Since 1980, Michigan retirees have been afforded health care benefits for which they were required to pay 10 percent of the premium upon retirement--the remainder was paid for by the state. Recently, the Michigan Legislature reduced the financial obligation of the State for retiree health care benefits, placing it on the individual member. In…

In this article, we explain how overly prescriptive, rigid state statutory and regulatory policy frameworks regarding teacher evaluation, tenure and employment decisions outstrip the statistical reliability and validity of proposed measures of teaching effectiveness. We begin with a discussion of the emergence of highly prescriptive state…

Controversy surrounds Michigan's first charter "school"--a distance-learning network of home schoolers that may come online this fall with some 1,200 students and about $6.6 million in state aid. The school could make a $4 million profit by its third year of operation. An alternative curriculum that promotes creationism has the Michigan…

Campus police and other college officials believe the 16,237 alcohol arrests and 7,060 drug arrests on college campuses in 1996 reflect tougher enforcement, not increased usage among students. This is particularly true in states such as Michigan, where state law concerning underage drinking has changed, and in communities where enforcement is…

For-profit charter-school managers may be removing the "public" from public education. A study of 11 Michigan charter schools showed that cost-cutting strategies are adversely affecting student transportation, special education, and the socioeconomic mix of students. Corporations' superimposed bureaucracies have eradicated educators'…