They’ve been nominated by co-workers and fellow organizers to be recognized for the long hours, hard work, and results they’ve achieved as community organizers. The 2013 Michigan Summit will be on Saturday, June 8 on MSU’s campus at the beautifully remodeled, Silver LEED certified Brody Hall in East Lansing. Join us and get energized, inspired and [...]
According to Gov. Snyder, Michigan is a business, and we’re all his customers. Like most companies, Gov. Snyder’s stockholders are looking to make good on their investment. How? It’s pretty straightforward: privatize core functions of government and create more customers. More customers means more money; and Michigan has nearly 10 million potential customers. A few [...]
Yesterday, the Snyder administration said they’d be shelving their “Skunk Works” group, but left open the possibility that the “value schools” piece of it will live on. The father of “Skunk Works” and Mackinac Center cofounder Richard McLellan declared that while the group is dead, “value schools” are still very much alive. And after claiming [...]
Oooh, that smell. Can you smell that smell? It’s the smell of “Skunk Works” slow-roasting in Michigan’s hot spring sunshine. Over the weekend, emails obtained by the Detroit News through a FOIA request revealed that “Skunk Works” – contrary to what Gov. Snyder has claimed – has always been a government-sanctioned work group. Basically: they [...]
What happens when you cut funding to local schools? Easy: they can’t pay their bills. Over the past two weeks, Buena Vista schools, the Flint School District, and Albion High School have had to shut down, cancel classes, or lay off staff and teachers. Even Ann Arbor schools are having trouble and considering cuts to [...]
Sometimes things get so out of hand it becomes hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Fortunately, we’ve developed a tried and true system for dealing with this: lists of said chaff. So here are five of the most recent examples of proposals from Michigan’s fever swamps, which we affectionately call “Bills from the [...]
OK, you got us: not every day. But every weekday, we’ll be updating this thread with the most interesting, relevant, and entertaining Tweet of the Day. The best part? We’re accepting nominations and you can join the fun! All you have to do is tag your Tweet with the hashtag #MITOTD and we’ll include it [...]
Yesterday, the Detroit Free Press’s Stephen Henderson said what everyone’s been thinking about Michigan’s alarming taste for secrecy and privatization: Privatization might sound, in theory, like the way to bring Michigan’s prison costs under control. But because the desired outcomes in the corrections system are about more than bottom-line dollar analyses, privatization is just not [...]
To the far-right, corporations are like people… only better. Last week, Gov. Snyder insisted that we treat citizens like customers, and despite his calls for “shared sacrifice” the only ones sacrificing anything are working Michiganders. This corporate-first mentality pervades every aspect of Michigan government, and if you didn’t know any better you’d think Michigan is [...]
What happened to us? When did we start asking ourselves “How can we provide our children with the cheapest education?” rather than “How can we provide our children with the best education?” From our outset, we prioritized education, using our taxes to build public schools – recognizing their economic and social value. Now, the same [...]