MI citizens filed suit to stop dictator-like Emergency Manager law. Arne praises same law highly. [View All]

[madfloridian]

The citizens say the law is not democracy, "this is dictatorship." Arne commends Governor Snyder for it. He says education reform can be done faster because of "the leadership in place." Does he know what he is talking about? Does the president who appointed him approve of such tactics?

In fact the Emergency Manager law takes away rights of citizens. Snyder is trying to rush the lawsuit past the state's judicial system. Here is more about it from the Lansing State Journal August 19.

Gov. Rick Snyder wants to fast-track a legal challenge to the state's law granting new powers to emergency managers appointed to run financially struggling cities and schools, by having the case go directly to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The revised law, signed by Snyder in March, lets emergency managers strip power from locally elected leaders and scrap union contracts.

That takes away citizens' rights to vote for and petition local government on matters of local concern, according to the Sugar Law Center suit. The suit also says the law suspends "home rule" for cities by giving emergency managers the power to repeal local ordinances and contracts.

"The mentality behind the emergency manager law is that fair process doesn't matter, input from all stakeholders doesn't matter, and decisions are better if they are simple and fast," John Philo, legal director of the Sugar Law Center, said in a statement. "This rush to the Supreme Court reflects the same attitude, and shows a fundamental mistrust of the state's established judicial system."

Snyder wants fast review

Scraps union contracts? Suspends home rule?

More about the lawsuit:

Lawsuit seeks injunction on Emergency Manager law

“This is not democracy this is dictatorship,” she said. “They talk about other communist countries … this is following the same things they were doing. How can this be democracy when there is no accountability … just one person in power?”

“Benton Harbor is a test center,” she said, “If it goes through in Benton Harbor they are going to start doing this all over the state.”

The lawsuit names as defendants Gov. Rick Snyder and state Treasurer Andy Dillon.

More:

“This is an infringement on basic democracy,” said plaintiffs attorney John Philo of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. “It really is an experiment in a new form of government — one person rule.”

The complaint alleges that the law, “violates the rights of local voters by attempting to delegate law-making power and the power to adopt local acts to unelected emergency mangers, by suspending the rights of local electors to establish charters and to elect local officials, and by imposing substantial new costs and expenses upon local municipalities without providing new revenue.”

The law is so extreme, the plaintiffs say, that it “establishes a new form of local government, previously unknown within the United States or the State of Michigan, where the people within local municipalities may be governed by an unelected official who establishes local law by decree.”

A law that in effect turns just about everything over to the new emergency management person.

This is really scary stuff to me, and I wonder if Arne Duncan is even aware of what he is supporting.

Seems the Broad Foundation will be involved in this one.

However, sources said that the Broad Foundation and other philanthropic organizations will pump significant amounts of money into the new authority. According to sources, Snyder has had several meetings with Eli Broad, the founder of the foundation, which is dedicated to education reform and has assets of more than $2 billion.

However Arne Duncan is praising Snyder at getting so much done. I wonder if he is even aware of the things being done to turn the schools over to one-man rule? If he isn't, why not? He should know about that.

U.S. education leader Duncan optimistic about Detroit reform

Detroit— U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Thursday he thinks Detroit can be the fastest improving school district in the United States because of the leadership in place and the massive education reform under way across the city and state.

"Two years later, I couldn't be more hopeful and optimistic about Detroit and where it's going to go," Duncan said, referring to his visit to Detroit in 2009 when he declared the city ground zero for education reform.

Duncan, sitting with Gov. Rick Snyder, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, Mayor Dave Bing and other leaders, thanked all three men for "stepping up" to reform education in Detroit and the state.

"You have a leadership team in place … to do something remarkable here," Duncan said.

In fact Snyder and his Emergency Manager make no secret they are catering to corporations.

Telling picture...Snyder "huddles" with executives



Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts (second from right) speaks to a group of executives, including Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, on the porch of the Grand Hotel at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference earlier this month.

Nathan Bomey | AnnArbor.com

The Detroit Free Press reported late Sunday night that philanthropist Eli Broad's $2 billion Broad Foundation would provide "significant amounts of money" to a new authority to force more changes in the remarkably dysfunctional Detroit Public Schools system.

It sounds a lot like Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to an initiative led by education reform advocates to improve Newark Public Schools. (Supported, of course, by Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Republican Gov. Chris Christie.)

Or perhaps the Broad Foundation initiative is similar to former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee's effort to pool philanthropic dollars to nudge teachers to give up tenure in exchange for higher salaries.

I wonder if Arne even understands the kind of leadership the Michigan governor had put in place...a dictatorship as the citizens of Michigan called it. Does he know about the lawsuit? Does he realize what he is praising so publicly? Does the president who appointed Arne realize the "reforms" that Arne just praised?

Once Eli Broad said that the "stars were aligned" for reform when Arne was appointed. Looks like he will be pleased with Detroit reforms.