McMillin also voted yes on SB1040 which increased health care premium pay for retired public school employees starting in January.

Ha ha Tom. Caught again. I will split my ticket to vote against this charlatan.

It's amazing how he thinks he can say anything and get away with it, and he has the utter gall to put it in print.as if it's true. He also thinks it's OK to text and drive and for motorcyclists and their passengers to ride without helmets. Maybe he can send out a propaganda piece that says he supports keeping motor vehicle drivers and passengers safe and add that to his list of lies.

Shouldn't we demand more ethical behavior from our politicians? Shouldn't we expect more than just a bunch of false campaign promises and outright lies to insure re-election? Next thing you know he will send out something stating he is an advocate for public education.

Tom McMillin voted to tax seniors' retirement income for the first time in Michigan's history. The average retired couple will now pay $3,000 more per year in taxes. He also voted to greatly reduce (and in some cases, eliminate) the Homestead Property Tax Credit and the changes he voted for hit seniors the hardest. (HB 4361, RC 126, 5/12/11)

In 2011, when the income tax rate was scheduled to roll back, he voted to stop it. His tax changes will also cost the average middle-class family an extra $1,000 per year. He also voted to eliminate the child tax deduction and college tuition credits. (HB 4361, RC 126, 5/12/11)

He voted against families walking in the park, too. He is just evil. As bad as unnecessary periodontal procedures.

Par for the course for Tom McMillin. He did the same thing with the DIA and Troy Library. I got a robo call from him re the Troy Library. What is he doing robo calling Troy residents?

The failure here is in the primary process. This is generally a Republican district, which means Mcmillan will win just based on the straight party voters who know little to nothing about his crazy thoughts.

He ran unopposed in the primary. Now voters who do actually know his views have to decide between that (not a good thing) and his MEA backed competitor.

What a great scenario

I will take MEA (70% women) over Tom's hate group affiliations any day.

All people have to do, if they're Republicans, and don't agree with McMillin's radical agenda is DON'T vote straight Republican. It takes an extra 30 seconds to vote for the clearly better alternative, Joanna VanRaaphorst. Well worth the effort.

Lisa, Tom listens as long as you don't disagree with him on anything. If you don't approve of his radical agenda, he's not so helpful or polite.

Tom is in the tank for giving taxpayer money to for-profit charter and cyber school companies. Talk about transfers of wealth, taking money out of public schools and transferring it to for-profit companies who report to shareholders, doesn't sound like sound fiscal policy to me.

Tom receives campaign contributions from the for-profit education companies and they are beholden to their shareholders for producing profits. Tom is interested in helping his private supporters from those companies and helping them make profits at the expense of our children.

To say Tom is really interested in educating our children, is like saying the defense industry's main interest is protecting America. These greedy corporations are interested in making profits, period.

The MEA has our children's interests at heart and also having teachers be compensated fairly for the job that they do educating our children.

We can make our schools better and educate our children better, but not by taking money out of the public school system and handing that money over to greedy corporations who put profits over students.

The changes to the state pensions are unconstitutional. Once you pay a certain amount for your pension and lock that in, it is unconstitutional to change this. It is amazing to me how the courts are finding many legislative bills that were passed unconstitutional....with even conservative judges.

I can agree to disagree with you on the MEA comments...but I have a difficult time voting for someone who disregards the constitution....and then wastes tax payer dollars challenging these decisions in court. Say what you will on Proposal 2, but at least the proper channels were followed, and we are not making up our own rules. Unconstituitional legislation = demogoguery X 1,000

Charter/Cyber schools for are for profit operations. The adults running them are using kids like ATM machines. Tom is promoting them because he has a financial interest in charters schools and receives nearly all of this campaign contributions from them. Rochester is just a squatting place for him until Papageorge's Senate Seat is up (Troy area). McMilin is a career politician and makes money through charter schools.

The main goal isn't education. It is profit. Employee turnover is rampant in charters. Charters can also discriminate more easily leaving disabled children without the level of service provided by public schools. Given Tom's record, I also suspect that he would support a bill similar to a current one in the state of Lousiana that would allow charter schools to deny admission to gay students. Lousiana might be a better place for Tom McMillin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/is-louisiana-about-to-allow-discrimination-of-gays-in-charter-schools/2012/04/03/gIQAJtiqtS_blog.html

"You say "profit" as if it is a dirty word. Not sure why it is a problem for a non-government entity to provide better service for lower cost, and allow the operator to be rewarded."

Mike, there you go again. The for-profits do not run these schools at a lower cost. They get paid the same amount as the public schools receive per pupil. On top of there, here' something people don't know. Charter/Cyber schools often take in students that are not cut out to be in charter school and they do not have to accept every student, like public schools do. Charters try to keep students until the official student count happens, then they say to some students they are not qualified to be at the charter school and the money that they receive for that student stays with the charter school and does not follow the student for that semester.

This is another way the for-profit school reaps extra profits that the public doesn't know about.

The charters schools do not have to provide classes like music, art, sports, etc., and they don't have to, in the case of cyber schools, provide buildings, yet they receive the same compensation.

Republicans talk about wealth redistribution as a bad thing and taking public money and redistributing it to private education corporations is the worst example of redistribution.l

So, what you're saying, Mike, is that the charter schools make a profit by lowering teacher salaries and benefits so they can make a profit.

I never said the parents are too stupid to choose. What I am saying is that the more dollars that are taken out of the public school system, the more they have to do with even less money, a recipe for disaster in public education if I ever saw one.

So, under your model, we have a self fulfilling prophecy of destroying public education in the United States.

Mr Reno, you are the only person who takes shots at teachers, public or private. Your candidate is a bigot and profits personally from the schools that he promotes. Teachers, students and parents deserve better than Mr McMillin.

What about protecting weak kids? Charters do not. Public schools do. I guess you and Tom think Darwinism should rule in regards to disabled children. Tom gets hefty donations from BCBS to vote against early intervention coverage for autistic kids.

Mr. Reno, your comments appear to be bitter and unreasonable as well. I find it sad that you promote someone like Tom McMillin. Fortunately he will not make it far in politics. His message of bigotry and intolerance surely puts a clear ceiling to his rise.

Joshua, I spoke to a member of the Michigan School Board and she's not aware of a study or article to back up what I said in my post, and charter schools can't discriminate ahead of time. However, what happens practically is that let's say a special education student is in a for-profit school, the school finds a reason to dump that student because they are too expensive to educate.

The school that special ed student goes to can apply to have the money follow the student, but often, as a practical matter, that doesn't happen and that money stays with the for-profit charter as profit.

Also, for-profits also do pay lower wages, do not participate in pension programs, do not have to provide transportation for students, yet receive the same per pupil dollars as public schools. All those things for-profits don't have to provide go to profit for the charter school.

On top of that, the for-profit schools have no accountability as far as quality of education, which is something Tom McMillin has been questioned repeatedly about but he has yet to answer that issue adequately.

Sound like a Tom McMillin quote about Fuzzy math and fuzzy science. Joshua, just admit you aren't an impartial person in this election.

Joshua, I'll stick with my source as accurate and believable, thanks.

Donald Trump is a whole other story and he has proven over time that he is NOT reliable as a source of information.

As for Mike's comments, public schools about accountability, decreased funding and bigger class sizes makes it harder and harder to do the job our public school teachers are trained to do. Most teachers don't need any incentive other than to do what they are trained to do, which is to educate our children and for-profit schools don't perform any better than public schools and often perform worse than public schools. http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/03/in_michigan_charters_results_n.html

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We need to seperate the discussion about teachers and the MEA. I think 95% of teachers are good. You will always have some that aren't in any profession. It is your typical bell curve. A small % are outstanding, a small % are bad and the vast majority are in the middle.

The MEA has simply gotten to powerful and has too much control. Every member of the Rochester School Board was backed by the MEA. That doesnt necessarily mean they are all in their back pocket, but it is a troubling fact. They are the same one's who negotiate the contracts. The MEA protects the bad part of the bell curve. They resist teacher incentives for the top of the curve, etc...