GRAND RAPIDS – Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan has taken over the lead on discussions on technology in the classroom, and this time at the behest of Governor Rick Snyder. Flanagan announced his new role Wednesday at a Michigan School Business Officials conference in Grand Rapids.
“The governor still is very interested in studying how current and future technologies can improve education delivery and outcomes for Michigan students,” Flanagan said at the event. “At my urging, I believe the Governor felt these issues are best served by being in an open and public process, and he asked me to be directly involved.”
The administration got a bit of a black eye when it came to light last week that state CIO David Behen had been leading a discussion group including mostly information technology business leaders on ways to cut education costs using technology.
The change is not a slap to Behen, but a recognition that the message got separated from the work, said Sara Wurfel, Snyder’s press secretary.
“It got stuck up in the how rather than the why,” Wurfel said. “The governor decided this was an important effort, so let’s make it official.”
She said Behen will still be involved in the project.
The change in leadership for the group will, though, bring with it a change in makeup.
Behen had limited education community participation in his “skunk works” group. He had included a former teacher of the year, over the objection of some of those business members, who quickly quit.
Flanagan, in contrast, is expecting to weight the group heavily toward education interests. An initial version of the release announcing the group did not include business or technology membership.
Wurfel said the governor is still hoping that many of those involved with Behen’s group will participate in the new project. “We still expect that, and potentially some of the other techno gurus and experts,” she said of having members of Behen’s group transition to the new group.
Flanagan also set new ground rules for the group, including that it will not discuss vouchers and it will be transparent in its discussions.
One proposal to which Snyder’s political opponents had attached was a “value school” charter school designed to use technology to cut the cost of providing and education. Documents had called for giving students who attend the school a voucher for the difference between the cost of the school and the foundation grant to be used for other educational services. Opponents had grabbed that word, and the possibility that a private company would oversee the school, in their messaging against the proposal.
School officials, who had vilified Behen’s project, hailed the new group.
“We applaud the governor’s leadership and Mike Flanagan’s guidance in bringing back-room discussions on technology-enriched learning into the light of day,” William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, said in a statement. “School administrators welcome an invitation to a seat at the table where critical discussions take place.”
