A.L.E.C. Tool: Randy Richardville announces the next kamikaze attack on public schools

The clearly partisan and aggressive leader of the TeaPublican super majority in the Michigan Senate indicated that he would selectively attack collective bargaining by singling out MEA for a spiteful revenge, the so-called Right-to-Teach design to obfuscate and hinder the teachers from their right to freely associate with one another in a professional association where working conditions, hours, instruction, personal privileges and etc. are negotiated in "good faith" with their local school boards.

TeaPublican Randy Richardville's proclamation was so blunt and out of step with the normal sense of decency and good order that the panelists on Tim Skubick's Off the Record were visibly taken aback and attempted to reason with Richardville.

When the panel attempted to aid Richardville into a more honest, civil concept of what is needed in this present manufactured school funding crisis, to which they openly alluded (it is Gov. Rick Snyder and the TeaPublicans themselves who cut funding, combined the K-12 with higher education to defraud the K-12 system of some $600 million in surplus), Richardville seemed unscathed, he is on a pre-programmed jihad and there is little or nothing short of recall that will stop his radical evisceration of Michigan's public school system.

Nothing.

Absolutely Nothing!

In this same timeframe, Michigan observer and pundit Jack Lessenberry wrote this piece in light of an ongoing and an unrelenting multi-million dollar anti-public education disinformation campaign by Betsy DeVos and the Richard McLellan led hectoring via the Mackinac Center.

Jack Lessenberry:

"Nobody, it seems is happy with public education in the state - how it is working or what it costs. Those trying to run school systems are bitter over continuing state budgets - at the same time they are being held to higher standards and being asked to do more.

"To them, the legislature seems almost in a 'punishment mode,' as one school official put it, seemingly more concerned with reducing teachers' pensions and benefits than in education itself.

"Some school officials honestly believe there is a conspiracy in the legislature to destroy public education and replace it with a system of charter schools and vouchers.

"Lawmakers, or at least the GOP majority, talk as if the schools are in trouble because their employees are still getting "Cadillac benefits" that they can no longer afford in the post-automotive age.

"And members of the public are baffled. "Wasn't Proposal A supposed to fix all this?" asked Janet, a middle-aged woman standing in line at a pizza carry-out in the Detroit suburb of Berkley.

"What happened?"

Richardville Dove Into the Deep Muck
Quick to hop on any opening, former Ann Arbor news hound, Tom Gantert seized on Richardville's targeted vengeance: Right-to-Work-for-Teachers-legislation - designed to further hamper the ability of teachers to act in concert with one another for the good of public education and the children they teach-is vindictive. There will be any number of other "pig pile" legislative bills heaped on public teachers by Richardville and his hate filled TeaPublican legislative Super Majority.

Gantert's report from Capitol Confidential, Mackinac Center's news tabloid stated:

"Richardville also said he didn't support right-to-work for the entire state, saying he didn't think it would "transition the economy."

"Amber McCann, Richardville's spokeswoman, said he was in favor of right-to-work for teachers because teachers unions haven't dealt with the financial problems districts are facing.

"Richardville said any plans to implement right-to-teach was not about taking on the MEA."

"'I don't think taking on any union has anything to do with what our agenda is,' Richardville said.

"Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson called Richardville's comments 'another example of this relentless assault on public education and public educators and teachers' unions that is completely unwarranted.'

"Johnson said it was part of the GOP's strategy to privatize teachers and eliminate the teacher protections unions provide."

Among the comments posted to Gantert's piece "Senate Leader Supports Right to Work for Teachers" on Sept 9, 2011 is this insightful account:

"...(B)ased on my own experience as both a former union member and a former non-union administrator in public service, I strongly disagree with you. Many times I or other union members donated time and/or bent the contract rules because we/they knew the money wasn't there for overtime. Yet, since we/they lived in the community, and were consummate professionals who took pride in their profession, all knew things had to get done and in a timely fashion. As a matter of fact, we used to quip, "I bet you'd never see this in the private sector." Not to mention the active role in problem solving that we/they played that probably saved taxpayers ten of thousands."

Unaffected by schoolhouse reality, the Mackinac Center's Gantert projects and promotes the A.L.E.C./Mackinac Center line:

"Randy Richardville deserves credit for recognizing the damage that forced unionism has done to public schools."

Wholly directed and owned by the Mackinac Center (Heritage Foundation in Michigan) and the American Legislative Exchange Council, Betsy DeVos et. al., just a hapless small time sock puppet, Richardville has no choice.

No choice at all!

Original.