Shame on Mike Flanagan.....it is time to step down

There now should be no question that State Superintendent Mike Flanagan should resign his post and take retirement earlier than planned (2 years); and there is no doubt that the State Board of Education -- supposedly charged with hiring and firing him -- should call for that resignation.

On Wednesday he called it shameful for any to oppose his call for the EAA to expand in to a statewide District.
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“The Granholm law does not provide the School Reform/Redesign District with a practical operating entity for this relatively small number of struggling schools. I am calling for additional law to solidify operating entities, including options in addition to the EMU/EAA system – be they ISDs or other local school districts.

“Shame on anyone who insists on maintaining the status quo, to keep kids in this handful of failing schools where I wouldn’t dare send my grandkids.”

For many -- if not most -- in the state the "status quo" is what people are hoping to hang on to even for a brief while longer because public schools have served their communities so well.

But the Governor and the Broad Foundation and Mr. Flanagan's EAA will divert endless resources to this institution that parents are fleeing in droves and educators condemning. The "EMU/EAA" relationship Mr. Flanagan cites is bogus and he knows it -- EMU regents were bombarded yesterday with demands that the relationship end. And the suggestion that this law is really about ISDs and not the EAA is simply a smokescreen. There would be no need for a law without the EAA.

For the public official charged with overseeing public education in Michigan to try to minimize or politicize that response from one of the state's public universities (or at least their faculty) is shameful.

So, frankly, is the suggestion that Mr. Flanagan would put his kids in an EAA school anymore than he would put his kids in a public school he seeks to close.

But what is most shameful about Mr. Flanagan's performance in recent weeks is his repeated statements that many schools will be placed in to the hands of the EAA. He knows what is planned. He has since this summer. But the state's top public education official refuses to tell parents and children and teachers what plans are there.

This contradicts not only decency -- no school principal or superintendent would be allowed to function with this lack of transparency-- but it contradicts the Governor's own cries for "choice" and "options."  

Give parents a choice and a chance, Mr. Flanagan, tell them what you know. Or step down.

And try to understand that the leader of any organization or group needs, as most know, to be first an advocate for that institution. You are supposed to advocate for public education -- not make continual piecemeal deals with those who would destroy it.

On Thursday, Mr. Flanagan swung from pitching the EAA as a private model to -- OMG, OMG, -- calling for a "Marshall Plan" -- the single greatest government expenditure in American history -- to rebuild the schools! No doubt he was responding to State Board of Ed President John Austin coming out against the EAA. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131212/SCHOOLS/312120107/

You can't make this kind of stuff up.

December 11, 2013

LANSING – As the Michigan Legislature works today to amend state law addressing Michigan’s most struggling schools, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan made the following statement regarding the need for practical operating entities for failing Michigan schools placed into the State School Reform/Redesign District:

“The actions I announced yesterday to place Michigan’s lowest performing schools into the State Reform/Redesign District was me carrying out the Granholm law of 2009. I feel a moral obligation to do so for the sake of the children suffering in a handful of schools where they are not learning.

“The Granholm law does not provide the School Reform/Redesign District with a practical operating entity for this relatively small number of struggling schools. I am calling for additional law to solidify operating entities, including options in addition to the EMU/EAA system – be they ISDs or other local school districts.

“Shame on anyone who insists on maintaining the status quo, to keep kids in this handful of failing schools where I wouldn’t dare send my grandkids.”

On Tuesday, Flanagan announced that he will have State School Reform/Redesign Officer Deborah Clemmons place Michigan schools into the State School Reform/Redesign District in 2014.

He said that through the continued vetting process of the state’s Bottom 5% of schools, more than 10 schools could and should be placed in the School Reform/Redesign District. 

Flanagan said Tuesday, “We will be gathering additional data and monitoring Michigan’s most struggling schools. If we are not absolutely confident that a school is making progress and their students are receiving a quality education, we will place the school into the statewide district.”