Up North Progressive

Hello and welcome back.

Up North Progressive went on hiatus after a six-month secret project that caused more mental and emotional damage than anticipated. What was the project? Six months working at a charter school. After years of writing about the deplorable state of for-profit charter schools, the opportunity came to find out what it’s like working at one. It’s worse than imagined. Up North Progressive will fully disclose the experience when the time is right.

While on hiatus, the inbox at Up North Progressive collected some exciting messages from readers. Let’s take a look, shall we?



Incredible how some stories on Up North Progressive still get hits seven years later. John Conely sits on the school board for Brighton Area Schools, and a quick search into his behavior and words since 2015 show he is hostile to public education. Ironic it may seem, but these public school haters love to get elected to school boards and sabotage from within. The recall drive to get him out of office at BAS is ongoing.



Up North Progressive channeled the Onion when a visually-challenged charter school linked to an article on their website because they thought Up North Progressive said nice things about them. Up North Progressive writes about the Barney Charter School Initiative because they promote using public funds to pay for their Christian private academy’s curriculum and philosophy taught in for-profit charter schools. Some Barney Charter Schools in other states are massive franchises raking in millions of taxpayers’ dollars as “profit.”





A protonmail account … no kidding …

Maybe it’s a good thing Up North Progressive went on hiatus. Northern Michigan has a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice (or four times now), and you know the rest” relationship with GEO Group and North Lake Correctional Facility. The good news is the prison has a closed-by date of September 30, 2022. The bad news is seditious pricks Bill Huizenga (R-I pay for Disney trips with campaign funds) and John Moolenaar (R-Bergman 2: Carpetbag Harder) want to turn NLCF into a full-blown ICE detention center.

When one of these cowards drops garbage at the door, the only thing to do is wish them on themselves.

Up North Progressive receives many messages through this website and affiliated social media, so you’re not the first nasty name-calling, bigoted jerk to leave a cowardly anonymous love letter. Regrettably, the extent of conservative talking points has sunk to name calling like communist and groomer rather than discussing issues and possibly finding common ground. Your attack on LBGTQ folks is pure projection.

Last one:



Here’s one way to find out. Michigan isn’t the only state afflicted with for-profit charter school cancer. Unfortunately.

So yeah, keep the comments and messages coming. Love reading them all and, as you can see, even responding to them. Good to be back!