Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

The world is getting to know Friendship House MSU in East Lansing

 

This is a group shot that I took yesterday after a class where a local pharmacist explained how American medicines are dispensed.

Go ahead and ask me about what's been pushing my buttons lately in a positive way?  I'd have to mention Friendship House MSU in East Lansing where I've been a volunteer for more than a year.

It's a place where about two decades ago a bunch of forward-thinking Lutherans saw the need for a place where Michigan State University Internationals could sharpen their English skills through a variety of learning experiences including classes.  They shared their ministry vision and bought a house across the street from campus.

Today, it's a place of learning and refuge for International students and their families from around the world.  

It's staffed by volunteers who are doing it as "love reflectors."  They are just reflecting the love they have received from Jesus Christ.  They are passing it on.  It's just that simple.

I'm really happy that a friend, Rich Bearup, the executive director, asked me to help build their social media presence right after he took the job.  I could say that the place is a real point of light.  It more of a blast of light in a world that far too often is dark.

LINK: What about redshirting or holding kids back from kindergarten?

I just saw this piece on 60 Minutes about holding kids back from starting kindergaren.  It's called redshirting and more and more are starting school at six.  Is there an advantage?  Are there any state laws against this?

Are Michigan Republicans really trying to turn the state's schools from public to private?

Is this just more rhetorical flatulence from the school lobby in Michigan or are state Republicans trying to turn our public schools into private schools?

This is what State Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, charged at a public forum in Kalamazoo.  He says that Republicans want to privatize every public service and turn them over to a system driven by profits.

For schools, he points to a Republican bill to dramatically increase the number of charter schools in the state.  Many are run by private management companies that function in a profit-making environment.

What's bad about this?  Are students worse off in charter schools?  Is there any evidence of that?

What's the worry?

What do September's auto sales mean for Michigan's economy?

General Motors Co. surged 20 percent in September over the same time last year. Chrysler Group LLC, the Fiat SpA-controlled automaker reputed to have a bare product cupboard, delivered a 27 percent gain. Ford Motor Co. improved 9 percent for the month, with F-Series pickups notching their best month of the year.

via detnews.com

Auto sales continued to shoot up last month with GM leading the pack with a 20 percent sales increase over the same time last year.

What does this mean for Michigan? Unemployment in our state continues to be high and good luck in finding a job, any job. At least, that's the perception.

Read the column this morning by Daniel Howes of the Detroit News and you see a pretty rosy picture of the auto industry. All the pieces seem to be working well. The companies are well managed for once, he says. Union contracts have been trimmed back to a realistic size. And the car companies are building cars that people want to buy.

Things are good or at least getting better with the auto industry. Right?

Who's to blame for the illiteracy in Michigan, teachers and/or parents?

Detroit Free Press this morning says that illiteracy is part of what's holding back southeast Michigan and the rest of the state from further economic development.  How big is the problem?  Why aren't people learning to read?  Incompetent teachers or parents not taking responsiblity?

How many Michigan school districts are like L'Anse Creuse in Macomb County and dying on the financial vine?

Michigan's public schools are dependent on the state for their financial lifeblood.  It was purposefully designed that way back in the 1990's during the time of Gov. John Engler and a Republican-controlled legislature.  As our state tax collections inch back up, the present Gov. Rick Snyder and another Republican-controlled legislature has denied school district funds they need to maintain.

Take this example of the L'Anse Creuse School District in Macomb County just north of Detroit.  According to Capitol Confidential by the Mackinac Center, the school district's administrators are projecting severe financial deficits for the next few years.  If they can't eliminate these, the district risks being taken over by the state.

The story recounts how the district's board of education approved a three-year contract with its teachers and how one board member, a teacher in another district, voted against the new agreements because of its length.  With the dire projections she felt the length of the contract was too long and too risky.

Great point and it's illustrative of the condition of our state's school districts.  Many seem to be tottering on the edge. 

It seems like our school districts are on the edge of financial chaos at a period of time when they have never been more important.

Is that an overstatement?  How do you track their situation with the paucity of local news?  Should legislators and the governor be held accountable for whatever happens?

Why aren't Grand Rapids-area parents excited about cuts to their local schools?

Check out this story from the Grand Rapids Press about more than 500 area parents who crammed a meeting with state lawmakers about drastic cuts in state aid to their local public schools.  Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers participated with the GOP members of the Michigan Legislature trying to justify cuts that could send some local school districts into bankruptcy.

The lawmakers are trying to defend the cuts proposed by Gov. Rick Synder to pay for a massive tax cut to our state's main business tax.  Republicans seemed to be telling parents at the meeting that less school aid will actually end up being more.

Read the story and then ask yourself if parents are buying the Republican arguments for making massive cuts to local schools. 

How is your local school district being affected?  What will the consequences of the cuts for your local school district?  Good or bad?

Have Michigan leaders thrown up their hands in defeat over Detroit Public Schools?

Read this story in today's Detroit News about the new state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools and you are left with one question:  Has the state of Michigan given-up on fixing the Motor City's school system?

The new guy, Roy Roberts, says that to save money for the troubled city schools, he's not willing to expand high school class size to 60 students as had been talked about by his predecessor.  Every teacher who has been in the classroom for more than a day knows classes should not even be half that size for effective teaching and learning.

Look at the Michigan Legislature, Gov. Rick Snyder, the Detroit newspapers and you seem to see one conclusion:  They have thrown up their hands and are punting on the learning future of Motown kids. 

What's the answer?

Northern Michigan's Atlanta Community School have four day week

Atlanta Community Schools in northeast Michigan have started holding classes just four days a week to save money.  They still meet the state's required number of class hours for the year, but they do it in a fewer number of days each week.

This Chicago Tribune story says it has had added side benefits with school attendance improving.

Are there other school districts in Michigan or around the country doing the same thing?  What has been the reaction?

THE MICHIGAN UGLY: What will Gov. Granholm line-item veto from remaining budget bills?

Michigan's dysfunction in the political arena will probably continue today when Gov. Granholm is expected to use her line-item veto on remaining budget bills.  What will those be?  Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop warns that the money won't be replaced.  It's time for a governor and for legislators who know how to govern that builds, rather than tears down.  Stay tuned.  Here's the story from the Lansing State Journal about what's expected.

Is it time to pull the plug on the MSU School of Journalism?

I've always been proud of being an alum of the Michigan State University School of Journalism.

But I seriously wonder if it has reached the end of its lifecycle.  It seems to be stuck in the past which has been like a deep hole that it will never emerge from.

Newspapers served a vital historical role in this country.  But for the most part they're either dying or dead. And the MSU School of Journalism which used to be one of the top "j-schools" in the country is not in the hunt to reinvent what the new journalism looks like.

How many millions of tax dollars does it get?  Living in the past can be fun in the coffee shop, but not in the real world where change seems to be happening at warp speed.  Maybe it's time to let go of this once proud part of academia.

Where's the independent eyes and ears of the media to help people learn and to see the truth of what's happening?  They have hearing aids with dying batteries and big cataracts causing almost blindness.

Check these figures in a Tech Crunch post about declining circulation of major U.S. newspapers.  It's sad.  We all lose because of the decline of the news media.  

Michigan needs to listen to Tom Watkins' ideas for public school changes

Michigan's public schools don't have enough money to pay their bills and they will have to change.

Tom Watkins has some ideas about what needs to happen.  He's the former state superintendent of schools who has always been a forward thinker in education.

Read this article from the Grand Rapids Press describing what he's proposing and click on the links for more details.

Any reaction, comments? 

Saginaw's State Sen. Roger Kahn explains more about MI state school aid battle

Michigan's state school aid battle is confusing and hard to understand for the person who's not involved in the issue at the State Capitol.  Here in the grassroots we are hearing a variety of voices, one side saying that taxes have to be raised to support local schools and the other saying the money's there and has been appropriated.

State Sen. Roger Kahn, a Republican from Saginaw, added this explanation on my Facebook page.  It's helpful, I think.

Roger Kahn

There was revenue passed from the senate that the House has not taken up that addressed the shortfalls. The shortfall occurred because the original budget was rejected in the House because they wanted more money.... The budget was renegotiated and 100M was added ( covered by the senate revenue) and... now the House has not passed the revenue source... Very dissapointing.

Michigan legislators need blogs where they share more about what they are doing and what they are thinking.  There's a real need for real transparency and not the phonied-up variety that just serves partisan purposes.

Thank-you Sen. Kahn.

How are your schools in the Saginaw area affected?

Anybody else have a word of explanation?

Here's how mid-Michigan schools are being affected by school aid cuts and vetoes

The Lansing State Journal reports in this online afternoon report about how mid-Michigan schools are affected by state shcool aid cuts and vetoes.

MICHIGAN UGLY: State budget meltdown continues with Gov. Granholm school aid veto

What's happening at the Michigan State Capitol right now is just getting downright ugly.  The lack of relationship between her and the State Legislature is billboarding to the nation our state's inability to govern itself.

The latest installment is reported in this morning's Detroit Free Press which reports about her line-item veto of portions of the state school aid bill.  With the school year underway, she singled out the school aid for the more affluent school districts in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties.  She cut the extra state aid these districts have gotten because of their higher tax base.

This is added to the $165 per student cut which will be made to all school districts.

What's the answer?  

The state of Michigan needs to adjust that its economy will never again, at least not for a long time, produce the revenue to pay for all the services it has.  Will increasing taxes on individuals and families and on businesses be an incentive for growth?

I don't think so.

My wife's first Flip video: Helping your kids learn new words

My wife recently retired from her third grade classroom and has started using what she's learned in a blog:  Mrs. Thorp's Third Grade Classroom at www.mrsthorp.com .  Today, we shot a Flip camera video showing how parents can use letters from their Scrabble game or a bag of letters purchased from the Dollar Store.

In this video, she shows how to use words your kid's already know to make new words.  These are exercises she used in the classroom and with our own kids.

I invite you to view and share the video and comment with your thoughts and questions.  It should on her blog by the end of the day.

Revisiting my post about the Mackinac Center and its views about teachers

Two days ago I wrote a post about a barbeque hosted in Lansing by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Jack McHugh. 

It was supposed to be a chance to socialize with other bloggers from around the state, eat some good food and hear an education researcher from Arkansas. 

When the researcher was introduced by our host, I heard Jack put down teachers and I heard those at the party cheer what he had to say.  Being there with my wife, a third grade teacher, I was embarrassed.  I am a conservative who believes in individual freedom and the free market.  But . . . I've seen up close and personal how my wife has agonized over each and every student to see that they reach their individual learning potential.

Since I wrote that post I've had a chance to talk to a Mackinac Center staffer and I'd like to share my observations gained from this conversation:

• In a comment on my original post, Chetley Zarko raised the valid question of why I waited three months to blog about it and why I didn't talk to the party's host about my complaint.  Again, a valid question.

My wife gave this Mackinac Center education expert a piece of her mind

It was a barbeque sponsored by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy of Midland, MI where classroom teachers were mocked and degraded and with the gusto usually reserved for a Michigan State-University of Michigan football game.

This is the one Mackinac Center function where I invited my wife.  I wanted her to meet persons who I had worked with in the past, blogged with and whose free market focus I agreed with.  The guest of honor was a young education researcher who had earlier in the day presented to a group of legislators and legislative staffers.

When I invited "super-wife" I thought she'd enjoy it being a third grade teacher who was nearing retirement from the classroom.  Little did I know.

The guest of honor--Marc Holley from Arkansas-- was introduced by the host for the barbeque who warmed the predominantly male crowd into a screed against teachers.  As they ate their burgers and drank whatever, the host shouted out about the lazy, inept and incompetent teachers in Michigan and everybody cheered.

The anti-teacher venom continued and the cheering got louder.

Then the guest of honor started talking for a few minutes.  Check out his Teacher Quality Primer where he talks about reforming and improving teachers.

Are Michigan's standards for high school graduates too tough?

I remember when the Michigan Legislature toughened the requirements for high school graduation.  I don't remember what they are, but they supposedly raised the bar a whole lot higher.  Does anybody have a link leading to a description of this new level?

Michigan lawmakers are looking to take some of the starch out of the changes.  They've looked at struggles state students are having with algebra requirements among other things.

What's the experience with this new level of expectation for high school students?

As the August primary elections and the November general approaches, I'm anxious to learn more.

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Tags: michigan, high schools, high shool curriculum, high school dropouts, math teachers, michigan legislature

What's it going to take to fix Detroit Public Schools?

Everybody in Michigan, from Houghton-Hancock to St. Joseph should be asking why Detroit Public Schools are failing?

Read today's story in the Detroit Free Press about Detroit schools superintendent Dr. Connie Calloway and your heart has to hurt for the city's school-age children and their parents.  From news accounts, it seems like the city's school system is in a death spiral that it can't pull out of.

The story says:

Calloway inherited a district with the country's worst enrollment drop, decreasing per-pupil funding and the lowest graduation rate among big-city districts. She was brought to town to make sweeping change.

This is not a Republican or Democratic issue.  It's a kid issue.  They need to have hope for the future.  A good education is a big part of that.

What's the answer?

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Tags: detroit, detroit public schools, michigan, charter schools, high school graduation rates