by P.D. Lesko Between 2003 and 2010, while total enrollment in Ann Arbor’s middle and high schools fell, average class sizes increased significantly, and so have actual class sizes, resulting in classrooms stuffed with 10, 12 and sometimes even 20 students more than the District’s class size targets. Class size targets for 2011 were 23-25 [...]
by Ernesto Van Dersar John Wiley & Sons, one of the world’s largest textbook publishers, is continuing its efforts to crack down on BitTorrent piracy. The company has now named several people who allegedly shared Wiley titles online, and is demanding a jury trial against them. If these actually go ahead it will be the first [...]
Governor Rick Snyder has repeatedly claimed he has no interest in starting a Right-To-Work war in Michigan. Whether he has been telling the truth may become very clear, very soon. The Michigan House quickly approved SB 0971, legislation that bans the unionization of graduate student research assistants (GSRA) at public universities. There was no debate [...]
By P.D. Lesko Last year at this time my two sons, ages 10 and 13, were advanced in reading, mathematics and science, according to their work on the MEAP tests. This year, one son is advanced in social studies and that both are Level 2 proficient in reading and mathematics. Their overall proficiency scores dropped [...]
As A2Politico revealed in a February 23, 2012 post: The amount of stimulus funding send from Washington, D.C. to Washtenaw County between 2009 and 2011 is a staggering $767,218,458 million dollars, the 4th largest amount given out within the state. That’s $2,222 dollars for every resident of the county. It’s also significantly higher, per capita, [...]
by P.D. Lesko In Ann Arbor, it’s the achievement gap that gets the starring role in the ongoing drama enacted on a regular basis by both members of the Board of Education, as well as the District’s paid professionals. This is a drama that has been playing for, literally, the past decade. There is nary [...]
by P.D. Lesko The bumper sticker is a classic one: If you’re against abortion, don’t have one. Limiting the rights of others is often mistaken for standing on principle. The University of Michigan graduate student research assistants (GRSAs) have decided to unionize. They signed cards in order to show that there was solid interest among [...]
by P.D. Lesko President Obama came to Ann Arbor to tell the country that federal aid to colleges should be tied to tuition costs. Federal aid to students would remain untouched, and a cranky Congress would have to pass the President’s proposed plan. The reactions were swift and in some cases revealed thinly veiled contempt—and [...]
by Warren Liverance Of late, our legislature and governor have set their sights on the reform of the public education system. According to a February 22, 2011 Free Press article “more than 50 percent of high schools have fewer than 10 percent of their students ‘college-ready’ with 230 high schools having 0 percent ready.” (I find [...]
by P.D. Lesko On December 13, 2011, A2Politico posted a piece titled, “30? 40? 50? Ann Arbor Officials Have No Idea Exactly How Many Kids Are In District Classrooms.” For several days, it was among the top 5 most clicked headlines in the nation on a national site that aggregates headlines from about 1,000 progressive [...]
