User:Jon Awbrey/FREEP

Jun 19, 2011 — Pro-Democracy Group Targets Emergency Manager Law

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Freep -- Pro-Democracy Group Targets Emergency Manager Law

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Pro-democracy group targets Michigan's new emergency manager law (June 19, 2011)

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110619/NEWS06/106190507/Pro-democracy-group-targets-Michigan-s-new-emergency-manager-law

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Comment 1

The Governor and his Privateers are starving the Public Sector in Michigan out of existence for a reason, so that private corporations can complete their hostile takeover of all public services. They stopped being content with tax abatements, bailouts, bribes, incentives, kickbacks, and worker concessions a long time ago — they want nothing less than the automatic funneling of tax dollars directly into their private corporate bankrolls without the annoying interference of all us pesky commoners.

Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”

• http://www.educationreport.org/15050

Lansing State Journal • “Going Private? — Snyder, Republicans Put New Focus On Merits Of Privatization”

• http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110515/NEWS04/105150528/GOING-PRIVATE-Snyder-Republicans-put-new-focus-merits-privatization

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Comment 2

ALEC's Restaurant

More information is coming to light about the move by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, the Mackinac Center, and related entities to co-opt our elected officials into serving their corporate ends, namely, to privatize not only public education, but all current public services, indeed, our very government itself.

Here is an article that came out this week —

Amanda Terkel • “Privatization At The Heart Of Divisive Battles In Wisconsin”
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/17/privatization-wisconsin_n_873871.html

<quote>
The American Legislative Exchange Council is one of the groups most actively advocating privatization nationwide. It has 2500 legislative members, which is about a third of all state lawmakers around the country. One of its most valuable functions is crafting model legislation that lawmakers can then use to propose real bills in their own states. In the past few years, ALEC-inspired legislation has been popping up with increased frequency around the country.

The group just launched “Publicopoly”, a Monopoly-like board game as part of an “initiative to provide solutions for a more effective, efficient government, and a thriving economy”. Visitors to Publicopoly are able to learn about privatizing seven sectors: government operations, education, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, environment, health, and telecommunications.
</quote>

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Comment 3

There are now several sites where readers can begin getting up to speed on the “starve and supplant” tactics that the ALEC Axis is bringing to bear on several States at once. Here's 3 for starters:

Democracy Watchdog Action Network
• https://www.facebook.com/democracy.watchdog.action.network

Wear Red For Public Ed
• https://www.facebook.com/wearredforpubliced

Support Bill Cronon
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Bill-Cronon/163419837045434

Bill Cronon is a distinguished history professor who came under attack when he wrote an article about ALEC and the Mackinac Center, so the people who came to his defense began collecting data about these issues.

Related tags at the Daily Kos —

• http://www.dailykos.com/news/ALEC

• http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Exposing%20ALEC

Current updates at the Daily Kos —

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/09/983573/-Exposing-ALECJune-Update-on-ALEC-Activities,-Articles-and-Links

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/15/985433/-EXPOSING-ALEC2nd-Update-with-important-news-and-links

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Jun 19, 2011 — Rick Snyder To Announce Sweeping DPS Reforms

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Freep -- Rick Snyder To Announce Sweeping DPS Reforms

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Rick Snyder to announce sweeping DPS reforms Monday (June 19, 2011)

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110619/NEWS01/110619015/Rick-Snyder-announce-sweeping-DPS-reforms-Monday

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Comment 1

Here's a good update on some of the things that educators, parent activists, and others will be doing over the Summer to protect our system of democratic education from hostile takeover by corporations, ideologues, and other private interests.

Frustrated Educators Aim To Build Grassroots Movement

• http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/15/35activists_ep.h30.html

<quote>
Thousands of educators, parent activists, and others are expected to convene in the heat and humidity of Washington next month for a march protesting the current thrust of education policy in the United States, especially the strong emphasis on test-based accountability.

Organizers say the effort aims to galvanize and give voice to those who believe policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and state governors, have gone astray in their remedies for improving American schools.
</quote>

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Comment 2

The following Facebook page is a good resource for learning how communities across the nation are dealing with the ongoing degradation of their public education systems.

Wear Red For Public Ed

• http://www.facebook.com/wearredforpubliced

Many people across the country are beginning to realize that there is a coordinated campaign by corporate-dominated State governments to turn back the clock on American education to something more like the systems of private privilege we once had the good sense to revolt against.

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Comment 3

Here's a good article that will help Michiganders understand the brand of Billionaire Boys' Club financed PR campaign that we can expect to see in Detroit and the State over the coming year —

Michael T. Martin • Waiting For SuperFraud

• http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/

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Comment 4

Anyone with a working long-term memory knows where this agenda to “Starve Public Schools Out Of Existence” came from.

Good thing there's web search for the rest of us —

Richard DeVos Advocates “Stealth” Strategy Against Public Education

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fTAhc4QC4

Blackwater In-Law DeVos Outlines “Stealth” Plot Against Public Education

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/04/972949/-Blackwater-In-Law-DeVos-outlines-stealth-plot-against-Public-Education

Strategy for Privatizing Public Schools Spelled out by Dick DeVos in 2002 Heritage Foundation Speech

• http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/3/12515/58655/Front_Page/Strategy_for_Privatizing_Public_Schools_Spelled_out_by_Dick_D

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Comment 5

Just in case anyone thinks these Educational Privateers are relics of bygone days, here's a couple of recent stories that show us what they have in mind for one of democracy's most precious resources.

The United Gates Of America

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/22/978218/-The-United-Gates-of-America

Rupert Murdoch, Who Bought 90% Of An Education Software Provider, Launches Initiative “To Make Education A Top Issue In 2012 Presidential Campaign”

• http://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-education-2012-presidential-campaign-2011-5

Here's another good article on the ongoing program by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, et al. to destroy public education:

Jim Hightower • “Billionaires' Front Groups Attack Workers, Public Schools, and Young Voters”

• http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2680

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Comment 6 (Reply)

Read the “Waiting For SuperFraud” article I posted earlier.

The extra cash from so-called “philanthropists” is what is is known as a Loss Leader. Big bucks will be pumped into the system to make it look like the reforms are a smashing success. If that strategy works the way it has in other States and DC, a lot of data will have to be cooked in order to make it look that way. Never mind the small stuff, the truth won't matter. More big bucks will be pumped into rah-rah ads and corporate media “documentaries” to cover up the facts. By the time anyone figures out what is really going down, the school system will be too far down the road to for-profit privatization to have much chance of turning back.

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Comment 7

What Can We Do to Stop the Madness?

Repealing PA4 (the Emergency Manager Law) would be a good beginning —

Freep Stories —

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110619/NEWS06/106190507/Pro-democracy-group-targets-Michigan-s-new-emergency-manager-law

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110618/NEWS06/110618018/Petition-drive-seeks-repeal-Michigan-s-emergency-manager-law

Facebook Page —
• https://www.facebook.com/rejectemergencymanagers

Main Website —
• https://sites.google.com/site/rejectemergencymanagers/home

Recalling Snyder and his gang of Privateers in the Legislature would be another good start —

• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Governor-Rick-Snyder/113418962065885
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/community/all-events-list

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Comment 8

The Governor and his Privateers are starving the Public Sector in Michigan out of existence for a reason, so that private corporations can complete their hostile takeover of all public services. They stopped being content with tax abatements, bailouts, incentives, kickbacks, and worker concessions a long time ago — they want nothing less than the automatic funneling of tax dollars directly into their private corporate bankrolls without the annoying interference of all us pesky commoners.

Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”

• http://www.educationreport.org/15050

Lansing State Journal • “Going Private? — Snyder, Republicans Put New Focus On Merits Of Privatization”

• http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110515/NEWS04/105150528/GOING-PRIVATE-Snyder-Republicans-put-new-focus-merits-privatization

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Comment 9

ALEC's Restaurant

More information is coming to light about the move by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, the Mackinac Center, and related entities to co-opt our elected officials into serving their corporate ends, namely, to privatize not only public education, but all current public services, indeed, our very government itself.

Here's an article that came out this week —

Amanda Terkel • “Privatization At The Heart Of Divisive Battles In Wisconsin”
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/17/privatization-wisconsin_n_873871.html

<quote>
The American Legislative Exchange Council is one of the groups most actively advocating privatization nationwide. It has 2500 legislative members, which is about a third of all state lawmakers around the country. One of its most valuable functions is crafting model legislation that lawmakers can then use to propose real bills in their own states. In the past few years, ALEC-inspired legislation has been popping up with increased frequency around the country.

The group just launched “Publicopoly”, a Monopoly-like board game as part of an “initiative to provide solutions for a more effective, efficient government, and a thriving economy”. Visitors to Publicopoly are able to learn about privatizing seven sectors: government operations, education, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, environment, health, and telecommunications.
</quote>

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Comment 10

Be Careful How Much Sunshine You Wish For, ALEC !

There are now several sites where readers can begin getting up to speed on the “starve and supplant” tactics that the ALEC Axis is bringing to bear on several States at once. Here's 3 for starters:

Democracy Watchdog Action Network
• https://www.facebook.com/democracy.watchdog.action.network

Wear Red For Public Ed
• https://www.facebook.com/wearredforpubliced

Support Bill Cronon
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Bill-Cronon/163419837045434

Bill Cronon is a distinguished history professor who came under attack when he wrote an article about ALEC and the Mackinac Center, so the people who came to his defense began collecting data about these issues.

Related tags at the Daily Kos —

• http://www.dailykos.com/news/ALEC

• http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Exposing%20ALEC

Current updates at the Daily Kos —

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/09/983573/-Exposing-ALECJune-Update-on-ALEC-Activities,-Articles-and-Links

• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/15/985433/-EXPOSING-ALEC2nd-Update-with-important-news-and-links

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Comment 11

Reply to comment on “High Level People” —

You misspelled “High Leverage People” = Hedge Fund Managers.

Yeah, that will EFM Good !

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Comment 12

Additional remarks on the “Waiting For SuperFraud” article that I posted earlier.

Michael T. Martin • Waiting For SuperFraud
• http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/

The extra cash from so-called “philanthropists” is what is known as a “Loss Leader”. Big bucks will be pumped into the system to make it look like the reforms are a smashing success. If that strategy works the way it has in other States and Washington, DC, a lot of data will have to be cooked and lot of Agenda-Driven Statistification (ADS) will have to be trumpeted all over the corporate air waves to make it look like there was any improvement at all.

Never mind the small stuff, the truth won't matter. More big bucks will be pumped into rah-rah ads and corporate media “documentaries” to cover up the facts. By the time anyone figures out what is really going down, the school system will be so far down the road to privatization for corporate profit that it will take the People all they can do to keep any shreds of equal opportunity education at all.

You have to understand that these people are not philanthropists — “lovers of humanity” — they are investors.  They don't give money away — they invest money for the sake of making more money, acting in tandem with their ego-driven need to force their personal ideology on the rest of the world.  It does not make an ounce of difference to them how much they destroy the American way of life in the process.

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Jun 21, 2011 — New Start For Detroit's Worst Schools

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Freep -- New Start For Detroit's Worst Schools

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New start for Detroit's worst schools (June 21, 2011)

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110621/NEWS01/106210383/New-start-Detroit-s-worst-schools

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Comment 1

The Broad Axe Falls Again …

Seattle Education Blog • “The Broad Foundation”
• http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/race-to-the-top/the-broad-foundation/

One thing we've learned about the Corporate Privateers is that it doesn't really matter what their PR says — the agenda is always the same.

Say hello to the East India Teaching Company !

Recall !

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Governor-Rick-Snyder/113418962065885
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/community/all-events-list

Repeal !

• http://www.facebook.com/rejectemergencymanagers
• http://sites.google.com/site/rejectemergencymanagers/home

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Comment 2

Here's a good article that will help Michiganders understand the brand of PR blitz — bankrolled by the Billionaire Boys (and Betsy) Club — that we can expect to see broadcast all over Detroit and Michigan in the upcoming year:

Michael T. Martin • “Waiting For SuperFraud”
• http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/

The invasion of cash from so-called “philanthropists” is what is known in the Biz as a “Loss Leader”. Big bucks will be pumped into the system to make it look like the reforms are a smashing success. If that strategy works the way it has in other States and Washington, DC, a lot of data will get cooked and lot of Agenda-Driven Statistification (ADS) will get trumpeted all over the Corporate Air Waves in order to make it look like there was any improvement at all.

Never mind the small stuff, the truth won't matter. More big bucks will be pumped into rah-rah ads and corporate media “documentaries” to cover up the facts. By the time the Public figures out what is really going down, the school system will be so far down the road to privatization for corporate cash, command, and control that it will take the People all they can do to keep any shred of equal opportunity education at all.

You have to understand that these people are not philanthropists — “lovers of humanity” — they are investors. They don't give money away — they invest money for the sake of making more money, acting in tandem with their ego-driven need to force their personal ideology on the rest of the world. It does not make an ounce of difference to them if they have to destroy the American way of life as just so much collateral damage.

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Comment 3 (Reply)

The reason for the quick reaction is that the better-informed readers on this site already know the history of Corporate Ideology Groups (CIGs) like ALEC, the Broad Foundation, the DeVos family, the Koch brothers, the Mackinac Center, and all the other Privateers who are pushing this agenda.  We don't have to Wait & See what they have in mind for Michigan because we have read the history of what they have done elsewhere and we have read the plans that come out of their own doublethink tanks for their dreams of a Colonial Plantation America (CPA).

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Comment 4

Here's a good update on some of the things that educators, parent activists, and others will be doing over the Summer to protect our system of democratic education from hostile takeover by corporations, ideologues, and other private interests.

Education Week • “Frustrated Educators Aim To Build Grassroots Movement”
• http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/15/35activists_ep.h30.html

❝
Thousands of educators, parent activists, and others are expected to convene in the heat and humidity of Washington next month for a march protesting the current thrust of education policy in the United States, especially the strong emphasis on test-based accountability.

Organizers say the effort aims to galvanize and give voice to those who believe policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and state governors, have gone astray in their remedies for improving American schools.
❞

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Comment 5

The following Facebook page is a good resource for learning how communities across the nation are dealing with the ongoing degradation of their public education systems.

Facebook • Wear Red For Public Ed
• http://www.facebook.com/wearredforpubliced

Many people across the country are beginning to realize that there is a coordinated campaign by corporate-dominated State governments to turn back the clock on American education to something more like the systems of private privilege we once had the good sense to revolt against.

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

Comment 6

Anyone with a working long-term memory knows where this agenda to “Starve Public Schools Out Of Existence” came from.

Good thing there's web search for the rest of us —

Richard DeVos Advocates “Stealth” Strategy Against Public Education
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fTAhc4QC4

Blackwater In-Law DeVos Outlines “Stealth” Plot Against Public Education
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/04/972949/-Blackwater-In-Law-DeVos-outlines-stealth-plot-against-Public-Education

Strategy for Privatizing Public Schools Spelled out by Dick DeVos in 2002 Heritage Foundation Speech
• http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/3/12515/58655/Front_Page/Strategy_for_Privatizing_Public_Schools_Spelled_out_by_Dick_D

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Comment 7

Just in case anyone thinks these Educational Privateers are relics of bygone days, here's a couple of recent stories that indicate what they have in mind for one of democracy's most precious resources —

Daily Kos • “The United Gates Of America”
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/22/978218/-The-United-Gates-of-America

Business Insider • “Rupert Murdoch, Who Bought 90% Of An Education Software Provider, Launches Initiative ‘To Make Education A Top Issue In 2012 Presidential Campaign’”
• http://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-education-2012-presidential-campaign-2011-5

Here's another couple of articles on the ongoing program by ALEC, DeVos, Koch, Mackinac Center, and others to destroy public education —

Jim Hightower • “Billionaires' Front Groups Attack Workers, Public Schools, and Young Voters”
• http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2680

Michigan Populist • “Kids are Collateral Damage in Mackinac Center’s War”
• http://www.michiganpopulist.org/?p=177

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Comment 8

Starve and Supplant

The Governor and his Privateers are starving the Public Sector in Michigan out of existence for a reason, so that private corporations can complete their hostile takeover of all public services. They stopped being content with tax abatements, bailouts, incentives, kickbacks, and worker concessions a long time ago — they want nothing less than the automatic funneling of tax dollars directly into their private corporate bankrolls without the annoying interference of all us pesky commoners.

Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”
• http://www.educationreport.org/15050

Lansing State Journal • “Going Private? — Snyder, Republicans Put New Focus On Merits Of Privatization”
• http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110515/NEWS04/105150528/GOING-PRIVATE-Snyder-Republicans-put-new-focus-merits-privatization

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Comment 9 (Reply)

I've been watching all and participating in many of these movements over the years, and I always give them the benefit of the doubt at first. Sometimes I even become an enthusiast, if never quite a True Believer.

But this particular push goes back more than 20 years — we can read the Sadder Budweiser history of it from Diane Ravitch and many others — and the time for shadows of doubt is long past.

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Comment 10

Reply to a couple of earlier posts —

My concern for the future of education in Michigan comes from experience, from reading the reports of what is happening across the country as we speak, and from knowing the history of what happened with these same types of programmatic purges in the past. My concern is not based on worries about the unknown — these groups and their aims are known quantities.

If the program being pushed here were really as “unique” as its pushers advertize it to be, that would be one thing, but the current push is not the least bit new or unique, not by a long shot. All the same brands of patent nonsense notions have been sold to the public before, on a periodic basis over the last hundred years, always by the same brands of business-minded factions, people who lack the least bit of knowledge about what it takes to educate anyone, but who remain dead set on running education like a business or a factory with all the arrogant ignorance of their bean-counter efficiency.

Ten or twenty years go by, a decade or a generation gets wasted on what always turns out to be an extremely expensive excuse for “efficiency”, and then people find themselves forced to return to their senses.

Look at the people Snyder is putting in charge — automotive execs, CEOs from banking, construction, finance, hedge-funds, insurance execs, multilayer marketers, and on up the line. Do you really think it's a smart idea to turn Education over to the same sorts of people who already destroyed the Economy?

I don't think so …

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Comment 11

Michigan 4 Sale?

I think we have to recognize that the wool being pulled over our eyes in the public sector of education extends to the entire public sphere. Just by way of one indication, here's a timely article that just popped up on my newsfeed —

Dylan Ratigan • “America for Sale : Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?”
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/america-for-sale-is-goldm_b_877285.html

❝
In Chicago, it's the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it's the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it's public health and food programs, in California it's libraries. It's water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It's Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and rating agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It's bipartisan.

And it's coming to a city near you — it may already be there. We're talking about the sale of public assets to private investors. You may have heard of one-off deals, but what we'll be exploring with the Huffington Post is the scale and scope of what is a national and organized campaign to shift the way we govern ourselves. In an era of increasingly stretched local and state budgets, privatization of public assets may be so tempting to local politicians that the trend seems unstoppable. Yet, public outrage has stopped and slowed a number of initiatives.
❞

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Jun 22, 2011 — Roy Roberts To Cut Non-Teaching Jobs

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Freep -- Roy Roberts To Cut Non-Teaching Jobs

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Roy Roberts to cut non-teaching jobs, cancel supplier contracts in effort to transform DPS (June 22, 2011)

• http://www.freep.com/article/20110622/NEWS01/110622024/Roy-Roberts-cut-non-teaching-jobs-cancel-supplier-contracts-effort-transform-DPS

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Comment 1

The Broad Axe Falls Again …

Seattle Education Blog • “The Broad Foundation”
• http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/race-to-the-top/the-broad-foundation/

Seattle Education Blog • “Eli Broad’s Last Hurrah In Detroit?”
• http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/eli-broad%E2%80%99s-last-hurrah-in-detroit/

One thing we've learned about the Corporate Privateers is that it doesn't really matter what their PR says — the agenda is always the same.

Say hello to the East India Teaching Company !

I know, I know, you wish that political ads had to obey Truth in Advertising …

Sorry, you can't take your vote back, but you can do this —

Recall !

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Governor-Rick-Snyder/113418962065885
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/community/all-events-list
• http://www.firericksnyder.org/

Repeal !

• http://www.facebook.com/rejectemergencymanagers
• http://sites.google.com/site/rejectemergencymanagers/home

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Comment 2

Yet Another Rapublitzen Jobs Program …

But ya gotta look ahead, ya know …

Just think of all the jobs this will create for lawyers when the Emergency Manager Law goes belly up unconstitutional, and all those unions and suppliers sue the State for breach of contract.

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Comment 3

The Governor and his Privateers are starving the Public Sector in Michigan out of existence for a reason, so that private corporations can complete their hostile takeover of all public services. They stopped being content with tax abatements, bailouts, bribes, incentives, kickbacks, and worker concessions a long time ago — they want nothing less than the automatic funneling of tax dollars directly into their private corporate bankrolls without the annoying interference of all us pesky commoners.

Mackinac Center For Public Policy • “State Needs Privatization”

• http://www.educationreport.org/15050

Lansing State Journal • “Going Private? — Snyder, Republicans Put New Focus On Merits Of Privatization”

• http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110515/NEWS04/105150528/GOING-PRIVATE-Snyder-Republicans-put-new-focus-merits-privatization

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Comment 4

A² Resident, Catholic Nun, 26 Others Slap Governor Snyder With Suit Alleging Emergency Manager Law Unconstitutional

• http://www.a2politico.com/?p=8741

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