Mike Bishop's Make-over
Bishop's harsh partisanship has locked him out of any hope of becoming Michigan's next Attorney General. Now he wants his legislative legacy to be Mike Bishop "education reformer." To do so he will attempt to remake himself next week into the warm and fuzzy wonderkin of school salvation.
Quote:
"Politics should stop at the classroom door when reforming education." Bishop Editorial, 11.26.09 in "Bipartisan reforms would strengthen state education" by Sen. Michael D. Bishop.Politics are the stock and trade of Bishop et al. Has he stopped nasty politics at the classroom door? No. He's hyped partisanship up. Bishop's figuratively barged in and attacked the teacher, as she attempts to make the day's objectives in the curriculum and attend the ever-present social demands of "her" classroom children, entrusted to her special care. The childrens' parents are annoyed and angered by Bishop's tirades, smoke and mirrors, and give him and the state legislature failing grades for performance.
Bishop is after her job with part-timers. He's after her salary with vicious budget cuts, and "no new taxes." Mike is after her award of professional security for excellent performance in her chosen vocation-tenure, and her hard-earned future retirement is at risk under Bishop too.
Bishop is promoting deregulated completion to her classroom with faux public, but elitist charters and actual "private" and "ethnocentric" charters drain away "public moneys." In Holland, Grand Rapids and other places all across the state, charters are imploding the public systems. All to in direct response to GOP plans.
Bishop is generally roughing her up with a constant barrage of rude language about "reform and failure." Of course it's all her fault. She should just do more with less. She should succeed without his co-operation or the GOP's support-a throw back to the Engler Era.
Basics for Bishop
Mike, Let's start with a vocabulary lesson, there is a world of difference between "education reform" and "education revolt," between honest collaborative efforts to work with the public to improve their neighborhood schools and honest critics whose purpose is to preserve and improve public education. Reforms is not to do away with public education altogether. Bishop has thrown in with the much maligned Engleresque elements which are currently attempting a comeback here in Michigan.
Bishop is now trying to recast himself as the savior of the public system while still adamantly resisting any financial additions (new taxes) to augment the sharply cut state school budget. He's willing to sit on his hands while the state becomes a national spectacle again, with perhaps a dozen or more Kalkaska's, as in the early 1990's. Bishop will blame it all on Gov. Granholm, and that's a lie.
What is it Bishop is attempting?
"Reform" or "revolt" Bishop cannot and will not have it both ways.
Bishop lacks the cunning, the acquired knowledge of the intricate rules of the legislature, and the deeper anger that propelled a meanspirited John Engler throughout his "revolution." Bishop is not man enough to fill Enlger's hobnailed boots in this regard.
This statement of Bishop's concepts sounds a theme that perfectly parallels the positions of MEA. Bishop's quote: "When it comes to improving the education of our children, making sure they have top-quality schools and preparing them for 21st-century jobs, we must put politics aside and work together. Now is the time to make real, meaningful reforms to turn around failing schools and increase statewide student achievement."
Improving schools and full funding for the same, is and has been the underlying goal of MEA. But these goals are being countered by radical GOP'ers and the privatizers, and general malcontents-with greedy intent. The Association has been forced to rise to the defense of its embattled membership once again, as it had to oppose and defend the state's children and our neighborhood schools on so many earlier occasions through political means.
Bishop and Obama: The Odd Couple
"Senate Republicans continue to work on several key reforms that fulfill the requirements of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top plan, which makes our state eligible for up to $400 million in additional funding to improve Michigan schools," opines Mike.
Truthfully, Bishop knows the "gift" of Race to the Top fund is a crap shoot at best. It's that it is a gimmick, a cosmetic quick fix that off loads the very difficult work of addressing the real and urgent problems of our inner cities, the poor, and a failing economy with just one year's funding. If Michigan legislate to be in compliance with these R2T requirements there is no assurance we will get one penny, this year or ever. In that respect, its Leave No Child Behind all over again.
A Lansing Shocker
Bishop, the star Republican in the State Legislature, has been forced to throw in with the much maligned Obama Administration and with what GOP radicals on AM radio call the "gangster" elements of Chicago. Former Chicagoan education chief official, Arne Duncan's madcap attempt to trump the failed and rejected Leave No Child Behind fiasco, held over from the Bush era, is his R2T. Now this Duncan's new gimmick, becomes the same material, same page, the same goals for Bishop and State Republicans. A very queer alliance.
Two Men in a Tub: Bishop and Barack
The dangle of a short term, system disrupting, administrative boondoggling, Race to the Top, becomes the latest in PR designed "quick fixes." President Obama will socialize the country, we are told loudly and directly by the Teabaggers, who constitute the raucous peanut gallery for Bishop and his tax-hating friends in Michigan. National groups that have Bishop and company hostages to their ideology on "no taxes."
Now, ala kazam, Mike Bishop morphs himself into a bi-partisan and a collaborative Michigan "co-sponsor" of Obama criteria and programs. Why?
Bishop is Cornered, Out of Wiggle Room.
Between now and the Christmas Break, Bishop and Wayne Kuipers R-Holland-architect and proud instigator of the 2007 state budget shutdown-will join with Democrats to bring on revolutionary changes in the education community.
How are the GOP "reforms," in the spirit of anti-MEA reprisal, being rushed into law by Bishop? At the last possible moment, the old, old legislative trick. Just how are they going to actually save money? That remains to be seen and realized.
First of all, to begin 2010, there is far less money because of the shenanigans of Bishop and pack.
Pretty Boy Bishop Has a Change of Heart
In a Tartuffian stroke pretty boy Bishop says he "looks forward to continuing to work" with certain (until now despicable "tax and spend" house Democrats and even Gov. Granholm to "keep education a top priority and put our kids first." What a hoot !
The Mackinac Center is in full glory. At this moment they are the handbook/ playbook for both radical Republicans and now, glory be, disoriented Democrats. What a coup d'état!
Take a look at the radical proposals that are involved in "Bishop's Revolt:"
1. The "Texas 2 Step" (alternative methods to get a teaching position used in Texas perennially to off-set severe teacher shortages due to poor pay and conditions) proposed by Bishop. He attempts to bring into the classroom career professionals or others from specific fields where they have been prior to such things as retirement or lay-offs/unemployment, and give them fast tracked un-certified positions as instructors-replacing teachers certified and presently employed.
2. This lowering of professional standards expresses a total lack of understanding of modern instruction-it is a direct and unwarranted attack on the state's premier colleges and universities where aspiring teachers enroll, receive 5 years of costly and intensive training, undergo other testing, qualifying, and certification requirements to work for 4 years as probationary instructors before being accorded a secure teaching job.
These new teachers are saddled with large student loans(with hefty interest rates and payments) and are required to return for much further university training.
Now Bishop says let a math temp come in, part-time and take the class. It's cheaper. Bishop's bottom-line is to bump out that new teacher who will have tenure, a retirement, and benefits.
Where will that (teaching techniques and learning psychology, and methods-less, unprepared) part time teacher be after class is over? Rushing to his/her car to get to a class at another school in order to earn a living, far from mentoring or assisting the student after hours or after class, and non-participating in the over all environment of the school or the community activities centered there.
3. The idea of creating a new "chief educational officer" or "czar" with special powers to alter contracts or make judgment calls about what is at fault in a system labeled a "failing school" is likewise laced (deep in the details) with items intended to radically change the school environment-not necessarily for the good of kids or their teachers.
Save money: Save a Dime Spend a Dollar
These are but a few of the "revolutionary" concepts that abound in the minds of the Mackinac Center's robotrons in the state senate: Mike Bishop, Wayne Kuipers, and Alan Cropsey.
These coldhearted Lansing Republican pols intensely hope to push through reprisals and untested revisions as a counterweight to the strong and intelligent protests of educators, business people and parents across the state who are stunned by the impervious indifference they have shown to the public school. They are not working to fund the budget short-fall with all the tools in the box. How cleverly they attempt to deceive! They believe that they have worked a real money crisis into an "opportunity" to savage the teachers and diminish the environment and education of our precious children.
With the up-coming elections, MEA has a clear and urgent picture of Who's Who-committed to championing and supporting the public school and our children and who isn't. One out of every fifteen votes cast in statewide election comes from the MEA family of voters.
All of the major GOP candidates for governor have pledged themselves to advance "right-to-work-for-less" agendas. One, Mike Bouchard, has proudly declared that he is the "first" of the group to pledge/covenant with the national group, Americans for Tax Reforms, "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," swearing to fight "any or all efforts to increase taxes." It's expected all the others follow Bouchard's example.
The role of Governor Granholm in the current crisis remains yet to be clarified and confirmed. What result will come of her various efforts? Efforts which seem at this point ineffective, is uncertain at best.
Truth be told: Michigan Governance is in Disarray
However, just a dollar a day in new revenues from Michigan taxpayers would keep the schools afloat and give the legislature time to ferret out the kinds of experts and advice needed. They can call in from all quarters solid plans as to how, rationally and factually, we together can tackle the valid concerns about educational.
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