Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on February 15, 2005

Click here to view bill details.

Public education of our children is no longer what our schools are about. Most of taxpayers hard earned money is going into teachers retirement and health care benefits. Many of us have no retirement benefits and cannot afford health care coverage, let alone percription drug coverage.Wake up taxpayers!!!!!

Friend, please go to a school budget hearing. Most of your hard earned tax dollars go pay for teacher's salaries, which are average for collee educated employees. The retirement and health benefits are negotiated into their contracts, just like you negoitiate your contract with your boss, formally or informally. What's more, the schools are dong this on fixed revenue. The insurance companies, groceries, auto dealers, etc. are all raising their prices. The schools are dealing with a fixed amount per student for four years. Here's an idea: instead of complaining, run for school board or spend $80,000 and get a teaching certificate and make a difference. Anybody can whine. Do something.

First of all, this bill does not specifically name MESSA, as implied by the MichiganVotes.org title and summary. It addresses all providers of health insurance coverage to public school employees. Again, what we have is a case of the legislature meddling in local control. Just like any othjer employer, a local school district is in position to demand the disclosures HB 4274 would require, as a standing condition of its service contracting policies and processes. All that’s needed is to put those policies and precesses in place. No disclosure means no contract. Very simple. So the bill is unnecessary. For those who like to insist that MESSA has a monopoly “lock” on the teacher health insurance business, consider this comment in the MichiganVotes.org summary of HB 4274: >”More than half of Michigan teachers are currently covered by MESSA, an arm of the Michigan Education Association teachers union, which repackages Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance, collects premiums, and administers benefits. Most other teachers are covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield without MESSA involvement.”< “More than half” certainly is a lot. But it does not constitute a monopolistic market share, by any means. The point is, school districts can, and many have and do go elsewhere for their teacher health insurance packages. The key to this lies in teacher employment contract negitiations and the development of sound local school district administrative and management policies and practices. If a local district does not employ such policies, then local citizens should pressure their school board to make appropriate corrections and support its board enthusiastically when it does so.

Walled Lake Consolidated schools, (Oakland County) our superintendent is a one-man show. The policy states you may not approach the school board. You must contact Dr. James Geisler IF you can get an audience with him. In today’s busy society, many parents are not aware of such shameful practices by elected officials. Its very clear in this situation these elected officials think the very voters that put them in place think the voters are ignorant! Shame on the Walled Lake Board of Education for giving the authority to ensure the people had a voice! As stated teacher contracts in these “sinking funds” days can take a district down fast!

>Walled Lake Consolidated schools, (Oakland County) our superintendent is a one-man show. The policy states you may not approach the school board. You must contact Dr. James Geisler IF you can get an audience with him.< First of all, your superintendent is an administrative hireling of your elected school board. Any policy denying you the right to approach and address your school board is a direct violation of Amendment I to the US Constitution, which states unequivocally that protects the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of greivances.” Amendment IV to the US Constitution clearly applies this to Michigan citizens. It is true that a school board may regulate the time and manner in which members of the general public may speak during public meetings of the board. But absolutely nothing precludes citizens from “peaceably” approaching members of the school board or the board at large at other times to express concerns about matters over which the board has control. If board members are unresponsive, citizens have recourse through the ballot box on election day. Or through the courts if the board is in violation of the law. Being a citizen is “hard work,” as our President Bush likes to remind us all. Seeking legislation that replaces personal initiative with state-sponsored mandates in political matters is a way of shirking the individual effort needed to prevent tyranny. In fact it is a way to expand the power and prospective tyranny of centralized government that American patriots long have found suspect and repugnant. Our best chance to influence government as individuals lies at the local level, where our elected representatives are known as “neighbors.” That’s why bills like this one, which erode local government authority and control, are bad news and ought to be rejected.

Oops! I need to clean up this paragraph, so it reads as follows: Any policy denying you the right to approach and address your school board is a direct violation of Amendment I to the US Constitution, which unequivocally protects the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of greivances.” Amendment XIV to the US Constitution clearly applies this to Michigan citizens. (Having received a great private school education, I never learned real typing skills. That puts me at a disadvantage in our modern computer age. Thanks for your indulgence of my disability.)

But the hirelings control the education of the public, not all neighbors are very neighborly, and individual effort can’t overcome stealth elections. HB 4471

Evidently you haven't tried very hard. Quit looking to Lansing to solve your local political problems. Having Lansing (or Washington, D.C.) solve your local political problems for you only makes them worse in the long run. Stand and be counted. That's the American way. If you continue to lay down and make whiney excuses about unresponsive school boards and the like you'll just be road kill in the tyrants' path.

Yes, this bill is aimed at MESSA as they are the only helath insurance company that does not provide historical data to the school districts or others who employ them. MESSA is a good healthcare company, but they do not allow comparison apples to apples of their services.

THE SCHOOL BOARD WHEN INVITED TO A MEETING SHOULD ATTEND WITH A REQUEST AS I HAVE ASKED FOR AND DENIED, THE CHAIN OF COMMAND THING. HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSE TO LEARN, IF THEY LISTEN TO WHAT THE FACULTY SAYS, OR WHAT THE PUBLIC HAS TO SAY, THEY WILL SURELY GET MISGUIDED SOME HOW. I TRULY BELIEVE THEY SHOULD ANSWER TO THE TAX PAYERS WHO VOTED THEM IN. -NOT WHO THEY HIRE.

WE ALL AGREE, WE KNOW FAMILIES THAT PAY $50.00 A WEEK, AND KNOW OTHER FAMILIES THAT PAY $100.00 A WEEK FOR HEALTH, DENTAL AND OPTICAL INSURANCE. OFFICE VISITS AT LEAST $55.00 A VISIT, TEACHERS ONLY PAY $5.OO A DOCTOR'S VISIT. NO TYPO ERROR. AND TO THE AVERAGE PAY $292.00 A MONTH FOR THE MESSA /BCBS INSURANCE. THATS WHAT TEACHERS PAY. CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG. BUT WE KNOW ONE COUNTY WILL GIVE THAT TO THEIR TEACHERS WHEN PASSED. BOY, I WISH I COULD WORK FOR THAT SCHOOL SYSTEM, OH BUT YOU GOT TO KISS BUT, OR NEPOTISM, OR GO TO THE SAME CHURCH. THAT COUNTS ME OUT . FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RESEARCH TO BACK ME UP.