Public education advocates in Michigan, like public education advocates across the country, are looking towards a public education "spring" -- even if the spring seems perpetually delayed.
Today is, I think, the last snow day and the Michigan legislature is taking the opportunity to try a vote again on the EAA...something that first past the House in March -- of 2013.
So, in an age of climate change, when March looks like December, what will this "spring" look like when it finally comes?
Surely it is coming in some form: After 15 to 20 years of more or less accepting the status quo -- that is, operating with the now culture wide premise that public education is "failing" and only can be saved by more "competition," "choice," "charters," "standardized tests" and "vouchers" -- parents, teachers, some university faculty and assorted communities are starting to truly resist, even if they don't have a handle on what is a really, really weird political/education weather pattern.
This resistance delightfully has taken unfamiliar forms -- at least in terms of classical resistance images.
There are no young men in the streets here (yet!),
Nationally, of course, Diane Ravitch, the former Bush advisor, has repented on earlier acceptance of the "schools are failing" mantra and has galvanized a movement that turned in to the NPC conference at the University of Texas.http://dianeravitch.net/category/network-for-public-education/
Young education professors seem more interested in getting a post on Ravitch's blog than a publication in a refereed journal.
To take a more local example, Vicki Markavitch of Oakland Schools has been fighting relentlessly and, with the help of many, came up with a special deal for Pontiac Public Schools to keep them open for the near future.
The deal was without precedent http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140122/SCHOOLS/301220066 and clearly irritated State Superintendent Mike Flanagan who has returned to the issue at every possible opportunity.
You see, while keeping a public school District open certainly must be considered a "victory" for public education advocates, there are few clean heroes in all out war.
Pontiac is open simply because of the raw, political and still Republican power of Oakland County. When assorted reps in this area -- Jim Marleau, Mike Kowall, John Pappageorge, Mike McCready -- realized Governor Snyder and Mike Flanagan's efforts to close Districts was going to hurt them while...
Well, this group of middle to aging white guys quietly put their collective feet down and said, simply, no.
This really isn't what public education advocacy and resistance looks like -- traditionally speaking.
But welcome to a new political climate.
Whither spring?
Public School teachers, for example, can't get their heads around the fact that Arne Duncan -- who is leading a nationwide effort to privatize schools and demonize them and parents -- works for and is a dear friend of President Obama who is, still, for many, the "messiah." Nor, in Michigan, can they seem to get their heads around the fact that their "own" institution -- the MDE -- is something of a political cesspool.
In Detroit, the big debate has been about the EAA (the Educational Achievement Authority). Resisters and public education advocates thought they had scored another surprising victory a month or so ago when State Superintendent Mike Flanagan (surely the State Superintendent must be an advocate for public schools!) ended the "exclusivity" agreement with the state's potential "turnaround" District.http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/02/state_education_department_end.html
Twitter was a "buzz" at the seeming end of "Buzz"!
What everyone forgot, of course, was that Flanagan only ended the exclusivity agreement to try to cut a deal to get HB4369 through conference.
That legislation, passed through the Senate (20-18) in December 201 would allow any number of entities -- including the EAA! but not naming specifically the EAA! -- to take over Districts like Pontiac who don't have fellas like L. Brooks Patterson and John Pappageorge standing in the way.
Flanagan, fast becoming something of a cartoon, had just told the whole state in December that anyone who opposed the EAA should be "ashamed" of themselves.
But the public education community -- as is, unfortunately, its habit -- circled the wagons around Mr. Flanagan's crass and clumsy flip flopping on the EAA.
"Mike was okay an okay guy as a regional superintendent" is the logic so he should be allowed to throw MI public education down the toilet to preserve his dignity as he moves in to retirement.
Got it.
To be fair, though, none of this new political climate seems to make sense. Republicans are bad for education right? Democrats good? So why is President Obama leading this charge to close schools? And why are folks like John Pappageorge stopping it, keeping whole Districts open? Why is Mike Flanagan trying to weasel the EAA state codification through legislation while reps from Oakland and Macomb County are joining a true Democratic hero Ellen Lipton? Why is John Austin -- an Ann Arbor proto-type politician if there ever was one -- supporting the EAA, too?
In March, in a blizzard, things just get blurry.
State Superintendents should want schools to stay open, right? But Michigan's Supe wants them closed. Or, at least he wants them consolidated. He wants District administrators concentrating on education, not "burgers and buses" he says.
And if Districts consolidated that would be the case. Yet Superintendents all over the state have had to become political activists, leaders in their own right, spending time on far more than burgers and buses.
Here is Livonia' Randy Liepa spending more time in Lansing than changing the oil of the school bus:http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140227/POLITICS02/302270103
And thank God he is! His "classrooms" budget just might help. I have been dazzled by the intelligence and courage of any number of Superintendents across the state suddenly engaged in a war they probably never imagined having to fight. Rod Rock? Rob Glass? Britten? That is just off the top of my head.
But where is Mike "Burgers and Buses" Flanagan?
In terms of education, the "mitten" state is starting to look more like a Donut. There is a big whole in the middle in terms of leadership but plenty of growth and tantalizing bits around the edges. Or is that the wagons protecting the feeble in the empty middle?
I just don't know. Spring is on the way, I am sure. I just don't know exactly what it will look like. It does look like the EAA will blossom and grow, though, in this strange new environment where bad is good, up is down, right is left, and Mike Flanagan is just a swell guy.
