The Senate Fiscal Agency released their report on school funding in Michigan. The proof that the Governor is lying about cutting money for schools is in black and white. Nearly every public school in Michigan had significant cuts in their per-pupil tuition in 2011, and the current spending levels per student this year are still lower than they were in 2006.
In his $400,000 Superbowl ad Rick Snyder claims he increased spending on education. If that’s true, then how did the Senate Fiscal Agency not show that in their report? Because Snyder’s lying, that’s why. Shuffling money around into different funds (For example, teacher pensions) to make it appear there was more money for education doesn’t mean there was an increase in public school funding. It means the governor tried to hide his tracks. Smart people didn’t fall for it then, and now there is evidence to back up what has been a fact since 2011 when Snyder took office. There’s less money for schools with no plans to try and bring funding to a level that would match the rate of inflation.
School districts all over Northern Michigan showed the same numbers for per-student funding. The high point came in 2010-2011, the last school year Jennifer Granholm was governor. The amount for that school year was $7,316. After 2011, the amount per student dropped to $6,846. By 2013, the amount spent per student was at 7,026. That may seem like an increase, but in fact it is still a serious cut from previous years’ levels. The report is broken down by county with amounts for every school district, including charter schools and the EAA. Kalkaska, Forest Park, Hale, Calumet, Traverse City, Cadillac, every school in Northern Michigan faced deep cuts which resulted in lost money to run districts. Schools have cut staff, closed school buildings, and in the case of Mecosta-Osceola County ISD, eliminated vital special education services due to lack of funds. All part of Snyder’s “shared sacrifice” to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Educating children is an investment with a very important payoff. After graduation new graduates will consider the option of joining the work force or going to college. We educate our children so they can find work, have a career and contribute to the economy and their community. Rick Snyder doesn’t understand that, he only sees Michigan’s children as a drain on state funds that could be given to his rich friends and corporations. In 2010 Snyder promised to make Michigan a leader in transparency and Ethics. He has done neither. He fudged numbers and lied about cutting school funding, and our school children are suffering for his lies.
While Peters is disappointed in the recent Supreme Court rulings lifting the spending for organizations and businesses, Land says they protect free speech.
Land mentioned her time working on the re-election campaign for President Gerald R. Ford.
"Back then there were all sorts of different ways they communicated messages, different groups did," Land said in an interview with MLive. "And I think that’s the American way, that’s what's great about our country, is everyone gets to have a voice and they can talk about the issues that are important to them. As candidates we need to talk about the issues that are important to the voters and that’s what we are doing."
Land is the beneficiary of at least $4.6 million from outside spending from groups that do not disclose their donors, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. And the vast majority of that money comes from Americans for Porsperity, which has spent $3.6 million on Land's behalf. - Huffington Post, 6/9/14
With Land getting a lot of money from the Kochs, it really shouldn't surprising that she would be all about unlimited campaign cash. However, being that she's getting a lot of money from big time polluters like the Kochs who's Koch Carbon is polluting Detroit's air, it's hard for me to take her seriously on this issue:
Speaking out against the Environmental Protection Agency's new rules curbing carbon emissions from power plants, Land said she believes in "protecting [Michigan] from climate change," but not at the cost of jobs:
Her tweets come after a spokesperson for Land told the Washington Post's Greg Sargent in May that while "there should be a healthy and educated debate on the impact of human activity on our environment," Land herself "does not agree with radical liberals like Tom Steyer and Congressman [Gary] Peters on the extent of the effect of human behavior on our climate."
Steyer's super PAC NextGen Climate, is targeting Land and seven other GOP candidates in their election bids this year. - Huffington Post, 6/4/14
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gary Peters offered conditional support Wednesday for President Barack Obama’s new plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, two days after his GOP opponent called the proposal a job-killer for Michigan.
Peters, a third-term member of Congress from Bloomfield Township, said he supports setting new standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants but is concerned the draft Environmental Protection Agency rule released Monday “imposes a more stringent standard on Michigan than surrounding Midwestern states.”
“We must take action to address climate change,” Peters said in statement, “but we must do so in a way that works for Michigan families, manufacturers, and our emerging clean energy sector.”
The Obama administration Monday released its proposal to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent nationwide from 2005 levels. To get there by 2030, the plan gives states targets to meet and flexibility on the mix of ways to reach the goal, such as reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants and increasing renewable fuel.
Peters, who has campaigned on addressing climate change and has the support of California billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, said he intends to work with stakeholders on improving the rule for Michigan. - The Detroit News, 6/4/14
One thing's for sure, climate change is becoming a big issue in this race:
“Michigan is on the front lines of climate change with our Great Lakes and economic system,” Peters told Greg Sargent of the Washington Post. “The Great Lakes are incredibly important for Michigan. This is something elected officials should be talking about — we have to be concerned about it.”
What has brought this concern about? Trouble, mostly. The rupture of Enbridge Line No. 6 into the Kalamazoo River, also known as the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, provided an involuntary civic education in contemporary crude extraction and transportation. So has the three-story high pile of petroleum coke that the Koch brothers left on the shores of the Detroit River (it’s since disappeared), and this year’s refinery spill on the other side of Lake Michigan.
Given how much pre-existing pipeline infrastructure runs along the Great Lakes, Michigan is at high risk of being a site for future oil spills, while the lakes themselves are beginning to show signs of being affected by climate change.
But this concern also looks like some good-old-fashioned political maneuvering. Peters, who has served three terms in the House of Representatives, was thought to be a shoo-in for this election. Then, back in January, attack ads against Peters began to air – about $1 million worth. The ads were funded by Americans for Prosperity, one of the political nonprofits controlled by the Koch brothers. Was Michigan now one of the battlegrounds chosen by Republican donors intent on gaining a majority in the Senate? Sure looked that way. Meanwhile, Washington pundits noted that Terri Lynn Land had already raised more money for her campaign than Peters and declared that she now had the edge in the race.
But if the Koch brothers are boosting Land’s campaign, they’re also the guys behind that three-story high pile of petroleum coke, and a whole lot of bad climate change policy, including pressuring senators and representatives to sign a pledge not to spend any money to fight climate change without an equivalent amount of tax cuts. - Grist, 6/6/14
And while there's a lot at stake in this race, at least the ads are starting to become more entertaining:
And in the latest jab, the Democrats have released a 2 minute, 21 second Seinfeld parody video mocking Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land.
The video begins with the theme music from the Seinfeld show and someone pretending to be Terri Lynn Land meeting two guys pretending to be the Koch brothers at a diner. The Koch brothers have been bankrolling anti-Gary Peterson commercials.
"What is the theme of your campaign? What is it about?" asks one of the Koch brothers.
A bubbly Land bursts out: "It's about nothing! Forget the theme, it's about nothing."
She repeated uses the word nothing.
The video is a takeoff of an episode in which Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza pitch a show to NBC and George keeps saying the show is about "nothing." - Deadline Detroit, 6/5/14
Funny. But all joking aside, the Kochs want this seat and they will spend big to get it. Please do click here to donate and get involved with Peters' campaign:
When it comes to Republican governors only caring about corporate interests and the people who write the biggest checks to get what they want, there are plenty who are more than happy to sell themselves to the highest bidder. Many Republican Governors have gutted essential safety net programs in their states while giving corporations and the rich big tax cuts. Education Votes took a look at the Republicans holding the office of governor and their education record. Of the five most terrible Republican governors who have really made gutting public education in their states a priority, no one does it better than Michigan Governor Rick Snyder; which is why he was chosen as the number one worst in the nation.
What did Snyder do to win the award for worst of the worst? After all, he beat Rick Scott of Florida, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and even Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Or very own Nerd in Chief cut over one billion dollars from the state education budget and then tried to shuffle some numbers around between K-12 education and higher ed to make it look like he put more money in. He really didn’t. Robbing kids of funding for a good education wasn’t enough, so next he raised taxes on poor people and old people so they could share in the suffering with Michigan’s school children. All of this, which he called ‘shared sacrifice’, so he could write bigger corporate welfare checks to large corporations and the wealthy in Michigan. What did they do with that money? Anyone from Michigan can tell you they didn’t use it to create more jobs.
Congratulations to Michigan’s One Horrible Nerd, Rick Snyder.
You’re number one … for being the worst governor in the United States when it comes to education.
