Put lipstick on a pig for Halloween and this is still about the EAA and killing public education

Lisa Posthumus Lyons, daughter of top advisor for Governor Snyder, Dick Posthumus, is fast tracking a "letter grading" piece of legislation through the House this week. She is, for all intents and purposes, the voice of the Governor and his men on the House floor.

Here it is: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2013-2014/billintroduced/House/pdf/2013-HIB-5112.pdf

HB 5112 seeks to replace the just established color coding system with a letter grade system, per The Mackinac Center.

Remember the color coding of August? I wrote about it here: http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/groups/ken-jacksons-blog/p/code-red-code-red-make-room-for-new-em-on-...

That goofy color coded system was largely the education community's lame response to attacks on public education, a way to satisfy the thirst to scapegoat public education by saying, "yes, we agree, all schools can improve..." and refusing to acknowledge what everyone now knows: this isn't a debate about reform -- it is a struggle to kill public education. There is nothing in any of this legislation that will improve public education.

At any rate, the Lyons letter grade system insists that we continually "fail" the lowest %5 of schools, give them an F. No matter how much they improve under constantly changing metrics the bottom %5 always be an F and thus grist for the EAA mill, a mill that eventually grind all public education to dust.

For Lyons and the Governor, unfortunately, success is not an option. To get what they want there must be failure on a dramatic and visible scale otherwise....the cat is out of the bag, in short, on the political premise that has driven this (all public education is failing) and they are trying to stuff it back in and return to December 2012.

The main reason for this particular push now is to generate or try to recapture or reconjure the political momentum for the EAA -- the state's reform agency. If you can give letter grades, the thinking seems to be, you can restart the surge to codify the EAA. That legislation is sitting in the Senate which is balking and has been since April when it looked like Oakland County was going to take a hit (surprise! surprise!).

The letter grade system, you will note, throws a bone to top performing Districts like BHSD so -- this time around -- they won't complain as they did in December 2012 and get in the Governor's path to tear down district borders and destroy what most of us know in schools. It is "piecemeal" legislation that --  like the unbelievably corrupt Pontiac "consultant" deal -- seeks to buy off BHSD, Birmingham, Troy, etc. by giving them a temporary stay of execution while other Districts are killed.

We won't have to be graded.

Here is the section where BHSD has the chance, again, to sell out the rest of public education in the state for a few more years of existence...
SEC. 1280F.

"(11) NOT LATER THAN JULY 1, 2016, THE DEPARTMENT SHALL ESTABLISH AND IMPLEMENT A WAIVER SYSTEM FOR WAIVING REGULATORY OR STATUTORY REPORTS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL THAT CONSISTENTLY MAINTAINS A GRADE OF A OR B UNDER THIS SECTION. IF THE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES THAT A PUBLIC SCHOOL QUALIFIES FOR A WAIVER UNDER THIS SECTION, THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION SHALL GRANT THE WAIVER, EFFECTIVE FOR AS LONG AS THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MAINTAINS A GRADE OF A OR B, AND THE REGULATORY OR STATUTORY REQUIREMENT THAT IS WAIVED DOES NOT APPLY TO THAT PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAIVER. BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THIS WAIVER SYSTEM, THE DEPARTMENT SHALL SUBMIT TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE STANDING COMMITTEES ON EDUCATION A LIST OF THE REGULATORY AND STATUTORY REPORTS AND REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE PROPOSED TO BE SUBJECT TO THE WAIVER."

Here is a well crafted blog that gives much more background information and give you a sense of how this deal making is being read across the state:http://www.democracy-tree.com/rep-lyons-school-grading-plan-earns-f/

BHSD and Oakland County politicians are going to have to decide sooner than they want (November 2014) whether they want to call the Governor on these piecemeal efforts that eventually will get to us -- or deceive their constituents into thinking all is well because we can be bought off for a few years.

Right now, those involved are playing a very serious political game, particularly with young families with children and those whose property values depend on school district lines. If they hedge wrong, the repercussions could be extraordinary.