Up North Progressive

UPDATE GLEP removed the offensive tweet comparing Superintendent Mike Flanagan with George Wallace.

We apologize for anyone offended by our post comparing @suptflanagan with George Wallace. It was inappropriate and has been removed.

— GLEP (@GLEP_MI) August 15, 2014

This is the image that was removed from GLEP’s twitter feed. Too bad once something is on the internet, it never really disappears.

Gary Naeyaert is a hell of a guy. Here he is hanging with his best friends.

When he’s not at The 501 or force-feeding his daughter jello shots he’s on the interwebs posting zingers like this:

#TBT: Have we come full circle on blocking access to education options? pic.twitter.com/VAVmYAjPqa

— GLEP (@GLEP_MI) August 14, 2014

Gary Naeyaert in case you don’t know is the guy who runs Great Lakes Education Project for Dick and Betsy DeVos. GLEP exists to fund politicians and organizations who work to destroy public education in the state of Michigan. They support charter schools and school vouchers, anything that siphons money out of our schools so corporations can make a profit from Michigan’s tax dollars. The DeVos family has no use for unions, labor, or ensuring quality schools exist in Michigan, they believe very strongly they’re right about everything and it’s their Dominionist Christian duty to make sure everyone else agrees with them, because these people live in a world where everyone agrees with them on all things at all times.

And that includes raking the Michigan Department of Education over the coals for not agreeing with everything Dick and Betsy DeVos want. That’s where yes men like Gary Naeyaert comes in.

Mike Flanagan is retiring and very few people are sorry to see him go, but not even he deserves to be compared to one of the darkest times in American history where racial tensions were brought to a head in the deep south. Demanding for-profit charter schools be held accountable for their legacy of taking money from traditional school districts and making management company owners rich is not segregation. Michigan taxpayers deserve the best quality education the state can offer, and for-profit charter schools have fallen far short of that goal. The heat is finally on these scam artists and their answer isn’t to say they’re sorry or admit their purpose is to get rich off of the state’s dime, but to accuse the head of the MDE of being racist.

Shame on you, GLEP.