Breaking: Secret emails revealed. Michigan right-wingers are not satisfied with attacking collective bargaining. They want to outlaw the union.

Jack McHugh of the Mackinac Center sent secret emails to Michigan state rep Tom McMillan calling for the destruction of the Michigan teachers union.

There’s a solid line connecting the right-wing Mackinac Center, the loony Education Action Group and the Michigan GOP.

The Mackinac Center is allegedly non-partisan and has tax status preventing direct lobbying.

But emails released by  Dave Murray, education reporter for the Grand Rapids Press, tell the story.

“Our goal is (to) outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan, which in practical terms means no more MEA,” wrote Jack McHugh, of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, to state Rep. Thomas McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, the newly appointed head of the House Education Committee in a June 1 email.

McMillan is slated to replace recently recalled Paul Scott as head of the House Committee.

Doug Pratt of the Michigan Education Association told the Grand Rapids Press:

The emails show the center has “a corrupt corporate agenda” and an “undue influence” over some Republican lawmakers, who have pushed through changes in teacher tenure, pensions, health care and school funding.

“The Mackinac Center really is in favor of free markets, then why is it calling for some organizations to no longer be allowed to exist?” Pratt said. “The MEA has been around nearly 160 years, and the center’s leaders are trying to destroy and undermine us.”

Advertisement