Mark Maynard | public education

Making seed bombs with the awesome kids of Ypsi Middle School, and plotting to bring Billy Bragg to our May Day celebration

By Mark | April 29, 2013

I skipped breakfast this morning and headed over with Jeff Clark to make seed bombs with 7th and 8th graders at Ypsi Middle School. It was an incredible experience. The kids were enthusiastic, inquisitive, and just all-around awesome. And, thanks to their hard work, we now have over 500 seed bombs prepared for Wednesday’s big [...]

Posted in Agriculture, Education, Environment, Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Billy Bragg, buses, child labor, colony collapse, commons, David Chapman, dismantling of public education, food forests, free skool, Jeff Clark, Jesse Tack, labor history, May Day, Phil Patterson, potluck, seed bombing, threats to public education, Tonia Porterfield, Water Street, West Middle School, Ypsi Middle School, Ypsilanti Free Skool, zines | 10 Comments

Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in “secret work group” to bring voucher system to Michigan K-12 education

By Mark | April 20, 2013

In November, I told you about an attempt on the part of the Michigan Republicans to create a parallel, for-profit education system, right alongside the Michigan public school system, unanswerable to anyone, save for an appointee of the Governor. Well, according to a report in yesterday’s Detroit News, things are progressing quickly thanks to the [...]

Posted in Education, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Bay Mills Community College, Bhushan Kulkarni, charter schools, David Behen, dismantling of public education, distance education, EduCard, edutainment, keeping the poor from education, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, MEA, Michigan Education Association, Michigan Education Card, Mike Huckabee, Oxford Foundation, public school teachers, Rick Snyder, school vouchers, Steve Cook, teachers, threats to public education, top secret, trends in American education, value school | 37 Comments

Bill Ayers: “The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House”

By Mark | April 3, 2013

Continuing our recent conversation on the misguided work of education reform advocate Michelle “we can test our way to better schools” Rhee, I thought that I’d share this comment, which was sent out yesterday by our friend Bill Ayers in response to news that 27 former educators in the Atlanta public school system had reported [...]

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Also tagged abortion, abstinence-only sex education, Arne Duncan, Atlanta, Beverly L. Hall, Bill Ayers, Bush, cheating, Chicago, Chicago Laboratory Schools, condoms, Department of Education, dismantling of public education, education reform, EOS, FairTest, Finland, Michelle Rhee, National Center for Fair & Open Testing, no child left behind, Obama, Planned Parenthood, Race to the Top, Rahm Emanuel, teach to the test, testing | 41 Comments

The “What in the Hell is Going on with Ypsi’s New Unified School District?” post

By Mark | February 21, 2013

Tonight’s the night that I’d set aside to figure out what in the hell is going on with Ypsi public schools. Judging by the increasingly insane comments being left elsewhere on the web, and the epic emails that are being forwarded to me, it sounds as though the great experiment – of combining the Willow [...]

Posted in Education, Michigan, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Chapelle Elementary, charter schools, David Bates, Dedrick Martin, dismantling of public education, for-profit charter schools, Krista Boyer, Laura Lisiscki, Michigan Leadership Institute, restorative justice, Sharon Irvine, social justice, The Leona Group, threats to public education | 34 Comments

Middle class Michiganders to pay considerably more in taxes despite the anti-tax rhetoric of Lansing Republicans

By Mark | February 19, 2013

Reading an article in the Detroit Free Press this evening about how taxes are going up precipitously on working class Michiganders, I’m reminded of something that I wrote about a year ago for this site. Here’s how my post began. Why is it that we allow the Republicans to refer to themselves as the anti-tax [...]

Posted in Economics, Michigan, Observations, Politics | Also tagged anti-university, class warfare, crazy ideas that just might work, Earned Income Tax Credit, Ed Asner California Association of Teachers, EITC, Emergency Financial Manager, Emergency Financial Manager Act, higher education, income disparity, income tax, Kickstarter, local income tax, Michael Stampfler, Michigan, Michigan Republicans, progressive taxation, revolution, Rick Snyder, tax credits, tax policy, tax the rich, trickle down economics, we need a revolution | 20 Comments

Tag Archives: public education

Making seed bombs with the awesome kids of Ypsi Middle School, and plotting to bring Billy Bragg to our May Day celebration

Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in “secret work group” to bring voucher system to Michigan K-12 education

Bill Ayers: “The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House”

Middle class Michiganders to pay considerably more in taxes despite the anti-tax rhetoric of Lansing Republicans

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