Jarrett Skorup, content manager for Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest Sunday morning on “The Daily Drift” with host Gary Wellings on WAAM AM1600 in Ann Arbor, discussing Michigan’s ballot proposals.
A new report from The Education Trust-Midwest finds that 99.6 percent of teachers from 10 of Michigan’s largest school districts were rated “effective.” Coincidentally, 98 percent of the principals responsible for these evaluations received the same rating.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 1259, Increase licensure fees: Passed 33 to 5 in the Senate
To increase fees imposed on a wide range of businesses and occupations in which registration or licensure mandates are imposed as a condition of operating the firm or earning a living in the profession. This is one of a number of such bills passed by the House and Senate this week, which technically repeal the sunsets of previously enacted “temporary” fee increase laws, and are related to the budget for the next fiscal year. According to the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies, the bills would extract $15 to $20 million annually from business owners and tradesmen.
Patrick J. Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, was an in-studio guest on “The Frank Beckman Show” on WJR AM760 this morning, discussing the forced unionization of home-based caregivers by the SEIU.
Wright earlier today filed paperwork at the Michigan Employment Relations Commission asking the administrative panel to overturn its 2005 decision that forced tens of thousands of people into a union, most of whom care for disabled family members who receive a Medicaid stipend.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio is cited in Investor’s Business Daily on the slate of ballot proposals Michigan voters will face Nov. 6.
Vernuccio said Proposal 2 in particular is “an absolutely unprecedented power grab by government unions.”
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing today discussing Proposal 5. If Prop 5 passes, the Michigan Legislature would not be able to increase taxes without a two-thirds majority in both chambers. For more information on this and the other ballot measures, see here.
What’s in a name? Plenty if you’re Proposal 2.
The unions behind the proposal to change the state constitution officially changed the initiative's title from "Protect Our Jobs" to "Protect Working Families."
To try and pass the ballot initiative, those behind it must sell it to the public as something beneficial. Perhaps the union-backed “Protect Our Jobs” did not have the same ring as “Protect Working Families.”
Fresh off the heels of the disingenuous television ad from the unions telling people what Proposal 2 won’t do instead of what it will do comes a doozy from the unions supporting an initiative to add a home-based caregiver unionization scheme into the state constitution.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was a guest Monday on “The Big Show” with host Michael Patrick Shiels discussing Proposal 2 that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot. You can read more of Vernuccio’s analysis of the proposal here, here and here.
The executive director of a group pushing Proposal 4, the forced unionization of home-based caregivers, appears to be unsure of exactly what he supports.
In the Detroit Free Press, Norm Delisle of the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition said the public supports changing the constitution for "measures such as training and background checks for home health care workers."
MLive columnist Rick Haglund writes that the 2/3 tax limitation and international bridge ballot proposals are not a grassroots effort.
Proposal 5 is another maneuver by billionaire Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun to try to stop construction of the proposed New International Trade Crossing bridge linking Detroit and Windsor.
Proposal 2, the “Protect Our Jobs” constitutional amendment, would fundamentally change the power structure in Michigan. The amendment would allow government unions to effectively veto laws passed by Michigan’s elected representatives.
Little to no attention, however, has been paid to the foreseen financial cost to taxpayers should Prop 2 pass.
The Michigan Department of Education’s focus on achievement gaps can give a flawed picture of schools’ performance, according to an Op-Ed in today’s Detroit Free Press by Education Policy Analyst Audrey Spalding. She has also written about the issue here and here.
The Washington Post editorialized recently that President Barack Obama set a goal of 1 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. Just last year, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy produced a report that said, “The goal is achievable.”
Last year 45 students left Grosse Pointe Public Schools for other Michigan school districts. And because these students left under Michigan's Schools of Choice program, each student took their state funding with them — out of Grosse Pointe and to other school districts.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 1214, Authorize Attorney General challenge of parole board decisions: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To authorize the state Attorney General (in addition to the crime victim and prosecutor) to challenge a state parole board decision, with an “abuse of discretion” standard for such challenges.
In a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, an education policy organization called Education Trust-Midwest expressed concern that taxpayers were supporting too many “failing [charter] school operators.”
A focus on school quality for all schools is certainly needed, but Ed Trust’s analysis of charter public schools is short-sighted, unhelpful and risks creating negative unintended consequences.
Three of Livingston County's five high schools scored poorly on the Mackinac Center's high school report card: Howell, Fowlerville and Pinckney high schools received D's.
Howell High School's ranking was 27.7 percent — meaning that more than 70 percent of Michigan's other high schools did better. Fowlerville ranked in the bottom 22.3 percent, while Pinckney ranked the lowest in the county, at 21.2 percent.
Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek told host Tony Conley on WILS AM1320 in Lansing today that the decision by Roscommon teachers to decertify from the Michigan Education Association leaves the state’s largest teachers union with “egg on their face.”
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was on Fox Business Monday discussing the Chicago teachers strike and the “Protect Our Jobs” amendment, a ballot proposal here in Michigan that would give union contracts the ability to supersede state law and decisions by locally elected officials in cities and school districts.
On Oct. 3, every student who shows up for class at Detroit Public Schools will get a free pair of Nikes.
The free shoes gimmick isn't really about educating Detroit students. Oct. 3 is the state's "count day," and the number of students who show up that day will determine 90 percent of all districts' state funding.
This recent blog post by Jarrett Skorup about the SEIU dues skim and how the union is using the money not for collective bargaining but for political purposes garnered a story and editorial in The Washington Examiner. Read more about the issue here.
Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm never met a stage she didn’t like. But she might have finally landed on one that got the best of her.
In a wild and rambling speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, Granholm winked and swayed and waved her way through a series of statements that excited an audience of loyalists but was short on facts.
If a corporation in Michigan teamed up behind the scenes with government officials to extract money from the checks of taxpayers and promised to spend that money electing Mitt Romney and other Republicans, what would be the reaction?
MLive reporter David Eggert wrote that "Michigan’s union-backed ballot measures are a hot topic at the Democratic National Convention." How the union heads frame the issue of the home health care ballot is significant.
The Michigan Supreme Court has approved placing an initiative known as the “Protect Our Jobs Amendment” on the Nov. 6 ballot, where it will be labeled "Proposal 2." If adopted, the measure would impact laws overseeing government union contracts, which would in effect become like mini constitutional conventions, trumping statutes passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
