Okay – show of hands…anyone find this shocking? Anyone? Anyone?
READ MORE HERE –
Whitmer Makes Education a Priority
MEA Capitol CommentsGov. Gretchen Whitmer listed education funding along with fixing roads and other infrastructure as the top two priorities facing Michigan policymakers during her first State of the State address on Tuesday night. Everyone can see the terrible condition of the state’s roads, and the average motorist spends $562 per year in car repairs from damage related to crumbling streets and highways – a “road tax that doesn’t even fix the damn roads,” Whitmer said. Less visible is the education crisis confronting Michigan, although numerous studies from a variety of sources in recent years have documented parallels between stagnant or falling student performance indicators and our state’s worst-in-nation school funding decline. Michigan ranks dead last among all states for per-pupil school funding increases since 1994. And over the past 15 years, Michigan students have shown the least improvement in the only assessment directly comparable state-to-state, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. “Let’s be clear,” Whitmer said. “This is not happening because Michigan kids are less talented. It’s not happening because our kids are less motivated. It’s not happening because our educators are less dedicated. It’s happening because generations of leadership have failed them.” |
Beyond the Books: People who regulate charter schools also make millions off them
UTAH – “State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (Dist. 10) is one of the foremost experts on charter schools in the state legislature. That makes sense given that he runs Charter Solutions, a company that from 2015 to 2018 has collected $5.7 million in fees from charter schools.
That is taxpayer money given to those charter schools. As many as 23 different charter schools have hired Fillmore’s company to help them administer their curriculum and take care of back-office activities like payroll and human resources.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS HERE –
MI Gov Whitmer to propose $507M K-12 spending boost
By David Eggert, Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will propose a $507 million increase in state K-12 classroom spending in her first budget, including a $180 boost to the minimum per-student grant and substantial funding hikes to teach Michigan’s low-income, vocational and special education students, according to an overview of the plan obtained by The Associated Press
https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/03/whitmer-to-propose-507m-boost-in-k-12-spending.html
Senators publicly grill ‘Big Pharma’ executives after accepting millions from industry
Tuesday, executives representing some of the nation’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies faced harsh scrutiny from members of the Senate Finance Committee – some of whom have received significant contributions from the industry.
LEARN MORE HERE – https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/senators-grill-big-pharma-executives/
THIS DAY IN HISTORY March 3, 1865: Freedmen’s Bureau Established
ABOVE – Land Order, April 1, 1865 . . . permission is hereby granted to Richard Brown to take possession of and occupy forty acres of land, situated in St. Andrews Parish, Island of James. Source: National Archives. Click image to see this and more primary documents.
#tdih 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands was established in 1865 and disbanded in 1872. This was hardly enough time, especially given its limited resources and the major obstacles it faced, to help 3.9 million people (freed from generations of slavery that dated back 250 years) find family members (who had been sold away), establish schools, secure labor contracts, legalize marriages, and much more.
Imagine if everyone who was freed from centuries of bondage—and whose skills, knowledge, and labor had stolen—had been received land as Richard Brown was promised in the document below.
Read more below and find resources to #TeachReconstruction.
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