Free Republic

A Coopersville kindergarten teacher who resigned from the Michigan Education Association under the state's worker freedom law says she is glad her ordeal is over, but is concerned for her colleagues, according to a story in The Grand Rapids Press. "I am very thankful that the MEA has finally recognized my right to opt out, but my settlement doesn't bring justice to the thousands of other teachers in my position in West Michigan and across the state of Michigan," Miriam Chanski, who along with Petoskey teacher Ray Arthur is now free from the MEA, told The Press. "This is not...

Unions are finding sneaky ways to exact dues — but workers are fighting back. Two Michigan teachers will finally be allowed to end their union membership in the Michigan Education Association and will be refunded any dues they paid during this school year, according to a settlement agreement signed this week. William “Ray” Arthur, a teacher and wrestling coach at Petoskey Senior High School, and Miriam Chanski, a Coopersville kindergarten teacher, tried to quit the teachers’ union after Michigan adopted legislation to become the 24th right-to-work state in the U.S. Both Arthur and Chanski wrote letters informing the MEA that...

When Kevin O'Neill said he arrived in Coopersville School District in 1998 as the superintendent, he said it had a $10,000 fund balance. "There was no money to be had," O'Neill said. Today, there is about $5 million in the fund balance, and O'Neill's annual compensation costs the district almost $120 per student. That's part of the reason that O'Neill is among the highest-paid superintendents in the state for the district with 2,600 students, located about 20 miles west of Grand Rapids in Ottawa County. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is compiling a database of the state's highest paid...

Michigan and local taxpayers provided the West Bloomfield School District with more than $13,500 per student in 2008-2009, yet it still faces a $1.7 million deficit this year and $3.8 million next year. Employee compensation makes up 85 percent of the budget, so the district has asked teachers to help close the gap with revisions to their union contract. Their response was to picket, which they did Monday night. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the average teacher salary in West Bloomfield was $70,192 in 2009. This ranks 40th among 551 school districts in the state, and 10th highest...

In his living room, Jonathan Schiefla felt the bullet hit his leg. The family cat, on the window sill, flew with the broken glass. Schiefla told his wife to hit the floor. In the distance, gunshots -- target practice south of their Coopersville home -- kept going off. He called 911, while wife Danyle kept pressure on his wound until rescuers arrived. "It's something you don't expect to happen, being on your living-room floor watching television," he said Wednesday. "I'm just glad our little boy wasn't around." Ottawa County sheriff's deputies identified four people -- two men, two women, ages...