K-12

COLLEGE CAMPUSES ARE dangerous places for American women. According to figures from a U.S. Department of Justice study, 25 percent of college women will be victims of rape or attempted rape before they graduate within a four-year college…

by Ron French A BILL TO encourage struggling Michigan schools to convert to a year-round schedule was approved by the House Appropriations Committee last week, and now moves to the full House for consideration. The proposal, sponsored by…

by Paul Buchheit PROFIT-SEEKING IN  the banking and health care industries has victimized Americans. Now it’s beginning to happen in education, with our children as the products. There are good reasons - powerful reasons - to stop the…

THE ANN ARBOR Independent used a Freedom of Information  Act (FOIA) request to get copies of the employment contracts between the AAPS Board of Education and the school district’s top-level administrators, including Superintendent Dr.…

by Jeff Bryant TWO VIDEOS CAPTURED just about everything you need to know about the status of the movement known as “education reform.” The first filmed event was a staged encounter between two prominent advocates for what is…

In May 2012 former Superintendent Dr. Patricia Green told parents to use the Freedom of Information Act to access public records and information. The new Superintendent urges transparency and minimal reliance FOIA for routine requests. …

by Owen Davis FOR PEOPLE LOOKING to “disrupt” public education, it’s become requisite to bemoan the “educational status quo” — a phrase meant to evoke images of poor kids striving against the impediments of failing schools and…

Using a tax increment financing scheme, since 2006, over $5 million dollars have been diverted from the cash-strapped public schools and given to Ann Arbor SPARK officials. WHILE ANN ARBOR  Public Schools officials, parents and students…

SPENDING ON LOBBYING was down across the board in 2012, but  the education industry led the way in tightening the purse strings. According to OpenSecrets.org, “In 2011, the industry, which includes both for-profit and nonprofit colleges and…

THE DISCIPLINE GAP. Put simply, the term describes the gap between the number of minority students (primarily Black and Hispanic) and white students who are formally disciplined and/or expelled from the public schools they attend. Data from…