Oh Look, An Actual Shadow Government Conspiracy Called 'Skunk Works' Is Happening In Michigan

Let's say you are Michigan nerd-governor Rick Snyder's chief information officer David Behen and let's say you had a fun idea for a school voucher policy. How would you go about making your special plan a reality? Would you go through normal channels to make policy in the transparent process that we've become accustomed to in these United States? No, you would not. Now is not the time for the burdensome government regulation of open policy-making. Now is the time for relentless positive action . Because " more and better jobs ." And that means doing things in a secret "skunk works" with corporate interests. With the skunk works system, you don't get bogged down with issues or concerns from so-called "teachers" or bother unwashed plebs with the details of their popular government.

The education reform advisory team has dubbed itself a "skunk works" project working outside of the government bureaucracy and education establishment with a goal of creating a "value school" that costs $5,000 per child annually to operate, according to meeting minutes and reports obtained by The Detroit News.

The records show designers of the "value school" are in talks with Bay Mills Community College about opening a technology-centric charter school by August 2014. The school would seek to maximize the roughly $7,000 annual per-pupil funding regular schools get from taxpayers by applying "concepts familiar in the private sector — getting higher value for less money."

Other records distributed to group members indicate they want to explore using fewer teachers and more instruction through long-distance video conferencing. Each "value school" student would receive a "Michigan Education Card" to pay for their "tuition" — similar to the electronic benefits transfer used to distribute food stamps and cash assistance for the poor.

Bay Mills is an Indian reservation school that has gotten heavy into the charter school game and, while Michigan charters have generally performed well, Bay Mills operates two charters that have been designatedsuck balls"priority" , the lowest rating, on educational assessments. So it makes perfect sense this community college would have the inside track on a lucrative deal for the secret voucher school. And certainly no one should be at all concerned that among the "skunk works" group are the sort of business leaders in business to do business with the government and that its members were instructed to communicate using secret alternative email addresses.

This skunk works is completely proper and in no way an attempt to usurp the open processes of civil government to gut the principle of universal education so politically-connected contractors can profit from an education system designed to look like welfare. Do not worry about this at all. Instead, continue freaking out about NOBAMA taking your guns for Agenda 21 and Seth MacFarlane false flagging the Boston Marathon . Those are the real conspiracies.

[ Detroit News ]