Comments on: In it for the Money: Letters And Wish Lists

By: Barbara Carr

Barbara Carr — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:31:20 +0000

Thank you for writing this and for making it so easy to act. I heard from the League of Women Voters about this legislation and wanted to protest, but didn’t because it involved looking up addresses etc. (I am ashamed to admit this, but it is true.)

By: Patricia Single

Patricia Single — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 15:24:04 +0000

I am a member of the NEA, MEA and HEA. I have taught every grade level from Kindergarten to grade 12 and special education for students with most every type of disability. I am a master at differentiating learning for most any learner. A packaged cyber-education program, no matter the quality, can not replace me. I have taught more children to read, write, compute, think, and self-regulate, inspite of remarkable challenges, than most of the persons involved in legislating education in our State. A major reason I have grown better and better at teaching with every year and every child is the contractual requirement for continuing education, planning release time and professional development negotiated by my Unions. A significant factor in my effectiveness as a teacher is due to negotiated class size, preparatory time, support staff requirements (thank the heavens for paraeducators), and even the ability to wear pants while I do my job. (My mother’s Union negotiated for that privilege back in the late 1960′s. My Great Aunt would not have been allowed to teach if married, or if she colored her hair, or for myriad other reasons. By the time she retired from the Detroit Public Schools, when they were the shining star of American education, her Union had negotiated the right for these simple privileges.) Unions empower quality teaching and protect workers from potentially arbitrary and inhibiting impediments.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:35:46 +0000

@7: “The association between these two facts is no coincidence.”

Supporting evidence?

“Isn’t it strange that the Rich and privileged families largely educate their children in private schools where they can get a much better education than is possible in most of the public school system?”

No. Again, evidence? Percentages? Studies?

By: Roger Kuhlman

Roger Kuhlman — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 05:05:51 +0000

Shouldn’t this article be entitled “Save the Teacher’s Unions Education?” Everyone who follows Education issues with a modicum of attention and interest knows that the Public Educational System which is dominated by Teacher’s Unions has been failing for a long time now. The association between these two facts is no coincidence. The Teacher’s Unions put their own interests ahead of both the children they are supposed to educate and the Public they are supposed to serve. More Charter Schools and Parental Choice of where kids are educated are needed if our Public Schools are to start producing better results. Isn’t it strange that the Rich and privileged families largely educate their children in private schools where they can get a much better education than is possible in most of the public school system?

By: Alan Benard

Alan Benard — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:53:11 +0000

Thank you, David, for writing this. That your freelance effort is the most detailed and complete local reporting on these bills which will negatively affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of children highlights the uselessness and cowardice of AnnArbor.com . That blog’s collective journalistic sense and competency is shameful.

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:24:30 +0000

This is the same legislature that won’t move on Health Care Exchanges (which were explicitly in the ACA when it was passed in 2010) because there isn’t enough time to figure out how to do it right. What hypocrites.

By: David Erik Nelson

David Erik Nelson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:30:49 +0000

I received a paste-and-send response from the Governor almost as soon as I’d clicked send. You’ll probably get the same one. Here’s my reply:

Melanie,

Thanks for taking the time to paste a reply. According to reports from *within* current EAA direct-run schools, the Buzz software is *not* being used to foster meaningful child-centered education, and conditions in at least some of these schools are as bad or worse than they were before the schools were taken over.

Once details are sorted out, the EAA *might* run excellent schools using their current blueprint, at which time I’d be among its loudest boosters. Show me a system that works and I’ll back that system. But the EAA has only been in operation for *three months.* I can’t *imagine* that the governor–in his old life–would have ever rolled out a product after such limited testing and without sending it through any sort of rigorous evaluation or quality assurance. We all want what’s best for our kids, but I can’t *fathom* why we’re rushing into this without even a single year’s data. That’s just plain stupid.

I Remain,
David Erik Nelson
child-centered educator (ten years experience)
and columnist for the Ann Arbor Chronicle

By: Barbara Annis

Barbara Annis — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:27:14 +0000

Thank you for a well reasoned argument and a “cheat sheet” for contacting our representatives. I hope you don’t mind that I edited out “handsome”

By: David Erik Nelson

David Erik Nelson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:38:24 +0000

FYI: If you have trouble with that email address for Senator Warren, try this form: http://warren.senatedems.com/contact-me

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:16:15 +0000

Be careful! You are in danger of losing your cynical, I-could-care façade.

OK, OK, I’ll send the emails. Thanks for making it so accessible. I don’t have kids in school but I get it.