Suspicions of plagiarism by a Michigan State University professor uncovered last August by Michael Van Beek, the Center’s director of education policy, have been proven true, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
Sharif Shakrani, a senior scholar in MSU’s Education Policy Center, was found guilty of “research misconduct” by a research integrity committee for plagiarizing parts of his 2010 study on school consolidation. The committee also found three articles written by Shakrani in 2008 and 2009 that contain “clear instances” of plagiarism, The Press reported. An MSU spokesman told The Press that a decision on “sanctions or disciplinary actions” is pending.
The Stars and Stripes have been proudly flying over a Belle Tire store since its recent opening on Grand River Avenue in Meridian Township near Lansing. Not so fast, says the Meridian Township Zoning Board of Appeals, which ruled by a 5-0 vote that the flag must be taken down according to a report in the Lansing State Journal.
An Op-Ed in today’s Lansing State Journal by Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman explains that the fact Wayne State University altered the website of its labor studies department after the Center filed a FOIA request with the school “vindicates my organization,” that Wayne State “was perhaps engaging in politics and not just academics.”
A USA Today story on cigarette smuggling cites research by Mackinac Center analysts regarding the “unintended consequences” — namely criminal activity — of higher tobacco taxes.
You can read the Center’s research here and here.
UPDATE: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on April 21 ran an Op-Ed on cigarette smuggling rates in Hawaii.
Details and circumstances could change in the future, but for now there are good reasons why grass roots reformers should steer clear of the controversy surrounding various proposals for a new Detroit-Windsor bridge:
1. None of the possible outcomes unambiguously serve the public interest.
A blogger at Mlive recently suggested that lower business tax rates do not "necessarily" create more jobs.
The post notes that Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder have proposed federal and state budgets that lower overall business tax rates. (Although by also eliminating various tax subsidies, some companies would pay more under these proposals — attn. General Electric). To make the case against these plans, the piece cites a single academic economist and a union-funded think tank, who, not surprisingly, contend that business owners don’t use tax cuts to hire more workers but instead pocket the savings as increased profits.
Votes by local Michigan Education Association affiliates on whether or not to conduct illegal teacher strikes is “posturing,” Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek told the Livingston Daily Press & Argus.
Van Beek said teachers who strike face penalties from the state, while those who don’t face possible repercussions from the union.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, explains in a recent Port Huron Times-Herald Op-Ed why the Michigan film subsidy program needs to be eliminated.
More research and analyses by Center policy experts on the film subsidies can be found here.
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report on interesting votes and bills in the Michigan Legislature, and includes how each legislator voted. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
The Department of Environmental Quality is requesting fee increases for air quality and solid waste permitting programs. The Legislature should not grant the agency’s request without requiring that the DEQ change the way it does business. A fee increase to obtain an air permit or dispose of trash is just another name for a tax increase. DEQ officials argue that the cost impact on a per capita basis is minimal, but for a large business or utility the costs can be substantial. This is not a good time to raise the cost of doing business in the state with an unemployment rate that is still north of 10 percent.
(Editor's note: The increase in benefits per full-time teacher was incorrectly listed as 50 percent; this has been updated to the correct figure of 37 percent.)
According to new data just released by the Michigan Department of Education for the 2009-2010 school year, the average teacher salary in Michigan has risen for the 13th consecutive year. This most recent data puts the figure at $63,024. If charter schools are excluded, this raises the average salary figure for unionized teachers in conventional districts to $63,445.
Bay City Public Schools claims to have cut spending by more than $24 million since 2000, but research by Michael Van Beek, director of education policy, actually shows the district will spend $5 million more this year than it did in 2000, according to The Bay City Times.
As budget details from the last-minute effort to keep the federal government operating are being released, it is clear that the Environmental Protection Agency is the big loser. Although House budget negotiators were unsuccessful in keeping language that would have reined in the EPA’s war on energy through extensive rule-making, they did succeed in sending a strong message to the agency through a $1.6 billion cut, which amounts to 16 percent of its budget. Lawmakers have not been able to get the attention of the EPA through committee hearings regarding their onerous rulemaking to limit CO2 emissions — effectively bypassing Congress. Perhaps EPA officials will get the message now.
Freedom of Information Act requests the Mackinac Center filed against labor studies departments at three Michigan universities were a fair use of the law and the Center was ultimately vindicated, according to an Op-Ed in The Washington Post written by President Joseph G. Lehman and Senior Editor Thomas A. Shull.
At the time of this writing it remains to be seen if the federal government will be subject to a partial shutdown due to budget wrangling in Congress. The difference in budget reduction dollar amounts has become almost meaningless as reductions in the $30 billion range are tiny compared to the trillions of dollars of red ink the federal government is piling up.
Today, a columnist for a Michigan newspaper sarcastically characterized the Mackinac Center's Freedom of Information Act request to the labor policy departments of three government universities as follows:
"The right wing Mackinac Center for Public Policy has embraced the concept of turning to Big Government for assistance."
The American Federation of Teachers filed what WNEM-TV5 is calling a “mock” Freedom of Information Act request against the Mackinac Center today. Only government entities are subject to FOIA requests.
The Mackinac Center filed FOIA requests last week with Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Wayne State has since taken down the website of its Labor Studies Center to conduct an investigation.
Wayne State University has taken down the Web pages of its Labor Studies Center in the wake of a Mackinac Center investigation into improper political content on the website, according to MIRS Capitol Capsule.
“We are reviewing the labor studies program to make sure we’re in compliance of state law,” Harvey Hollins III, Wayne State vice president of government and community affairs, told MIRS. Hollins also noted “The question is whether or not there’s a violation of campaign finance law given the content on the website.
Earlier this week, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Richard Giddings ruled that the Mackinac Center is correct in determining that post-retirement health benefits provided by the state, public schools and local governments are not enforceable obligations, and so politicians therefore have no duty to impose on taxpayers the cost of providing them. The ruling is a victory that could save future Michigan taxpayers literally billions of dollars.
Virtual learning can increase student performance and save taxpayer dollars, according to an Op-Ed by Michael Van Beek, the Center’s director of education policy, which appears in the Detroit Free Press today.
Michigan law, however, limits opportunities for virtual learning, which legislators should address “to unlock the full potential of this approach.”
In recent weeks the Mackinac Center has been accused of being “partisan” because of inquiries it made about the apparently pro-union activities of government university labor studies programs. What the accusers specifically mean by the charge is that the Center’s actions are motivated by a desire to help Republican politicians win elections. Anyone familiar with the Mackinac Center’s work over the past two decades will instantly recognize how off-base this is, and that the “partisan” charge says much more about the accusers’ worldview than the Center.
Michigan State University and the University of Michigan will comply with recent Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Mackinac Center, according to media reports.
U of M is “gathering relevant e-mails,” according to the Detroit Free Press, while a labor professor at Michigan State told Michigan Messenger “we intend to fully comply with the law.”
Rallies Monday in support of public-sector benefits that are out of balance were held as teachers are considering whether or not to hold illegal strikes, according to WEYI-TV25.
“The realities are such in Michigan that we need to take a hard look at every area in which we can save money,” Michael Jahr, vice president for communications, told WEYI. “We’re becoming a poor state, but we’re paying our public-sector workers as though we are a wealthy state.”
Ken Braun, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 this morning, discussing Freedom of Information Act requests the Mackinac Center filed last week at Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University, as well as the ensuing death threats the Center received.
Four days after Gov. Rick Snyder recommended a 2011-2012 budget that would reduce state aid for schools by $300 per pupil, the Petoskey school board proposed a plan to reduce the district’s teacher and support staff health insurance costs. Its timidity reveals why the public school establishment finds even the prospect of modest state funding reductions so traumatic ($300 is just 3 percent of the $9,742 Petoskey spent per student in 2009).
