The Michigan legislature is considering merit pay for public teachers and conservatives are attempting to convince voters that this free market idea is essential to improving educational outcomes. Unfortunately these articles tend to be heavy on opinion and light on data showing that merit pay actually improves educational outcomes. The most recent examples of the [...]

Last year Mississippi passed new restrictions on abortion with the intention of shuttering the last remaining abortion clinic in the state. The law requires that clinics get admitting privileges to a local hospital to keep their state certification. “If something goes wrong, which it might – we hope it doesn’t, but it could – that [...]

At the national level one of the areas of biggest concern for Republicans is the cost of education. Based on the measures that have been pushed through many state legislatures it appears that Republicans believe one of the biggest problems we face as a country is that we spend too much money on education. But [...]

Michigan voters have been duped. The 2010 gubernatorial election may have been one of the biggest bait and switch cases in the history of Michigan. Rick Snyder’s ads claimed “He’s the only businessman running so he’s the only one that even knows what he’s doing.” Business 101 suggests that if you want people to invest [...]

Last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder kicked off the 18th annual Governor’s Education Summit under a “skunk works” cloud (exposed by Chad Livengood here at the Detroit News). “Skunk works” was the code name give to secret meetings between the governor and a group of 20 individuals – including one educational professional who realized that [...]

For years Republicans have been calling for “common sense” regulatory reform. On GOP.gov, Indiana Governor Mike Pence says that “the House Republican Regulatory Reform plan is a common sense solution that puts taxpayers first.” Well, good news, Michigan Republicans – Bill Lucas and his organization, Voters for Fair Use of Ballot Referendum, have a petition [...]

Last week, my colleague at the Detroit News Joshua Pugh took aim at the Michigan House Republicans for a right-wing agenda that runs counter to citizen’s interests. In his critique, he also called out Jase Bolger which brought a response from Speaker of the House Jase Bolger’s press secretary, Ari Adler. Outside of the campaign [...]

A key plank in the Republican platform is the elimination of government regulations. The rationale is that government regulations cost jobs. But the jobs argument is a red herring. The actual impetus has more to do with corporate profits and campaign donations. The reality is that even if one product is deemed unacceptable, the market [...]