Cooler Heads Prevail
Yesterday we discussed how the Michigan Department of Education was forcing school districts and their local unions to commit to participating in the Race to the Top program by rushing into essentially blank contracts, causing serious risk to not only district and the employees, but also to our children.
Today we have better news to report. Cooler heads have prevailed – State Superintendent Mike Flanagan has agreed to an extension of the deadline for submitting signed memorandums of understanding so that districts and local unions have the opportunity to review the final state plan before committing to implement it. This announcement from MDE followed on the heels of a very productive meeting Tuesday afternoon among many of the key players in the process of helping Michigan compete for additional federal funding through RTTT.
Read MEA’s press release for more details.
Comments
Too bad they never published the plan
The final plan didn't make an appearance until AFTER it was due...people never got to see more than a 12 page summary before they signed on. The final application was more than 600 PAGES LONG. That's a lot of stuff to take a leap of faith over.
Take a look at MEA's final statement on RTTT, including why we could not recommend to our locals to sign what was essentially a blank contract -- http://www.mea.org/gov/pdf/011310-RTTT-memo-IrisSalters.pdf