Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on January 24, 2006

Click here to view bill details.

I am sick and tired of hearing about the poor teachers in this state. There are many jobs that require fingerprinting and the individual has to pay that out of pocket. They have the option of using this as a deductible expense on their taxes so just pay the fee and quit your complaining. I personally and tired of paying for everyone else to live their lives under the Granholm tax and spend system.

I agree with your comment. However, in the private sector, it is optional. The employer has the right to pass along that expense. The MEA will not allow their members to pay any out of pocket expenses mandated by the legislature. Therefore, school districts will once again have to absorb another unforseen cost. Unlike private business, school districts have no control of their revenue other than an increase in taxes through a millage. We are not comparing apples to apples. This has nothing to do with our current Governor.

There is a simple principle in play here. If there is a public interest to be served in fingerprinting school employees, then the public should pay for getting the fingerprinting and processing done.

There are also non teachers that would have to pay this expense, many of whom work for much lower wages. This Bill also would not pay for the expense faced by teachers in non-public schools. Why aren't they covered by this legislation?!

My friend was going to have to pay to be fingerprinted to clear her name when she and MANY OTHERS were mistakenly identified as having committed crimes. The nice police officer didn't make her pay because there were SO many mistakes made because SOME realized it was ridiculous. SO many teachers were so INCREDIBLY offended by this and rightly so. There were a lot of tears and time wasted over this situation. The state can pay for fingerprinting in my opinion. I think they owe us that much.

Like we don't pay enough out of pocket expenses.

I am a substitute teacher in the state and am being required to pay for my own fingerprinting in the Troy School District. I paid $75 in Sept 2004 and now have to pay again! I make a fraction of what a teacher makes in salary and am now being asked to spend more money. I don't agree with this and the district refuses to pay for this because I am not a contract teacher!

Yeah, you sure garnered a lot of feedback. "Poverty is a state of mind," as I once heard a student claim. I wonder where that little bon mot came from? And when you think about it, its not only the money you lose, its the "presumption of innocence," the right to be read your Miranda Rights before you're criminally processed, and the right to be "secure in your person," from "search and seizure" without "probable cause." Forced fingerprinting is a humiliation and an affront to every law abiding person who values liberty, despite the media inspired arguments for such a clampdown because the red herring of pedophilia. Sure we must protect children, but to what end? Aren't there extant records for people accused of these crimes? And aren't there ancillary functions to building such a federal data bases? In the former Soviet Union this was described as self-censorship. Stalin would be proud...

Yeah, you sure garnered a lot of feedback. "Poverty is a state of mind," as I once heard a student claim. I wonder where that little bon mot came from? And when you think about it, its not only the money you lose, its the "presumption of innocence," the right to be read your Miranda Rights before you're criminally processed, and the right to be "secure in your person," from "search and seizure" without "probable cause." Forced fingerprinting is a humiliation and an affront to every law abiding person who values liberty, despite the media inspired arguments for such a clampdown because the red herring of pedophilia. Sure we must protect children, but to what end? Aren't there extant records for people accused of these crimes? And aren't there ancillary functions to building such federal data bases? In the former Soviet Union this was described as self-censorship. Stalin would be proud...

I am a cettified teacher who is subbing becuase I can't find a teaching job. I paid $70.00 for fingerprinting in April 2006 while working for Farmington Public Schools. Now I just got hired as a parapro for Bloomfied Hills Schools (July, 2007)and I have to pay $70 again for fingerprinting. WHY??? Do they think my fingerprints have changed from 2006 to 2007? Or is it just a way for the fingerprinting companies to make more money?

We all get excited typing fast here, but don't whine about not having a job in the same sentence as you spell things wrong. lol geez

We all get excited typing fast here, but don't whine about not having a job in the same sentence as you spell things wrong. lol geez

Until you proofread more carefully, you won't get a job. Maybe you are more suited to be a parapro. If your resume looks like your typing here, you are in huge trouble.

at all. you should read some of the other posts here. it makes one wonder about the quality of the teachers in this state.

that all public schools should be closed for good. Let the market place take over and our kids will start learning again. Why do teachers always come from the bottom of every graduating class?

I think that all these teachers need to quit their complaining about something as stupid as having to get fingerprinted and then again having to pay for it!! You chose the career- you would be assumed to love children and want to teach them. Wouldn't you want to make sure they are protected? Or are you not a parent also? As a nurse I have out of pocket costs also that I do not complain about- CPR certification, CEU's... get over it. As a mother of a child that was molested at her school I want to make sure that everyone in that school is there for the kids, to teach them and help them grow. Not slimebags who want to take advantage of them!!! She was only 5! So next time you want to complain, think about about your kids and what can happen, because it does sadly enough, and just do the fingerprinting....then be happy that your kids teachers are getting checked too and hopefully they will be safer and happier than my baby girl!

DRAW A GUN? GET SUSPENDED In Arizona an eighth grader was suspended for 5 days from his government school. His crime ... drawing a picture of a gun on a piece of paper. No ... we are not kidding you. This is a government school .. you should know by now that this is what government schools do. The Chandler Unified School District in Arizona actually considered the gun "a threat." Craig Gilbert is the director of secondary education. He says that there is a range of punishments that administrators can give for "implied threats." Unfortunately, privacy laws prevent the public from accessing information including the drawing itself. Come on now. Even if we could see the drawing, how "threatening" would it have to be to get suspended for an entire week? Is this really what they had in mind when government educators created the notion of "zero tolerance"? Wake up folks. These are our 21st century American government schools. They aren't worth a crap (pardon the expression). They exist for one purpose, to provide jobs for government union school teachers and government administrative hacks. Deep in your hearts each and every one of you know that the private sector could be doing a better job, and you're also deeply embarrassed, even if you won't admit it, that you have turned your children over to this hideous system to be, or so you think, "educated." There is no one entity that is more responsible for the decline of our great country than our system of government education. Boortz

To all of you that don't know there is a bill called House Bill No. 5609 in effect. There is 3,500.000.00 fund available that the school districts would get reinbursted for the finger printing so look it up because you are due a refund of your money. Also child molesters are all over not just in the school systems. So look in your back yard and get off the teachers.