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Michigan school district caught interfering in recall efforts.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 14th, 2011 at 09:45 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The alternate title for this is “Elections have consequences, Michigan edition.”

The short version (H/T:  Instapundit) is that the Lawrence Public School district of Michigan got caught abusing their emergency broadcast system to explicitly notify people of an ongoing campaign to recall new Governor Rick Snyder, to the point where they gave directions and times for people who wanted to sign a petition.  When this was noticed, Lawrence Public School District Superintendent John Overly fell all over himself admitting the mistake – although apparently this was not enough of a mistake to actually formally bring before the school board.  And then there’s this exchange:

Capitol Confidential asked Overley if that meant he had known ahead of time that something concerning the recall was going to be sent out.

“We’re not going to ever let this happen again,” Overley asserted.

That would be a ‘yes,’ then.

(Democratic) members of the Michigan school district system has been notorious for some time for being blatant in its politicking: see here and here and here and here for some examples.  If you’re wondering why the Michigan school system gets away with this kind of thing – either by getting let off of the hook, or just by getting a slap on the wrist – it’s because complaints about this sort of thing go to the Secretary of State for Michigan.  The previous SoS Terri Lynn Land, while a Republican herself, was… somewhat passive when it came to rocking the boat, it seems.  The current SoS (Ruth Johnson) is shaping up to be more hardcore when it comes to investigating election shenanigans.  It’s yet to be seen whether she jumps on this with both feet: but I think that the days when the Democratic party gets to use our public school system as its own personal partisan stalking horse should be over.  I’m in favor of showing no sense of humor and no ‘flexibility’ on the subject – or, more accurately, showing precisely the same sense of humor and flexibility that a Democrat would on seeing a Republican-dominated group doing something similar.

Well, maybe a little bit more than that: I don’t want to get into this weird mindset that hardcore Democratic partisans where death threats are considered to be a legitimate response to policy changes.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Again: elections have consequences.  There are no unimportant elections: if it wasn’t a valuable position somehow, there wouldn’t be an election for it.

PPS: Michigan readers with an opinion on this case can contact SoS Johnson here.

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  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    It will cheat and put its thumbs on the scale for the side that favors higher gov. spending every single time.

  • renny

    They can use “teachable” moments and references but NO teacher or school worker is supposed to promote or propagandize for political action of any kind. Some parent should bring ethics charges.

  • renny

    and pay and even certification, without which no one can teach.

    Typically, a negative result would not end up in firing (in NYC, even murder allegations can’t bring immediate termination), but most contracts have little weasle factors most civilians are unaware of–for instance, “the increment.”

    Many contracts have a section call “the increment” which is a payment part of salary that is outside the normal published contract; for instance, a new hire might have a $500 increment and each year, in addition to his regular salary, he receives $500. Then the increment can increase with years–$1000 or $1500 more each year for 10-15 years’ service, etc.

    Usually, an ethics infraction conviction results in the loss of increment and likely transfrer out of whatever school the teacher has been located in. It can be very painful, and if a person is close to retirement, it will impact the “total” end salaries that pensions are based on.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    It’s where they put the teachers they find cheating or watching porno during class. They just get them away from the kids and keep them sequestered. It saves the city money vs the cost of actually firing the bums.

  • renny

    but most of them should likely be fired.

    The rubber room is supposed to keep them AWAY from children until their “cases” come up, but NYC has such a convoluted method of dealing with charges that it takes on the average 3 years to remove a teacher from the system, unless they pray in class.

    One teacher is involved in a suit against the NYC Bd. of Ed for being fired because she prayed by herself in her empy classroom before school started. We’ll see how that case turns out.

  • renny

    Most districts and states have more direct and forceful methods of dealing with problems then NYC.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    Nobody even had to ask what would have happened if we pulled stuff like the Rubber Room inmates had.