By Andy Buchsbaum/National Wildlife Federation In Michigan, several disturbing trends have become the core of the public education conversation. We hear about failing schools, underperforming students and teachers, budgets and staff stretched to capacity (and sometimes beyond), and disconcerting dropout rates. But there’s something else that hasn’t registered yet – and it should. We are […]
Guest column: Let's open the door for student success
Posted inMichigan Government
Truth Squad: Technical foul on pro-home health care claim
MICHIGAN TRUTH SQUAD ANALYSIS: “Monette,” “Gene” and “Proposal” Who: Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care What: “Monette,” TV/Internet ad; “Gene,” TV/Internet ad; “Proposal,” a mailer from Home Care First, Inc. Truth Squad call: Technical foul Few proposals on 2012’s crowded ballot require as much background knowledge, for a fully informed vote, as Proposal 4, which […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Truth Squad defends its fact-driven reporting against political attack
An organization called Progress Michigan published a blog post today questioning the integrity of Bridge Magazine’s Michigan Truth Squad political ad watchdog service. Specifically, Progress Michigan said other media partners should “think twice” before publishing our Truth Squad calls on political ads because it “is supported by many of the same corporate special interests that […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Truth Squad: Anti-Prop 3 ad earns technical fouls on cost claim, wind turbine longevity
MICHIGAN TRUTH SQUAD ANALYSIS: “Place” – TV ad, “$12 Billion” – mailer Who: CARE, anti-Proposal 3 group What: TV ad and mailer Truth Squad call: Technical fouls Questionable statements: “Make no mistake — Michigan families will pay the $12 billion price tag for this energy experiment.” (TV ad) “Proposal 3 will cost Michigan $12 billion […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Truth Squad: Pro-Proposal 3 ad gets technical foul for jobs language
MICHIGAN TRUTH SQUAD ANALYSIS — “Forward” Who: Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs — Pro-Proposal 3 group What: TV ad Truth Squad call: Technical foul Questionable statement: “Michigan is falling behind in the clean energy race. Thirty other states have already passed measures similar to Proposal 3.” The forward ad cites a July 6, 2012, Crain’s Detroit […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Battle of the 'Starts' takes kids prisoner
Hundreds of Michigan 4-year-olds qualify for Head Start and Great Start, but are in neither preschool program, stuck in a no-man’s land between bureaucracies. School leaders, state administrators and directors of Head Start and Great Start describe a sometimes personality-driven relationship between the programs that can run seamlessly, or can devolve into accusations of “poaching” […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan lags behind other states in pre-K efforts
The education of Jordan Shaw will start a year later because she lives in Michigan. The Canton girl was in a private preschool program last year as a 3-year-old. But after Jordan’s little brother was born, her parents could no longer afford it. “Preschool gives them good learning skills. (But) trying to pay for her […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Why the lights never come on in some preschool classrooms
Gobles is a small, rural, almost exclusively white community on the west side of the state. Beecher is an old blue-collar suburb of Flint, racially mixed and overwhelmingly poor. But the children of Gobles and Beecher do share a characteristic — one that neither wants: They can’t attend free, state-funded preschool. Across the state, there […]
Posted inTalent & Education
One woman marshals a pre-K army
Maybe she just didn’t have enough experience to know better. Maybe she had a financial incentive. Whatever the reason, Natalie Merryman succeeded where a lot of school districts failed. As a first-year preschool teacher in the Great Start Readiness Program, Merryman was able to find the kind of at-risk 4-year-olds who are often forgotten in […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Proposal 5 would take political dysfunction in State Capitol to whole new level
Five years ago this week, Michigan lawmakers were hurtling toward their own fiscal cliff as a new budget year loomed with no spending and revenue agreement in sight. A month of legislative chaos marked by a desultory combination of boredom, tension, recrimination and fatigue ended in the early morning of Oct. 1 when lawmakers gave […]