John Austin: Broading about discord? Snorting Koch? Or just in a Snyder made mess like the rest of us?

Eclectablog's stunning account of the EAA made it to Diane Ravitch's blog yesterday. Over the past five years Ravitch has become the nation's leading advocate for public education. To have an account like Eclectablog's posted there, then, draws serious national attention to the state and its "reform" efforts.http://dianeravitch.net/2014/01/23/a-hero-of-public-education-in-michigan-ellen-cogen-lipton/

In discussing the issue, Diane Ravitch also posted an interview with Ellen Cogen Lipton (D-Huntington Woods), who has earned the praise and gratitude of educators and parents statewide for standing to predatory corporate reform. Ravitch titles her a "Hero."

 I agree.

In contrast to Lipton, who came to talk openly to Birmingham and Bloomfield parents and others, Birmingham, Bloomfield or Troy politicians refuse to say those schools should continue to exist.

Yet, strangely, John Austin (D- Ann Arbor) and President of the State Board of Education tried to pre-empt Lipton by asking her to post this response:

"John Austin, President of Michigan State Board of Education here. We do have an unfortunate proliferation in Michigan of new charter and cyber schools, both good, mediocre and truly bad at educating children. The legislature’s, and to date the Governor’s unwillingness to insist on quality control in new school creation, to ensure they educate kids, and the fueling of a wild-west free market of largely for-profit new school creation is doing damage both financially, and educationally to all our schools and children.

The EAA was an effort, well-intentioned, to create a functional and effective state turnaround district to improve performance in our worst schools. Unfortunately, it too was tied up in knots, when legislation to codify it was loaded up with ornaments of the unlimited new school creation policy being pushed last year. It also has had real growing pains, problems and transparency issues.

However, different from the account my friend Ellen Cogen Lipton seemed to suggest in the Electabog article, the State Board of Education twice asked Dr. Covington to come and discuss progress or lack thereof with us, and he certainly did so, and we had as recently as last September a useful and robust public discussion of all the issues– hopefully towards helping the EAA work better, and do better with the legitimate concerns raised by Rep Lipton and many others."

Given that we live in an incredibly divisive environment in this state post "right to work" and "education reform," it is difficult to criticize any effort to try some diplomacy.

But Austin's response, in this national forum, is disturbingly puzzling. He effaces a number of critical points:

1) The EAA was the centerpiece of Gov. Snyder's 2011 plan to alter public education as we know it. To my mind, it was not "well-intentioned."

2) State codification of said was defeated in Dec. 2012 lame duck legislative session, but passed the House after many alterations were made to limit is expansiveness and provide proper oversight. Had that whole 2012 package gone through there would be no BHSD as we know it.

3) The EAA bill then sat until December 2013 in part because Rep. Lipton and Senator Hopgood and others asked questions and couldn't get answers, and they had to resort to FOIAs even though they sat on the House and Senate Education Committees, respectively.

4) The bill appeared suddenly in December 2013 and was rushed through the Senate who radically changed the EAA codification bill back to its original form, giving it almost unlimited expansion in the state. Even some Tea-Partiers barked, in part because this bill exempted this "public education" entity from the Open Meetings Act and FOIA responsibilities. Is this what Mr. Austin means by some "transparency issues"?

5) Furthermore, Mr. Austin suggests here that the EAA has been open to discussion with the state educational community but he passes by the whole skunks work debacle that looked to be crafting educational programs much like the EAA. And he ignores the fact that experienced teachers have been fired to hire TFA.

6) In September, when Mr. Austin says Mr. Covington (can we just drop the "Dr." business, please?) was seeking to consult with the BOE to improve itself, the Governor and John Covington were  holding the EAA up as a model for ALL education in the state.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edoc-jwgX5Y

These videos thoroughly undermine Mr. Austin's characterization that the EAA is a humble institution looking for help and co-operation. Please watch.

7) Rather than address the funding issues Mr. Austin alludes to in his note, the State Board of Education postponed its promise that new funding options would be presented to the public. He postponed, them, of course, until 2014, after the election.

Now Mr. Austin is in a bad spot. I understand that. If the EAA folds now -- having been rushed in to service -- this would cause yet a third layer of chaos. And he generally has helped public education. At this stage in the game, however, if he thinks some sort of compromise is possible he should explain how. I don't see it because of ALL the transparency issues and the amount of big money tied to education reform. Sorry, John, in that environment, I don't trust many.

Districts are closing, schools are operating on 1995 dollars, teachers are leaving, charters are cheating, and no new teachers are coming in.

Parents in Michigan have enough elected officials misleading them about education reform in this state. They really don't need one more. He knows how many parents are watching, reading, advocating. These are predatory attacks Mr. Austin. If you don't think so, let some of us know so we can get our kids out now; if you want to cut deals with Covington and the Broads, my family is gone.