Political News and Commentary with the Right Perspective. NAVIGATION
  • Front Page
  • News
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • RSS Feed


  • Advertise on RightMichigan.com


    NEWS TIPS!

    Get the RightMighigan.com toolbar!


    RightMichigan.com

    Buzz

    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Pushing the Agenda: Union Pay offs and Detroit Democrats


    By The Wizard of Laws, Section News
    Posted on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:36:14 AM EST
    Tags: agenda, schools, unions, Cobo, Conyers (all tags)

    (Promoted by Nick...)

    In the classic movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart plays the naive Jefferson Smith, who is appointed a U.S. Senator. Lacking any political experience, he goes to Washington and is rudely confronted by machine politics and a culture of corruption, with other senators, including one of Smith's heroes, passing legislation to pay off their backers.

    Here in Michigan, we are either accustomed to this culture or worn down by its relentlessness or simply unable to keep up with it all. As a public service, therefore, let's look at one state representative pushing the agenda for those who are responsible for her election, rather than looking out for the people of her district and the state.

    Shanelle Jackson is the representative for the 9th District in northwest Detroit. This is the district in which I grew up. On March 26, Jackson introduced House Bill 4712, which amends the school code by imposing a new requirement if a school is not meeting expectations:

    If the school is an elementary school, the superintendent of public instruction shall issue an order requiring that the maximum class size in the school for grades K to 3 shall not exceed 17 pupils per classroom.

    There it is -- the payoff to the teacher unions, who advocate for smaller class size so that districts will be forced to hire more unionized teachers. This has nothing to do with student performance, since numerous studies (and just about every Catholic school) have debunked the notion that smaller class size is necessary for improved academic performance.

    Read more...

    There are other examples of this agenda-pushing in Jackson's recent history. She has sponsored bills to revise the Cobo regional facility along the lines of Monica Conyers' desires (HB 4602) and to reestablish Recorder's Court in Detroit (HB 4140). The latter bill addresses a longstanding sore point with the judicial revisions accomplished during Governor Engler's tenure and is little more than a paean to the criminal defense bar and liberal judicial interests.

    Fortunately, Rep. Jackson is not a complete lost cause. During the 2007-2008 session, she and eight other representatives sponsored HB 4762, that would have required first class school districts to "provide pupils with a moment of silence, not to exceed 5 minutes, at the beginning of each school day to allow time for optional meditation before instruction begins." While Detroit is (I think) the only "first class school district" (more than 100,000 students) in Michigan, and I can't think of a reason why a moment of silence would not be good for all school districts, at least that bill would have been a start. A start, that is, until the rest of Jackson's constituents challenged the law as unconstitutional.

    Jefferson Smith prevailed when he single-handedly filibustered the corrupt legislative centerpiece his opponents were pushing. We don't have that same opportunity, since liberals push their agenda continuously, on all fronts. We must remain vigilant and energetic if we are going to preserve our liberty and stop the continuing encroachment of big government.

    < Monday in the Sphere: March 30 | MICHIGAN Tea Party Information and hints >


    Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit


    Display: Sort:
    What is missing? (none / 0) (#1)
    by Eric T on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 11:16:10 AM EST
    If the school is an elementary school, the superintendent of public instruction shall issue an order requiring that the maximum class size in the school for grades K to 3 shall not exceed 17 pupils per classroom

    When I was in school, there was 30 in a class. Seemed to work OK, but If they feel that is just too many, to provide a good education.
    The bill should also include where the tax increase, will be to the citizens of Detroit,

     Maybe they can charge a new tax for each kid in the family, so families without kids won't have to pick up the slack for the families with 6 or 8 kids. Maybe they need to charge a school tax for people renting homes or apartments ect..

    I'd think Detroiters would probably rather have lower taxes. I wanna see Detroit schools working good, because when they don't, the school choice program, sends their kids across, city and county lines into my district, so my property taxes, gotta pay for schooling for Detriot kids. I don't even have kids, I don't like paying the school tax as it is, I like it even less when it is paying for kids from other districts.

    Detroit needs to fix their schools, the Teachers Union is not going to fix it. Just like GM, The union has so much strength, that GM can't lay-off or fire workers without giving them a $100,000 buy-out package, think of that for a moment. The plant is slow, to get rid of 10 workers cost 1 million dollars. 100 works would cost? 1000 workers? 10,000 workers would cost? In the real world, when its slow you get laid-off, no severance package, your just done.

     K-3 education is pretty much just babysitting anyway, I can see paying a real good wage and benefits to someone teaching heart surgery, but for babysitting kids, and teaching times tables, spelling, reading. The DPS is already struggling to keep its budget out of the red, with this proposal, DPS will just take on more debt, does it need more debt??? Did they just hit up the state for $163 million?  

    Display: Sort:

    Login

    Make a new account

    Username:
    Password:
    Tweet along with RightMichigan by
    following us on Twitter HERE!

    Related Links

    + Also by The Wizard of Laws
    create account | faq | search