Eclectablog describes the EAA from the inside -- and it is troubling

Just before holiday break the Bloomfield Hills School Board met. Rob Glass introduced the meeting by discussing his concerns about the expansion of the EAA.http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/groups/ken-jacksons-blog/p/open-letter-to-the-bhsd--eaa-your-future

Mike McCready, who has voted for the EAA once, but is apparently reconsidering it now, stopped by to offer his input. Some board members were willing to understand the EAA as a "start-up." I invited the board to hear from educational experts who have been tracing John Covington and the EAA since Kansas City. No word yet on that invitation.

I would urge both the board and Mr. McCready and frankly any one with common sense to look at this report in Eclectablog to get a sense of what troubles so many in the state about the EAA.http://www.eclectablog.com/

I would remind all, too, that the EAA is Governor Snyder's signature Education model, an exemplar he thinks, for the whole state. It was politically sold as device to service the "lowest 5% of schools" but the skunks works debacle and the Governor's statement and legislative focus have made clear the EAA is meant for all public education.

Here is Rep. Ellen Lipton on Diane Ravitch's blog discussing eclectablog and the EAA.http://dianeravitch.net/John Austin, State Superintendent, trying to ameliorate the disastrous national coverage of this catastrophe by suggesting John Covington, the Governor, and the rest of the state's educational community have been trying to fix the problems. MR Austin might have access to EAA information that others don't. And that is good. One of the sticking points of December's legislation haggles was that Republican Senators did not want the EAA subject to the Open Meetings Act or FOIA laws.

Here is Rob Glass from BHSD discussing his reaction to the sudden and surprising reappearance of the EAA in legislation during last December, a fact that also renders John Austin's tweets today about cooperation just plain odd. EAA remarks come at about the 38m markhttp://vimeo.com/84214625

On a lighter and more pleasing note, Mr. Glass is interviewed here by unusually telegenic reporter who rivals even the leggiest of leggy blondes that seem to populate Fox News.