MI law lets one man fire public officials, end contracts, privatize services, shut down schools.

[madfloridian]

Michigan's Emergency Manager Law

The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act, also known as Public Act 4, or the Emergency Manager law, allows the governor’s appointees to remove public officials, throw out contracts, privatize services, and dissolve municipalities.

Emergency Manager law

If that is what Michigan wants to do, fine...my state is bad enough.

But it really becomes my business when Arne Duncan publicly praises this law as being good for education. Here's what it means for public education.

WHAT CAN THIS LAW DO?
The Emergency Manager has the power over ALL officers,employees,and local government officials that you elect and can SINGLE-HANDEDLY make decisions with little to no oversight. Emergency Managers can take over a school district and all the responsibilities of your school board and superintendent.

What does this mean?

They can design an academic plan EVEN THOUGH they may have NO BACKGROUND IN EDUCATION.
They can change curriculum,sell or transfer school buildings,and even CLOSE schools.
This power also means they can change,reject or TERMINATE already existing union agreements and contracts.
This will directly affect ALL unionized workers benefits and wages
Can even SUSPEND collective bargaining for up to 5 years.

Michigan's Public Act 4

So I am alarmed greatly when the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, appears to speak for this administration in praising this law in regards to education. It's shocking.

Detroit Public Schools making gains, U.S. education secretary Arne Duncan says

Duncan said he was encouraged by Michigan's leadership, including DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts, Mayor Dave Bing and state Superintendent Mike Flanagan.

"There's an alignment of talent at the highest levels that you haven't seen before," Duncan said.

In another interview he was asked more specifically about the power being given to one person.

Question: Last year, you encouraged an attempt to let voters decide whether Mayor Bing should assume control the district, and you've been very praise worthy of state-appointed emergency manager Roy Roberts. Do you believe a single accountable individual can be more effective than an elected school board in a district like Detroit?

Duncan: I think the governance structure is in a pretty good spot now. There's been some pretty significant changes. The mayor's stepped up, the governor's stepped up, and what I look for is courage and determination and a willingness to challenge the status quo. I see that. So for me the debate now is not about governance, it should strictly be about how we accelerate academic achievement. That has to be the focus of the conversation. I think Detroit and the state have put themselves in a very good position here. A lot has changed for the positive in the two years since my previous visit, and it's very, very encouraging.

Duncan interview

Not about governance? Not about governance when a governor can appoint one man to totally run a municipality and control the schools?

That is a scary thing he said.

Meanwhile people are fighting back against this one man rule.

Emergency Manager law opponents launch documentary

There is a video at the link.

The group that is coordinating an effort to repeal Michigan’s Emergency Manager law has launched an online documentary titled Dictators Over Communities of Color: Coming to a Town Near You. Michigan Forward, together with the Advancement Project and New Media Advocacy Project, has produced a seven minute documentary that features interviews with elected officials who have been stripped of power in Pontiac and Detroit.

In a message released along with the video Michigan Forward says:

Across Michigan voters have been disenfranchised in Detroit, Benton Harbor,Ecorse and Pontiac under this new legislation. More communities under the threat of Emergency Management are Flint, Highland Park and a potential 150 + school districts across Michigan.

Benton Harbor has seen the most extreme situation where an Emergency Manager has now seized total control of the entire. The order went into effect on April 14,2011 and has virtually stripped citizens of their voting power! In Pontiac,a past manager sold the treasured and historic Pontiac Silverdome stadium for only $583,000 when it cost over $55 million to build.

In Ecorse, emergency managers in both cities made major layoffs to the firefighter and police departments, outsourcing many of the jobs to neighboring cities. Lastly in Detroit,the emergency manager for the largest school system in Michigan has closed schools, and threatens to increase class sizes to 60 students,and completely ignored parent and student voices!

One group is filing a lawsuit against the state because of the law.

Plaintiff..‘This is not democracy, this is dictatorship'

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Ingham County court, citizens from across the state are asking that Michigan’s Emergency Manager law be declared unconstitutional.

The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act allows the governor to appoint Emergency Managers to take over local units of government, fire elected officials, sell off or privatize community assets and even dissolve whole cities.

The measure was rushed through the Republican-controlled legislature this spring as a move to protect against widespread municipal bankruptcies, with some of its supporters referring to it as “financial martial law.”

But in legal arguments filed in court this morning more than two dozen plaintiffs say the right of citizens to elect their local officials is guaranteed in the state Constitution and financial stress is not a legitimate ground for scrapping the democratic process.

What really truly upsets me is who was on the education panel with Arne when he was in Detroit this week.

Duncan was part of a seven-member panel that talked about current reforms in Michigan during a forum at the Charles H. Wright Academy of Arts and Sciences, a DPS school. The discussion included the Education Achievement Authority, created by Snyder in June to turn around persistently low-performing schools.

...The panel of education leaders, which also included Detroit Federation of Teachers president Keith Johnson and Detroit Parent Network leader Sharlonda Buckman, spent an hour discussing the challenges of educating children in Detroit, including low attendance, poverty, illiteracy among families in the city and a low graduation rate among DPS high schools.

Duncan: Detroit can be the fastest improving urban school district

That would be THIS Sharlonda Buckman, who in 2009 called out loud for Detroit teachers to be put in jail for bad test scores.



And the video of her words.

Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, says jail Detroit teachers.

Some parents think that teachers should be held accountable for failing Detroit's students, even suggesting jail time for school employees who don't meet their expectations. During a Saturday forum hosted by the Detroit Parent Network just after the test results were released, upset parents expressed such concerns to Bobb:

The Detroit News, Dec. 12: Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, called for jailing and civil lawsuits against anyone in the city's educational system that is not doing his or her share to help properly educate children. "Somebody needs to go to jail," she said in a tearful address to 500 parents gathered Saturday for the organization's annual breakfast forum. "Somebody needs to pay for this. Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn't be the kids."

Sometimes I wonder if Arne Duncan even knows what is going on around him. He seems unaware of education realities.

Then I wonder just how much his boss knows about what he is saying as he goes around the country. And I wonder if he would approve.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. What you have failed to discuss is:

- That this is an expansion of a law that has been in place for over 20 years.
- That some of the authority being complained about is in the original version, not just the recent update
- What it takes to get an Emergency Financial Manager appointed
- When some of the EFMs you cited were appointed (some like Benton Harbor were done by the prior Democratic govenor)
- Why EFMs were appointed by the state for the organizations that have them.
- That EFMs have powers comparable to court appointed special masters

EFMs exist to protect the people from corrupt and/or inept government bodies. Someone has to look out for people when the local government bodies can not or will not. I have mixed feelings about them but they are only used in extreme cases. In California the state is struggling to find means to protect the citizens of several small/specialized citye (Bell...). EFM laws would help immensely

[madfloridian]

2. Yes, Granholm did appoint Bobb.

If you think all that power in the hands of a governor and his appointees is all right, then we must disagree.

And I most surely do not think one person should be given the right to shut down school boards, city management, fire city officials, lay off workers, etc.

There is a name for that and it is not democracy.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Again, bankruptcy referees have similar authority, which EFMs are analogous to in many ways

Also the EFM answers to the state government, notionally the governor. He/She can step in if the EFM is being abusive.

They are not brought in unless things are already in deep yogurt. Benton Harbor for example, was an unholy mess of incompetence (at best). They are extreme measures for extreme circumstances

[madfloridian]

4. Not going to argue when it does no good.

I see great danger when stuff like this is accepted so readily. It undoes any good done by collective bargaining and union contracts through the years.

It gives so much power to one man that it actually terrifies me.

But if it is fine with you, that is your right.

I find it sickening that our Sec. of Ed thinks education will progress faster done this way.

Further I believe he is speaking for his president.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. I accept it for extreme circumstances only

I first got interested in the EFM issue over Benton Harbor for family reasons. BH was so FUBAR it was incredible. The state had to step in to protect the people from the local government/agencies. The process was initiated by the BH city manager. That is why I support in those kind of extreme situations. I have not looked into the other places they have been brought in to at the same level.

Special Masters and Bankruptcy referees already have this power. They are accountable to the courts, the EFM to the state. Neither are omnipotent bureaucrats and both can be fired. It is not fine by me when government agencies get that screwed up, and the people need to be protected from fraud and incompetence.

The real issue is if there are enough safe guards. A very fair question. Since government actions can not be taken in secret, I believe the transparency is adequate. Things rarely move fast enough that the courts/governor can not be brought in to slow things down.

Yes Arne is sick puppy...and I believe he barks for the President in many ways.

Again, I tolerate EFMs only for extreme situations only, like Benton Harbor.

[Name removed]

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[Chan790]

6. Is it fair yet to call Arne Duncan a totalitarian?

I'm not saying it epithetically, I am by education and past work experience a political scientist. Duncan's been getting ever closer to advocating for dictatorship since he was appointed Sec. of Education. I'm not certain anymore he thinks there is any action out-of-bounds for the state in the name of education reform.

[madfloridian]

8. In his mind any action in getting higher test scores is within bounds.

He is worrying me a lot.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Bet he uses "but its for the children" as one of his defenses...

[Starry Messenger]

7. k&r

[bongbong]

10. recall the fascist

http://firericksnyder.org/

[neverforget]

11. I don't understand how they can fire elected officials. I thought that's

what elections were for? :shrug:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. What our lawyer told us was...

- Anything below the state level exists at the whim of the state. It controls how things can be structured and the overall rules. When a local agency or government can not handle its own affairs the state has the power to step in.
- The EFM concept has been in place for many years, what most people focus on is the recent update. The latter was just tweaks.
- The EFM approach is used in lieu of local Government bankruptcy as a form of receivership. The EFM has powers similar to that of a bankruptcy referee or special master

My interest in it this came out of family issues related to Benton Harbor. BH was unbelievably FUBAR and is slowly getting its act together under an EFM. The then city manager of BH requested the state to intervene and the then Democratic governor is the one who reluctantly invoked the EFM laws after a study of the problems.

[Creideiki]

12. Just as God has ordained and enacted through his Christian servants

The co-option of the Republican Party by willing "Christians", is truly appalling.

[Doctor_J]

13. This state is a dictatorship, as the entire country will be soon

unless a great many things start literally blowing up, very soon, it's over. Time to either fight back, get out, or learn to live like the Rwandans.

Edit: I have tried to talk a number of friends into doing something that might turn the game around, but it ain't going to happen. Stupid rallies and petitions are as far as anyone wants to stick their necks out. What a sad lot Americans have become. And the real solution is very simple.

[madfloridian]

16. I agree with the word dictatorship. Too much power for one person.

:hi:

[mmonk]

14. The Emergency Manager law is fascism in practice.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. THAT'S some "change" we can believe in..

:nuke:

[madfloridian]

18. Yeh, ain't it though?

Not what we expected, though.

[sulphurdunn]

20. Dictatorship Saves Democracy?

Laws don't legitimize anything. People do. Dictators don't protect anyone from corrupt democracy. They merely eliminate accountability for their own corruption. Governments are elected to represent people, not rule over them. The Roman Republic kept reverting to dictatorship during times of crisis. It didn't work out so well for them. It won't for us either.

[madfloridian]

21. And if this succeeds, other right wing governor states will try it.

And people are still not paying attention...

[Doctor_J]

22. It's already succeeded

No one is challenging it. The man has the power to disband any local government he doesn't like, and replace it with hand-picked cronies. Democracy is stone dead here, and it will be across the country, probably before November 2012