Surprise! Would you believe that … political systems are stacked in favor of those with money? That’s probably been true since the days of the pharaohs, if not before. But these days, two things make the normal much worse in our country: First, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case, essentially ruled two […]
Big bucks silence views of ordinary folks
Posted inTalent & Education
A push and helping hands aid science success
Talk to Ned Milne, science teacher at Woodland School, and it becomes clear how that Traverse City charter school earned its success in teaching the subject. For starters, all science classes are electives. Where students at other schools may be herded into general grade-level classes, at Woodland they choose among ecology, biology, chemistry and earth […]
Posted inTalent & Education
A school with one foot in the old country
Most of the Michigan charter schools you’re reading about in Bridge this week are relative newcomers to the field, with all but one founded in or after the mid-1990s, when charters, or public school academies, were established by the state legislature. The exception is the AGBU Alex & Marie Manoogian School in Southfield, which was […]
Posted inMichigan Government
DOC doesn't know if prisoner release effort works
A new Auditor General report is going to cause some heartburn in the Michigan Department of Corrections and in the Legislature. It says that DOC has spent about $130 million on a prisoner re-entry program — and has no clue whether the program actually works. The Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative was a centerpiece of the […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Charter champs know: Writing is tough
When Sherry Swain was teaching writing to first-graders, she sometimes took a lesson from E.B. White’s classic, “Charlotte’s Web.” She would read the first sentence — “‘Where’s Papa going with that ax?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.” — and tell her students, “You know, that wasn’t E.B. […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Charter math winners make it count
At the International Academy of Saginaw, math is taught through a proprietary curriculum of the school’s management company, SABIS. Called “Teach-Practice-Check,” it’s “really just good teaching,” said Justin Doughty, director. Material is taught, practiced as a group, practiced individually and checked for mastery. Advanced students are christened “prefects” and enlisted to help slower peers. Doughty said […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Reading champs point to early prep
Now in its 16th year, Island City Academy was founded as an independent charter school in Eaton Rapids, a small town about 20 miles south of Lansing. Thomas Ackerson, its principal, said the school was born to institute a back-to-basics program that ran counter to the educational trends of the time. “The original idea was […]
Posted inTalent & Education
The champs in charters
Twenty-three Michigan charter school campuses claimed at least a tie for a championship in one of eight academic categories in Bridge Magazine’s Academic Charter State Championships for the 2010-11 school year. Champion districts are listed in alphabetical order. Below the winners, you will find a searchable database of all charter school results in the eight […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Capitol conundrum: Fewer inmates, same high costs
Round numbers can provoke course corrections because they are easier to understand and, if large enough, shock the system. Here are a couple: 50,000 and $2 billion. The first is the inmate population barrier breached at the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2006. The department’s budget first exceeded the latter figure in fiscal year 2008. […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Poll: Voters back university funding pool
Michigan voters are supportive of state universities’ positive role in the Michigan economy. And they’re interested in looking at new ways to improve campus funding and accountability. Those are key conclusions from a new Business Leaders for Michigan poll released today. The poll of 600 statewide voters, conducted in January, found: * 92 percent support […]