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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Teamster Nation: Rhee calls union-busting legislature "courageous"

Teamster Nation: Rhee calls union-busting legislature "courageous"

Rhee calls union-busting legislature "courageous"

Michelle Me Rhee, the former D.C. school chancellor and darling of Republican governors, is taking on education reform yet again. Rhee recently spoke in Memphis before the education committee members of the Southern Legislative Conference.

Rhee picked an interesting place to speak about the importance of quality education. Memphis City Schools have laid off 150 teachers in the past month, including 46 teachers recruited last year. The Tennessee Legislature voted earlier this year to end collective bargaining for teachers. They also attempted to pass school vouchers, which passed in the Senate but failed in the House. Rhee praised the legislature for its “aggressive and courageous laws.”

Rhee told the committee that in the past she believed “vouchers weren't good and you shouldn't even discuss

Freedom of speech in MI? Not so much. Not anymore.

This is a disturbing story from Michigan, where a new law allows the governor to appoint local dictatorsemergency financial managers. It used to be called taxation without representation. The law allows these "managers" to dismiss governments, ignore local laws, sell off taxpayer assets and abrogate union contracts.

(The emergency financial manager law, by the way, was drafted by ALEC. No shock there.)

This is about another form of repression. Denise Miller, a resident of Linden, Mich., was sitting at a picnic table in Linden Park last month collecting signatures for a petition to recall Gov. Rick Snyder. A ranger told her to