michigan

The Legislature continued its tradition of waiting to the last minute to reach a final compromise. Thursday produced long days of waiting for a deal to be struck between the House, Senate and Governor's office. It took negotiations and wordsmithing through the day on Friday and into the wee hours of Saturday morning, but the Legislature completed its work on the "Race to the Top" reforms with some weekend holiday shopping time left Saturday.

The $4,000 scholarship for 96,000 Michigan college students was eliminated under a higher education conference committee report just reported out on a 4–2 vote.

Chair Rep. Joan Bauer (D-Lansing) voted against the budget along with Sen. Jim Barcia (D-Bay City). While it is unusual for a chair to oppose their own budget bill, Ms. Bauer said she couldn’t support the cuts to the Promise Grant and other scholarship programs.

Rep. George Cushingberry Jr. (D-Detroit) joined the three Republican members in voting the conference report approved.

Mr. Cushingberry said he plans to bring up a supplemental budget out at some point to restore funding for the Promise Grant.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today released a comprehensive report entitled "Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline," which documents a trend amongst school districts to enforce severe disciplinary policies and practices that push children permanently out of the classroom without regard for the long-term impact. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our children.

As a majority of states begin work on national education standards, Michigan could provide a model for that final product, Department of Education officials told Gongwer News Service.

Michigan is one of the 46 states and Washington, D.C., signed on to develop national core content standards for particularly reading and math for K-12 students. But in addition to having officials attending the work sessions on the project, Michigan will also benefit from having just developed its own standards, said spokesperson Jan Ellis.

"When Michigan set its standards, they were reviewed by many of the same groups developing the common core," Ms. Ellis said. "Michigan's a unique leader in that sense. We will likely be a model for other states to follow."

Federal aid won't fix all Michigan's budget woes
By TIM MARTIN | Associated Press Writer
2:20 PM CST, January 19, 2009
LANSING, Mich. - An upcoming federal stimulus package is expected to help ease Michigan's state budget crunch.
But state politicians caution against relying too much on the federal plan, saying Michigan officials must make tough decisions to contain government spending regardless of what help may be coming from Washington.
The economic stimulus plan developing in Congress and backed by President-elect Barack Obama could cost $825 billion or more in spending and tax cuts over a two-year period. It's not yet known how much money will come to Michigan in the final package.

CAREER EDUCATION: The board next month will be approving standards for career and technical education programs that will allow the standardized testing required under new federal law.

Patty Cantu, director of the Office of Career and Technical Education, said the standards are based on industry requirements for the various programs as well as, to the extent possible, the state's high school curriculum requirements.
"It's business and industry that has to guide us on what the knowledge and skills the students have to have," she said.

But the requirements also provide some standard requirements across the 16 CTE clusters provided in the federal law.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION: The department unveiled Tuesday a new brochure for districts and parents explaining its idea of, and the board policies surrounding, universal education. But the discussion also gave opening for further concerns over the state high school graduation requirements.

Though drawn from some ideas circulating around special education, the policy is aimed at ensuring the resources students, teachers and families need to provide each child an appropriate education.

Fearing a push by legislators to physically consolidate school districts as a way to save operations funds, the State Board of Education pushed for recommendations in the coming months to encourage local and intermediate districts to consolidate more of the non-instructional services they offer.

Members of the board's Consolidation of Services Committee said Tuesday that recent and expected education funding cuts, or cost increases, are already pushing many districts to look at ways of sharing resources. But they were not sure if there was need for board policy or legislation to nudge more districts in that direction.

On behalf of the citizens of Michigan, I, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, do hereby proclaim the week of February 8, 2009 as

Principals Week

WHEREAS, Principals Week is dedicated to recognizing the significant contributions of Michigan’s elementary and middle school principals and the dedication they have for providing quality educational experiences and guidance to their students; and,

WHEREAS, Together, teachers and principals strive to create a conducive environment for students to learn and strive to encourage students to continue to learn as it is a lifelong process; and,