MLive, The Kalamazoo Gazette, Michigan Public Radio, WATZ AM1450 in Alpena, The Grand Rapids Press and The Flint Journal are all reporting on the Mackinac Center’s newly released elementary and middle school report card. Julie Mack, education reporter for The Kalamazoo Gazette, wrote a separate column about the report card.
By Jack McHugh
Mackinac Center analysts have argued that if Michigan legislators adopt the Obamacare Medicaid expansion it reduces the likelihood of this vulnerable law being amended next year, perhaps in ways that significantly reduce the harm we believe it will cause.
Gaps in educational outcomes between Detroit Public Schools students and those in other school districts around the state have been a sad, prolonged reality. Differences between schools within the city, however, are less well known. These differences can be found in the Mackinac Center’s new Elementary and Middle School report card. The report card compares student educational outcomes while controlling for socio-economic status.
This week we will mark the 237th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. A day or two off from work, travel, leisure and firework displays are among the usual ways to celebrate the occasion.
At the various 4th of July events across the land, two words of enduring importance will be repeated — freedom and liberty. To what extant they'll be spoken in sincerity and fully appreciated by listeners is a question worth considering.
By Jack McHugh
(Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh’s testimony submitted to the Michigan Senate Government Operations Committee on Wednesday.)
People should understand the real reason we're here today. It's not "to help the poor," or because "Obamacare is the law," or because the reforms the House bill would supposedly require are so awesome.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy's new "Context and Performance" Report Card factors student poverty levels into standardized test scores for over 2,000 public elementary and middle schools in Michigan and ranks the schools accordingly.
Here's a list of the top performing suburban elementary and middle schools on the report card.
The Mackinac Center recently released its first ever Elementary and Middle School Context and Performance Report Card. It not only takes into account the test scores of students, but also factors in socioeconomic status, making the ranking a true determinant of how a school is doing with the resources it has. You can see how the school in your area scored by going to the searchable database here.
Our new "Context and Performance" Report Card factors student poverty levels into standardized test scores for more than 2,000 public elementary and middle schools in Michigan and ranks the schools accordingly.
Here's a list of the top performing city elementary and middle schools on our report card.
Editor's note: Much of the following is derived and in some cases directly quoted from previous Mackinac Center articles, studies and blog posts.
-- According to the “official” state numbers, starting in 2020 the Medicaid expansion will impose $300 million in annual costs on Michigan taxpayers. That money will have to come from either tax hikes or cuts to current government services. Gov. Snyder proposes placing half of any short-term savings in a lockbox to cover these future cost increases. >>> https://www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa/Publications/Issues/MedicaidExpansion/MedicaidExpansionProposal.pdf
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy's new "Context and Peformance" Report Card factors student poverty levels into standardized test scores for over 2,000 public elementary and middle schools in Michigan and ranks the schools accordingly.
Here's a list of the overall top performing elementary and middle schools on the report card.
In the close of HBO's wonderful 2008 series about America's second president, titled "John Adams," the voice of Adams is narrated by actor Paul Giamatti and it closes the seven part mini-series:
Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.
The Legislature has begun its summer recess, with no votes until July 18 at the earliest. This report contains recent votes of interest not included in previous issues, so they would not become too long.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 175, Undo National Guard pension reform: Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate
To reverse a 2010 reform that eliminated "defined benefit" pensions for future Michigan National Guard commanders and their assistants, and instead provided 401k benefits. The 2010 reform was adopted following reports of these "Adjutant Generals" being granted generous state pensions based on limited state service ($78,000 to $133,000 for 1.5 years to 13 years service).
Select tax incentive deals are in the news, again.
A new report from the left-leaning national group, "Good Jobs First," lists 240 "megadeals" nationwide over the past few decades and found that Michigan leads the pack with 29; six more than second-place New York.
Republicans in Michigan are divided on the question of how to react to Obamacare. They are currently in conflict over the issue of Medicaid expansion.
This is a classic example of the administrative perspective versus the historic perspective. Medicaid expansion is the top issue facing state lawmakers regarding Obamacare this year.
House Bill 4813, Create process for dissolving fiscally-failed school districts: Passed 20 to 18 in the Senate
To establish criteria and procedures for dissolving a school district that has become so financially unviable that it can no longer educate students, and for attaching the failed district’s territory to one or more nearby school districts. The bill was introduced after the Buena Vista and Inkster school districts reached this state shortly before the end of the 2012-2013 school year. The House concurred with minor changes and sent the bill to the Governor for signature, which is expected.
Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"
By Jack McHugh
Some political observers are marveling that none of the House Republicans who voted against the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, and none of the Senators who say they will oppose it in the Senate, did not or do not plan to offer one simple amendment that would make the bill actually live up to its proponents' claims.
In justifying his Medicaid expansion vote in Michigan Capitol Confidential, Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, argued that this would prevent Michigan from being a "donor state" — whereby Michigan taxpayers send more money to the federal government than it receives in transfers to state programs and federal spending in Michigan.
There is no clearer image of the failure of Michigan's public education system than that of a school official knocking on doors and asking to see children’s bedrooms to catch families that are simply trying to provide the best education for their children.
Bill Shea of Crain’s Detroit Business has an article titled, “Many dollars, little sense: Projects that seemed like good ideas at the time…,” which looks at high-profile government projects long on promises but short on results.
Shea cites AutoWorld, the Detroit People Mover, Pinnacle Race Course, Unity Studios in Allen Park, Asian Village and the Jefferson plant deal.
By Jack McHugh
Dr. Megan Edison has raised an interesting point about a “healthy behavior” provision in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion bill that was passed by the Michigan House and considered by the Senate.
Under the bill, enrollees would pay more unless they “demonstrate improved health outcomes or maintain healthy behaviors as identified in a risk assessment by their primary care practitioner.” Dr. Edison characterizes as “creepy” the requirement that doctors must track and report to the state whether their patients have met that standard.
Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman writes in the current edition of The Ripon Forum about the “performance dashboards” utilized by Gov. Rick Snyder, noting both their positive and negative aspects and suggesting improvements.
Read the full article here.
Education Policy Analyst Audrey Spalding writes in an Op-Ed in the Midland Daily News that socioeconomic factors and their impact on student performance have to be taken into account when considering school performance.
On the morning of Tuesday, June 18, the Grand Rapids City Commission will consider transferring 163 or more properties to the Kent County Land Bank. These properties will not go to tax auction, where private individuals could bid on them.
If city commissioners approve this resolution, they will be helping the Kent County Land Bank circumvent state law, which forbids land banks from acquiring property prior to tax auction. Moreover, the land bank will have the ability to choose who can or cannot purchase these properties.
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 4714, Accept federal health care law Medicaid expansion: Passed 76 to 31 in the House
To expand Medicaid eligibility to families and childless adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which implements a key component of the federal health care law (aka “Obamacare”). Under that law, the feds are supposed to pay 100 percent of the expansion’s cost during the first three years, with the state responsible for not more than 10 percent of the costs starting in 2020. The House-passed version of the bill does not contain a provision in the original requiring the federal government to approve certain cost-saving state Medicaid reforms before the expansion may proceed. All but one Democrat voted "yes," and a majority of Republicans (30 out of 59) in the Republican-controlled House voted "no."
