Mi Democrats Opposition to EAA and school "Reform" doesn't cut it -- looks more and more like a simple act of bad faith.

This week the EAA state wide codification issue will either be approved by the Republican controlled Senate -- meaning the Governor successfully has traded votes for a very, bad and unpopular albeit well funded idea -- or it will disappear for a time, perhaps until the November elections have decided things.

Or may be in the summer.

Given this has been such a legislative debacle, the Michigan Democrats have seized on the EAA as a winner for them, of course.

Senators Hopgood and Johnson have fought this issue for some time. Bravo.

The state's most popular political blogger, Eclectablog, brilliantly generated a series of posts  www.eclectablog.com that exposed serious problems with the EAA.

And God Bless Ellen Lipton for intelligence, decency, sanity, and superhuman work habits. The whole of the state owes her a thank you.

But if the Mi Democrats seek to make this particular issue a mark against Republicans and Gov. Snyder (and it is) they should spend some time reflecting on how they themselves got us here.


1) There is no EAA without President Obama's Race to the Top intrusion in to local control. 

2) There is no EAA without Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's praise on their advertisementshttp://icansoar.org/ (although he not yet appeared on their late night TV 20 commercials, promising to teach children "twice as much" in the way car dealerships sell cars to Detroiters promising that credit reports don't matter).  The Democrats have two full years to go with Secretary Duncan who has the President's unwavering support.

3) There is no EAA withou Chelsea Clinton, perhaps the next Secretary of Education (now that we completely have foregone credentials and experience for the post), promising her soon to be born child to the EAA for education. 

4) There is no EAA without Jennifer Granholm who was all in in 2009.

5) There is no EAA without the Broad Family Foundation (lifelong Democrats and now full time education "reformers"). 

6) There is no EAA without the Teach for America organization, stuffed with "liberal" Democrats. 

7) There is no EAA with out two slightly crazy House Democrats, Santana and Olumba, turning their back on their party to talk about "keeping it real in the hood." 

8) There is no EAA without the quietism of the Eastern Michigan University faculty (mostly Democrats, I wager) who refused to back en masse their brave education faculty in challenging the University's Governor appointed Board of Regents. That situation marks, perhaps, a wider national disconnect between education faculty and the universities that house them.

9) There is no EAA without State School Board President John Austin (an Ann Arbor Democrat if there ever was one) supporting it on national websites. 

10) And there is no EAA without the MDE and State Superintendent, himself an example of the public education "Peter principle" on high, a system that promotes leaders based on gender, cronyism, and how well they approximate the look and manner of a 1960s high school boys' basketball coach. Mr. Flanagan, we need to remember, told everyone in December 2013 they should be ashamed of themselves for opposing the EAA.

So: Until the Democratic Party decides where it stands on education "reform" they are acting on "bad faith" here and elsewhere, trying to act as champions of public education.

They served that role for some years, of course. But the Michigan Democratic Party needs to decide where they stand now.