Michigan Superintendent asks Governor Snyder to please make his school a prison

By Mark | May 25, 2011

Nathan Bootz, the Superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, sent the following letter to Governor Rick Snyder. It was reprinted in a recent edition of the Gratiot County Herald.

Dear Governor Snyder,

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future…by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz
Superintendent
Ithaca Public Schools

As we’ve discussed here in the past, Michigan is one of only four states that spends more on corrections than it does on education. And, believe it or not, the amount spent on prisons is actually growing this year, even as school budgets are being slashed, successful schools are being shuttered, and class sizes are exploding… I know that Bootz was employing a bit of satire to make his point, but he’s really not that far off the mark. Michigan’s public schools are, thanks to the efforts of Republican lawmakers, systematically being turned from places to prepare children for college, to places to warehouse kids until they can enter either the minimum wage labor pool or prison.

Posted in Education, Michigan, Rants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Happy Birthday, Bob

By Mark | May 24, 2011

Two incredible piece of video that, until this evening, I’d never seen.

Posted in Art and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Stopping Jesus from his global murder spree with a well-timed elbow drop

By Mark | May 24, 2011

I have no idea who was originally responsible for this, but a friend shared it with me on Facebook, and I felt compelled to share.

machoman2

But wait, there’s something even funnier… Harold Camping, the religious broadcaster who had Christians all over the world convinced that life as we knew it would end this past Saturday, now says that the world will actually end on October 21.

Camping, when asked if he’d be giving away all of his worldly possessions in advance of the Rapture, when all good Christians, like himself, will be called back to heaven, said the following.

“I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car. What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?”

Camping’s Family Radio empire is estimated at over $100 million. (In 2009 alone, the nonprofit reported to the IRS that it took in $18.3 million in donations.)

Camping, for those of you who aren’t aware, also predicted the return of Jesus in 1994.

[Professional wrestler Randall Mario Poffo, better known as “Macho Man” Randy Savage, passed away in a car accident on May 20, the day before Camping had predicted the inconceivable “horror story” that would be the return of Jesus.]

Posted in Pop Culture, Religious Extremism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Michigan Tea Party calls security on seniors attempting to enter event with Rep. Justin Amash

By Mark | May 23, 2011

The great state of Michigan is making national news again. This time it’s for keeping senior citizens out of a town hall event with their elected representative in Congress.

The following report comes from ThinkProgress:

As the backlash against the GOP’s plan to end Medicare grows, so does the attempt to block reporters from covering it. As ThinkProgress has reported, several Republicans are clamping down on citizen journalists at their events. But this weekend, the Tea Party of West Michigan took this to the next level.

At the Prince Conference Center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Saturday evening, the Tea Party group hosted a fireside chat with Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) for Tea Party supporters. The event was not open to the public, though numerous senior citizens were told the event was a town hall and were turned away at the door. A few seniors gathered outside on the sidewalk to discuss the various issues they had hoped to discuss with Amash, including their disapproval of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Medicare privatization plan. While seniors spoke with ThinkProgress and a reporter from the Michigan Messenger, organizers from the Tea Party group called campus security, summoning eight officers to force six seniors and two reporters off the premises…

Here’s some video:

Posted in Michigan, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Kucinich likely to lose Congressional seat in redistricting

By Mark | May 23, 2011

Everyone else might have already been aware of this, but I just found out that Dennis Kucinich is likely going to be losing his seat in Congress thanks to redistricting in Ohio. It’s amazing to me how the most progressive members of Congress are being picked off one by one thanks to the efforts of opportunistic Republican governors, and zealous corporate interests with deep pockets. In another five years, we may not even have a Congressional Progressive Caucus at all.

Kucinich, for what it’s worth, may not be ready to call it quits just yet. According to the New York Times, he’s considering a move to Washington State, which is picking up two new seats. Here’s a clip:

…Mr. Kucinich is indeed thinking about running, but it would not be another try for president and maybe not even an eighth House race back in Ohio. Instead, the 64-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who first gained fame as the “boy mayor” of Cleveland in the 1970s, is delicately examining the idea of running for Congress here in Washington State next year. Given Ohio’s loss of two House seats, his district is likely to disappear when new map lines are drawn.

But Washington is gaining a seat, and Mr. Kucinich figures his aggressive brand of antiwar, pro-working class politics could sell well in a solidly blue state where he has ideological allies and was popular in his White House bids in 2004 and 2008. It is a somewhat novel idea that could be summed up as: Have seniority, will travel.

“I think the issues that I speak about in terms of economic and social justice and peace and environmental quality are things that concern people all over the country, and I am grateful to be here with people of like mind,” Mr. Kucinich said on Saturday as he joined the crowd outside the bank in the heavily Democratic neighborhood of Wallingford.

While Mr. Kucinich’s case may be the most extreme example, he is not the only member of the House examining options for 2012. As happens every 10 years, the post-census redistricting is causing political dislocation for many incumbents as they watch state legislators chop up their districts…

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative Poop Modrak