This Is The Result Of "Relentless Positive Action"

So Rick Snyder, "One tough nerd" was elected governor of Michigan in 2010 and one of the top items on his agenda was a "reinvention" of the public educational system. OK, so with a republican legislature he's pretty much in position to get what he wants in terms of this "reinvention." Three years in, let's see how he's doing:

 Buena Vista Schools close early

Last week, the Buena Vista School District fired all of its teachers and closed its schools because it had run out of money. Because the district accepted money from the state for a program it was no longer providing, the state is withholding the district's school aid for at least three months.

Budget deficit forcing school officials to close Albion High School

The Albion School Board voted last night to close the district’s high school.
Beginning this fall, the mid-Michigan district will only serve students in grades K through eight.

Ann Arbor schools to cut high school busing, charge kids for 7th hour

Parents of Ann Arbor high school children will have to find another way for their ninth- through 12th-graders to get to school come fall, and students interested in taking a seventh-hour course could have to pay up to $500 per semester...

 There are two things you need to realize about this situation, one: These schools are canaries in the educational coal mine. Districts all over the state are struggling. There will be more stories like this.

Two: From Snyder's perspective, this is not a bug, it's a feature. The whole direction of his plan from the beginning was to deemphasize brick and mortar public schools and replace them with privately run online schools. Privately run, but funded with public money that is. In fact, Buena Vista, Albion and Ann Arbor are indications that his plan if anything, is working too well. The public schools are disintegrating before the privately run infrastructure is fully in place.

Of course Governor Snyder isn't totally to blame for this--or perhaps from his perspective we should say he doesn't deserve all the credit. Bad decisions and incompetence are rampant from the school board level on up, but his spineless leadership coupled with the Republican legislature's animus toward public schools, or more specifically public school teachers, has created an environment in which all of the destructive forces, whether they be economic, or ideological can flourish while support for and commitment to the ideal of public education in a democratic society withers.

And while the slowly--or in some cases not so slowly--carcass of public education in Michigan is picked clean by the greedy and the opportunistic, children are having their future stolen from them. In a truly enlightened society this would be a crime of the first order. Instead it's just another group of entrepreneurs taking advantage of a business opportunity.

The shame is on all of us.