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Officials widely condemned for allowing Buena Vista School District to shut down

Posted on 05/09/13 at 5:02pm

The Buena Vista School District closed its doors this week after running out of money due to gross financial mismanagement by local and state officials.

Local and state officials are facing widespread condemnation for allowing the Buena Vista school district to shut down during the school year after it ran out of money due to gross financial mismanagement.

Until recently, the school district had been receiving and spending state funds meant for a juvenile justice program, despite the program’s leaving the district last year. Upon realizing the error, state officials decided to punish students and school employees for its and the district’s financial mismanagement, and immediately stopped sending school aid payments for April, May and June to make up for the overpayment.

Gov. Rick Snyder’s $1 billion cuts to public education have only compounded the problem for students, school employees and parents — in Buena Vista and throughout the state.

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Republican bill would ignore education, experience in salary decisions for future educators

Posted on 05/08/13 at 5:31pm

It would be illegal to pay future educators based on their experience and education except for few exceptions, under legislation introduced by state Rep. Pete Lund, R-Romeo.

The Michigan House Education Committee held a hearing Wednesday onHouse Bill 4625, which would make teacher performance the “primary” factor in determining pay, as opposed to its current status of being a “significant” factor. Under the bill, teacher performance would be primarily measured by student growth on standardized tests.

Furthermore, districts would be barred from considering teachers’ educational attainment when determining their pay. The only exceptions would be for teachers who hold secondary certificates with a subject area endorsement and who are teaching in that subject area, as well as for elementary school teachers who have an advanced degree in elementary education.

MEA strongly opposes the legislation because it removes incentives for teachers to gain experience and advance their educations. Instead, it will force more teachers to simply teach to the test, while disincentivizing the teaching of long-term critical thinking skills and other subjects that can’t easily be measured on standardized tests.

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Snyder and Duncan shadowed by Progress Michigan’s ‘Pepe Le Voucher’

Posted on 05/08/13 at 5:34pm

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Michigan on Monday to participate in several media events with Gov. Rick Snyder to promote the governor’s Education Achievement Authority experiment.

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