This Education Brought to You By...

by: greentuna

Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 13:28:30 PM EDT

Donna Brazile to Headline Michigan Policy Summit... REGISTER TODAY!

by: sweetfeetpete

Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 13:52:58 PM EDT

Political strategist calls first-ever event cutting edge, creative and crucial

Organizers for the first-ever Michigan Policy Summit announced today that political strategist Donna Brazile, will deliver the keynote address for the event on Sept. 8 in Lansing.  The event is being organized by Michigan’s progressive community and will be held at the Lansing Center from 9:00am time to 4:00pm. The press and the public are invited.

“Michigan’s progressive community is honored to have Donna Brazile at our inaugural summit,” said Lynn Jondahl, Executive Director of the Michigan Prospect and former gubernatorial candidate. “We look forward to gaining insight from this extremely talented strategist on ways to get our state and nation back on the right track and to make sure government is working for people and not just the powerful special interests.”

The Michigan Policy Summit is an unprecedented gathering of the state’s progressive community to examine ways labor, environment and social justice groups can come together to move Michigan forward.  The summit will provide forums on key issues facing the state as well as opportunities for leaders to network and share ideas and best practices. 

Radio Address: Education Milestones

by: TheConversation

Thu Jun 14, 2007 at 16:26:33 PM EDT

For the podcast of Governor Granholm's weekly radio address, click here.

This is Governor Jennifer Granholm.

With summer right around the corner, students across the state are finishing school. My daughter is graduating from high school this year and going on to college - I cannot believe how quickly she's grown up.

This has been a big year for my family, and we aren't the only ones. Families across Michigan are celebrating high school, middle school, and elementary school graduations.

And this has also been a big year for Michigan education and a watershed year for our economic future as a state.

For the first time, our high school graduates will be eligible to receive the Michigan Promise scholarship. This $4,000 scholarship can pay for college or technical training for every child in Michigan. And it is another step towards ensuring that every student is prepared for the knowledge based economy.

Eighth graders who are graduating from middle school this year will be the first class of Michigan students to benefit from our new, rigorous high school curriculum standards. Every student in Michigan will now be required to complete a rigorous set of courses including four years of math, three years of science, four years of English, a foreign language, an online learning experience, the arts-subjects that are critical to the new jobs we are creating in our economy.

I'm also very proud that Michigan is the first state in the nation to require all students to have that online learning experience-the computer technology that allows learning to take place anywhere and anytime. By learning this new way, our students will have a leg up when they enter the workforce.

Together, these requirements move Michigan to the front of the pack for preparing our students to go on to college and to succeed in the jobs of the future.

And, our rising seniors in high school, who have got just one year until graduation, have completed an important milestone, as well. Earlier in the spring, every Michigan high school junior took the ACT, a college admissions exam. That means for the first time every student in Michigan will know if they've got what it takes to go on to college.

Economists and experts across the country agree that education is the single most effective strategy for stoking a state's economic growth. That means we all must create a culture of learning that is unprecedented in Michigan's history.

And we're making progress. The kids in Michigan public schools today are better prepared than ever before: we're improving their curriculum, we're pushing them all to shoot for college, and we're making sure that college and technical training are affordable and accessible for every Michigan student.

These steps are laying a strong foundation for our economic future, and our investment in education now will help ensure that Michigan is the best place in the world for us and our kids to live, learn and earn.

Thank you for listening.

We're not in Cadillac anymore, Toto!

by: LiberalLucy

Thu May 17, 2007 at 08:17:05 AM EDT

Just yesterday, while the Senate Republicans were plundering Michigan's K-12 Educational Funding, otherwise known as Senate Bills 436 and 437, Sen. Michelle McManus (R- Lake Leelanau) let this beauty drop -

As I watch this body, it reminds me of a very familiar movie that I watched while I was a child. It was called "The Wizard of Oz." I'm sure you've heard of it. I'm sure you're familiar with it. As I watch everything that's been happening the last couple of months, I can't stop but to see some very familiar characters, characters in this room, characters in the executive branch, and certainly some characters in the House.

Now here in the Senate, we have the brains to pass a very reasonable package of spending reductions to balance this budget this particular year, not once but twice.

In the House they haven't always seen the right path to make the best decisions, but certainly their hearts are in the right place because they've wanted to vote for different particular items that the Governor has put forth.

Of course, then, there is the Governor. I won't characterize what particular character I think she could portray in "The Wizard of Oz," but I would only say that I would hope that she could find some courage in a decent amount of time to make the very tough decisions which need to be made for this state...

*emphasis added*

Did I mention that The Wicked Witch of the North McManus is the Republican Assistant Majority Leader?

Good people of the 35th Senate District, you have our sympathies.

Cheer cheer for ol' Macomb U.

by: Slouching Toward Youngstown

Tue Apr 24, 2007 at 12:33:21 PM EDT

Of course building a new university isn't so much about education as it is about construction contracts and patronage. So if a new university for Macomb means higher tuition across the board, let's just tell Michigan students to bend over and take it without a stick of butter. Budget cuts, you know.

From Gongwer:

  Ms. Granholm said an important aspect of the commission's findings was that the residents of Macomb County "get it" in terms of the importance of higher education to economic development and the need to have a university respond to those needs.

  As commission chair, Judge George Steeh, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, said, "Residents throughout Macomb County voiced a compelling need for greater opportunities to earn college degrees locally and strong support for a four-year university."

http://slouchingtowa...

Friday Coffee Talk/Open Thread

by: BZP

Fri Apr 13, 2007 at 06:18:51 AM EDT

• DNews: Gov: Tax hike or school cut
  If we don't raise more revenue, we're talking about cuts in the ballpark of $125/student. Ouch. But wait... look over there! Michigan pays more in taxes than New Jersey! Everybody freak out!
• DNews: Michigan students won't get iPods; lawmakers will repay Apple for trip
  Rep. Tim Melton: "'Let me be clear -- there is no plan for an iPod for every kid... There never was such a plan." Oh, and another thing... the dems who went to California are going to repay Apple for the trip out of their own pockets, which is more than former Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson did when he took trips to visit Apple in 2002 and 2003. Okay, can we stick a fork in this story now?
• GR Press: City, schools may be sued over contract policy
  This is what Proposal 2 hath wrought.
• Among the Trees: Arnold the Concern Troll
  Ah-nold has declared himself one of the "big environmentalists." That's a bit of a stretch, but as much as I agree with Eric here, Schwarzenegger is still miles ahead of global warming deniers like Joe Knollenberg.
• Lessenberry: Essay: Budget Balancing
  Nails it, as always: "You might want to ask what kind of state you want to live in, and whether clutching your tax cut in your cave is really what you want. Frankly, I have lived in an era of good public schools, responsible government and smallpox vaccinations, and it worked." Listen to Lessenberry's interview with Bob Emerson about the budget here.
• City Pulse: Lansing arts organizations feel April grant freeze
  If and when we "fix" this budget crisis, Michigan is going to be a lot less fun to live in.
• City Pulse: First gentleman takes the lead with new book
  FYI: Dan Mulhern will be appearing at Schuler Books & Music in Lansing's Eastwood Towne Center on Monday, April 16.
• Conservative Media: It takes one to know one
  Ann Coulter, Don Imus. Pot, kettle, black.

Dawson Bell Responds (but just raises more questions)

by: Brainwrap

Thu Apr 12, 2007 at 11:22:45 AM EDT

(cross-posted at D4MD.org and dKos)

In light of the amazing $23 iPod deal that the State Democrats supposedly finagled with Apple, I wrote Dawson Bell at the Detroit Free Press to find out how I, too, could qualify for a 70%+ discount on my next iPod purchase.  To his credit, Dawson Bell responded pretty quickly, though his response didn't exactly help his case:

ACT NOW: Save the Michigan Model for Health!

by: EL*Liberal

Wed Mar 21, 2007 at 11:55:19 AM EDT

We all know that state programs and services have been cut to the bone and beyond.

Few of the remaining options for resolving the budget deficit will be painless.

Whatever the Governor presents on Thursday will undoubtedly include cuts that will make us all wince and squirm?and then there are some cuts that we simply CANNOT accept.

One of those cuts likely to be proposed that is beyond the pale is the elimination of the Michigan Model for Health.  Never heard of it?  That's not surprising, but in all likelihood you or your children benefit from this program each and every day.

Read below the fold to find out how you can help TODAY!!!

You Get What You Pay For

by: Cordelia Lear

Thu Jan 25, 2007 at 02:27:06 AM EST

We have to save Michigan. Raising revenues is absolutely necessary if we are to keep the essential services going that will allow the state to continue to be a decent place to live. The state has been cutting taxes, often irresponsibly, for years, thanks to selfishness, greed and cracked-brain ideologies.

Taxes sound terrible, I admit. We've been brainwashed to think they are always bad. But what do you think pays for the water that makes the toilet flush? What do you think paved the freeways and paid to teach you how to read this column? Taxes, that's what.

It's not just the water, it's the infrastructure to get it to your house and make sure it's safe to drink when it comes out of the tap. Remember what happened in Walkerton, Ontario several years ago? Provincial Premier Mike Harris and his Tory Party were in a tax cut race.

Between tax cuts, privatization and cronyism, the water became not only unsafe, but deadly. Seven people died, over 2000 others were sick and every house and business in Walkerton was disrupted, in some cases for over a year.

A Twofer for Jennifer

by: jmgear

Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 11:42:40 AM EST

Boost high schoolers' health:

http://insidehighere...