Rochester Hills Republican Tom McMillin has been named the interim chairman of the state House Education Committee.
Michigan House speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, announced the appointment Wednesday afternoon.
McMillin will replace Paul Scott, the Grand Blanc Republican who was narrowly recalled on Tuesday night.
"The House Republicans have been working on reforming education so our students can better compete for jobs, which means making sure the system is about the kids and not about adults," Bolger said in a statement.
"Representative McMillin understands that changing the status quo may be uncomfortable and difficult, but it is vitally important and that we must stay focused on our agenda."
McMillin also serves as chair of the Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee. He is serving his second term in the state House; he is a former Oakland County commissioner and the former mayor of Auburn Hills.
"Michigan's children deserve a quality education and that means we must thoroughly examine how the system is currently failing them," McMillin said Wednesday. "We cannot sacrifice our future by continually focusing dollars on special interests rather than classrooms."
I believe that our state house district should look at this as an opportunity to perhaps have more influence in education. However, deriding McMillin won't gain his ear.
Opposition to views is one thing. Personal attacks and name-calling is another.
I heard your view on McMillin, I just disagreed.
I think Joshua was more referencing Tim's comments... or perhaps blending yours and his. Tim is very public about his disdain for McMillin, then laments that he doesn't have Tom's ear. It sorta sounded like you were then noting that McMillin was being spiteful about it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tom is a "turn the other cheek" type person, one who does not take the personal attacks personally. He absolutely does listen... but some people seem to confuse that with giving in to whoever yells the loudest at him.
Help me to understand the comment, “Joshua, the children you so passionately fight for are often in the groups that could be directly affected by the bulling legislation and the 5039 bill.” I have yet to see any community ordinance that protects gifted and talented children. Unless, of course, you are trying to create some sort of stereotype. The problem with this patchwork approach to anti-discrimination laws, and more specifically for special protected classes, is that for every INCLUDED special class, there more SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED classes. Should we include a special protection for weight? Overweight people face teasing and ridicule. Where do we draw the line? I would hope that we can agree that ANY form of discrimination, and ANY hate crimes, AGAINST ANYONE, is a problem. That can be addressed by amending Elliot; not cherry-picking cities and towns, and choosing special protected classes of people. But that’s not the point here, and I’m no expert on this law. What I instead recognize is the unfair treatment of McMillin. He’s done a superb job of increasing transparency, addressing our fiscal crisis, and bringing some badly needed reform to schools, yet now a mean-spirited effort is attempting to tar him by making-up some absurd motivation for his actions. How about trying to debate the facts of the legislation, rather than make-up things about Tom?
I've already requested that our BOE place protections for gifted children in our anti-bullying policy and that request was denied. Interestingly, their explanation was remarkably consistent with Mr. McMillin's reason that anti-bullying legislation should be the same across all levels of government and that we should not create differences in protected classes. I didn't write a letter attacking Mrs. Talbert for voting for this policy and condemning the other two candidates she endorsed. I suppose I could have made a spurious charge that 'this isn't her first rodeo when it comes to attacking the gifted community.' Instead, I trust she voted for the policy because she believed it was the right thing to do and did not ascribe evil motives to her vote. I can't say that I've kept up enough with the referenced legislation to form a solid opinion on it. That is not my area of expertise.
It is entirely reasonable to assume that Mr. McMillin’s constituents expect him to work to uphold and strengthen civil rights protections for all people and will hold him accountable if he fails to do so. Unless you believe that the community that sent him to Lansing is bigoted as well.
I was referring to Tim's comments (from his letter to the editor) in which he entirely made up that Tom's motivation for this legislation was to "attack(ing) the gay community." He most certainly made that up. Even here... this was about Tom's appointment to education, yet 5039 -- an entirety unrelated and obscure piece of legislation -- is dragged in. My comment did address points you made about stereotyping, though, and I would be interesting in hear your thoughts on that. I'm not sure why you think this is not a two-sided conversation, unless expressing a rebuttal is the problem. If you look... almost all of the comments you see me post here are rebuttals. I think it's wrong to allow misinformation to stand. It's what I believe has gotten us into the education crisis we now face. Quite frankly, I welcome these sorts of comments. This kind of dialog allows both sides of an issue to be presented to readers.