Native Michigander here. Rick Snydely is a disaster in the Great State of Michigan. Not as much as Scooter is here, but in some ways, worse. He is eliminating the representative government model when he "takes over" a city or school district or other local governmental unit. Take over describes it exactly, as in coup d'etat, as in third world takeover, bloodless coup, whatever you want to call it. He's a dictator in every sense of the word.

Hey Ron here we are trying to eliminate the Union Dictated Model .. it is hard but i think it will help the schools in the future ... I believe we need more competition with the monopolistic government indoctrination system .. Like school choice for everyone .. OH but i know how u public schools teachers hate competition

@Ron -

Get a clue!

I too spend much time in the great state of Michigan, and Snyder has been doing an admirable job trying to right decades of Democratic Party control over the state. Like Doyle in Wisconsin, Granholm knew that she didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being re-elected, so she didn't even try, and that her poor leadership pretty much sealed the fate of the Democratic Party in the state during the 2010 election. While I legitimately like Virg Bernero as a person, having met the man on several occasions, he's little more than a big government tax and spend Democrat.

The reason that the emergency manager law has become vital is due to the fact that the state is always expected to swoop in and bail out these poorly run and mismanaged municipal/local level governments with taxpayer revenues that derive from all over the state and not just the effected municipalities/localities - essentially, it's taxation without representation. Ergo, if the state is expected to save the day, then the state should be running the show. Otherwise, such municipalities/localities should be allowed to go insolvent/bankrupt, as you appear to be advocating, as that's what the people of those local levels voted for when they elected poor leadership that mismanaged.

Unfortunately, when that occurs, it tends to have a negative impact on the state as a whole. Thus, Snyder's emergency manager law is the only compromise that makes logical and fair sense, as the state executive is voted upon by all the people of the state, therefor, there is no dictatorial control as you've erroneously and falsely asserted here.

Care to try again?

@Paul - I would disagree that teachers are failing as a sweeping statement. Most of the teachers in our district are dedicated professionals who deeply care about the success of their students. Yes, we have some bad teachers and we should be able to trim them out of the district.

Wow, just wow.

Racine Unified has always had a successful plan to FAIL and it's working! Than the ask for more resources so they can fail Larger! There is a reason public school Teachers send kids to private schools at a much higher pct. than average! What they see is something that is not good enough for their own kids! I agree with them.

And like all their plans, no one is held accountable so it won't work. That is the key!

It simply amazes me that those who claim to be "Educators" can't see that if they want to be paid more, there job is to train Racine Children with the skills to be successful business people/employees so that the tax base expands. Their success and pay is DIRECTLY dependent upon the success of those they taught. WELL - in Racine. either they've forgotten that, OR there are only in it for the Summer off and the E-Z union benefits and pay (feel FREE to quit/leave). As it stands now - RUSD's continued tax increases has destroyed the business activity and tax base of Racine - which is a welfare dependent, substance abusing ghetto/slum with high costs for Police - and revenues will begin to decline despite tax increases because no one will be left to pay! WHAT THEN?

@Richard - I often see/read you here on Patch expounding on the many things wrong with RUSD yet you never offer any real solutions nor do you make any suggestions of you - YOU - can make a difference or are working to try to make a difference.

In short, my friend, walk the talk.

@Richard Head (Dick Head? Really? Classy) In schools where there is parent involvement, there is success. Look at our magnets schools and even some of our neighborhood schools. We teachers are invested and dedicated to producing successful students but we only have them for seven hours a day. When they go home, if they have a home, and education is not valued and rewarded, it's rather hard to overcome. Yes, Unified has some issues with management, but in the daily delivery of our talents to our students, we work our butts off and produce many, many successful students. We are accountable every "Dey".

You are correct. Good people like yourself ran for School Board, but the teachers union and public employees and their families outvoted us. I don't want to participate in a failed and broken system - but am FORCED, under penalty of law, to do so.

Perhaps when I am done with school, I will thank you all for the schooling and take myself someplace else. You don't need any productive taxpayers here anyways - right? You will continue to squeeze the local businesses out and can try and finance Racine through the ghetto-slums that will be left.

ABOLISH RUSD! I am planting the seed.

@Brian, I don't disagree with why the complaints if the same folks get voted in - what I'm asking for is Richard Head to offer up something that he is doing to make things better. What's the old saying? If you can't offer any solutions, you're part of the problem? That's all I'm getting at here, and he is not responding with anything other than to abolish the district, which, while perhaps exactly what we need, doesn't offer any realistic solutions that can be put into practice now. Not only that, but Richard Head fails to articulate how he is personally getting involved to make a difference for the positive. He is not walking the talk.

@Brian - agreed on the offered solutions, stagnation, etc. What I'm asking Mr. Head is what is HE doing to make a difference. Like ... is he a mentor for middle school students? Does he volunteer for an after-school program? Things like that - what is HE doing, personally, to be part of the solution instead of just sitting on Patch telling us what's wrong.

I think pointing out the problems is just as valuable as volunteering. That may not make sense, but naysayers make a difference by being the watchdogs and alerting others to the not-so-visible problems.

There is a structural and cultural problem within the district. On the structural end, there are way to many bidies for the actual needed positions and the curriculum doesn't meet the standard targets of the state. In other words, we are not teaching our students what they need to know with too many people. That is a waste of resources, and our tax dollars.

On the cultural end, we have too many administrators making excuses and not solving problems. Yes we have a high poverty rate, but excessively raising taxes only creates more poverty. Raising the mil rate by nearly 4 dollars, or a 42% increase in 5 years shows that all the money in the world will not make a difference until you address the structural and cultural problems.

That is the frustration with those that are fed up with the district. Yes, we need more parental involvement. Studies show that neighborhood schools have higher parental involvement. Yes, we need more funding for poorer children, but we squander Title 1 dollars by moving poor kids to schools that will never receive Title 1 funding. With the number of students RUSD has and the number of teachers it pays, we should have class sizes of 11 or 12, not 25 or 30. More squandering of resources.