted that the bill places no controls on quality nor requires many of the mandates enforced on public schools, despite receiving public money.

Democrats offered more than 15 amendments and only one was approved. Those shot down included:

1) requiring charters to provide transportation,

2) requiring operators to show "demonstrated performance" before opening new charters,

3) reducing charter authorizers' profits,

4) putting reporting language back in for cyber schools,

5) requiring any new charter school authorized by a school district to recognize the collective bargaining agreement that

applies to other employees of the chartering district

6) and limiting where charters can locate.

I have “bolded” some of the most detrimental pieces that were EXCLUDED from the bill.

a) Why shouldn’t a charter school have to prove their performance before being allowed to open more charter schools?

b) Why should chartering agencies be allowed to make a profit from public tax monies?

c) Why shouldn’t cyber schools be required to report student achievement just as public schools must

d) If a school district charters a school, the teachers in that school are no longer recognized as union employees and don’t particularly have to receive the same wage as other teachers in that district? Can you imagine how this might be used? Isn’t this just out and out giving the school districts a tool to literally BUST the union? Bust employee rights? Bust and lower employee pay and benefits?

From reports from the MIRS New Agency, the tenor of today’s “hearings” in the House Education Committee were far from being termed civil and once again highlighted the bi-partisanship that dominates our state government to the point of impeding democracy. For example:

1) The House Education Committee has a new chair, who is Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills) and his first order of business was replacing a current Republican committee member, Rep. Holly Hughes of Montague, who has not expressed public support for SB 0618.

2)The following is a direct quote from the MIRS report:

It started with Minority Vice Chair Lisa BROWN (D-Bloomfield Twp.) expressing confusion when McMillin decided not to take up amendments in chronological order.

"Last time I checked, the minority party didn't get to set the agenda," McMillin informed her. McMillin later cut off Rep. Rudy HOBBS (D-Lathrup Village) who was expressing concern about the quality of charter schools. McMillin said that public schools have been failing for years.

That was the last straw for Rep. Doug Geiss (D – Taylor), who blasted McMillin for opining on every amendment and not letting Democrats speak. Geiss suggested that he might want to "pass the gavel on."

Hobbs called the hearing a "charade" and said SB 0618 is "taking a cap off of an experiment. This is not serious deliberation in my view," he declared.

Hobbs and McMillin then scrapped over the Democrat's amendment to have charter operators' information on the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), which failed. This time McMillin accused Hobbs of cutting in on him.
"If your members are going to interrupt me, I'm not going to call on them," McMillin told Brown. Lisa Brown said Hobbs was just trying to explain the bill.

Geiss complained about companies in education just for the profit motive. McMillin said those were "outrageous charges."

The Senate education reform package that still needs to be considered by the House includes legislation lifting the cap on cyber schools, increasing public school opportunities for private and homeschooled students, more opportunities for high schoolers to dual enroll in community colleges and a process for failing public schools to convert to charters.

These will also be considered by the House Education Committee and will soon move to the House floor. These bills have already been passed by the Senate last month and are a part of the GOP’s education reform package and legislative top priorities.

Mackinac Center says lobbying efforts against public sector bargaining "in practical terms means no more MEA"

EAST LANSING, Mich., Nov. 28, 2011 — A Monday story in the Grand Rapids Press brought to light emails between State Representative Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills) and leadership from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, in which the Center’s senior legislative analyst, Jack McHugh, advocates for ending collective bargaining for Michigan’s public sector employees and “in practical terms means no more MEA.”

The emails from early June (available at www.scribd.com/doc/74052346/Mackinac-Center-Emails) show the intense lobbying role the Mackinac Center played earlier this year in the passage of a hard cap on health insurance premiums for public employees. But these emails also clearly show the anti-union, anti-MEA bias that has been a hallmark of the Mackinac Center’s work for years – and the influence they have over politicians like McMillin, who was recently named as the new chair of the House Education Committee.

“The Mackinac Center likes to pretend it’s a non-partisan think tank, but the public deserves to know who they really are and what they really think,” said MEA President Steven Cook. “For years, we’ve been saying that their real agenda is the elimination of collective bargaining rights and the destruction of unions – and now they’ve said it, in black and white.”

The Mackinac Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit that, according to their most recent filings with the IRS, does not engage in lobbying activities. These emails certainly call that assertion into question – something the Center’s deep-pocketed backers should take into account.

“Based only on the limited reporting requirements the Mackinac Center has to follow, we know that foundations representing conservative individuals and corporate special interests have given millions to the Mackinac Center to push policy positions and develop pseudo-science ‘research’ to back up their beliefs,” Cook said. “Politicians who have that faux-research foisted upon them should know what the Center’s real agenda is – and whose interests they’re representing.”

A great example of the questionable quality of Mackinac Center research came earlier this year when a report from the Economic Policy Institute on the economic impacts of so-called “Right to Work” laws highlighted the lack of appropriate social science controls in the Mackinac Center’s research on the topic. The EPI research by Dr. Gordon Lafer (which can be found at www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-michigan-economy), controlled for more than 40 variables that could influence the results – the Mackinac Center’s work controlled for none. Similar debunking of Mackinac Center “research” is done regularly by the Great Lakes Center’s “Think Twice Think Tank Review” project.

“We hope there is a renewed call, in light of the disturbing language in these emails, for more transparency from the Mackinac Center about where their funding comes from and more critical analysis of the policy positions their research points to,” Cook said. “And we sincerely hope that Rep. McMillin and others in the legislature think twice before deferring to the Mackinac Center’s ‘non-partisan’ expertise in the future.”