Last year, Highland Park schools were out of control, says Mia, an eighth-grade student. "Because we did what we want. We didn't have enough teachers." And, her friend Frankie added, there were a lot of fights.

"We had combined classrooms," Mia said. "That means like 60 students in one class." 

This year, the girls say, is very different.

"They teach us," Frankie said. 

"They actually have lesson plans," Mia added. "They actually have a plan. They actually have steps. They actually show us the structure of how you do this and how you do that."

The way Mia and Frankie describe Highland Park schools during the 2011-12 school year is similar to allegations raised in a lawsuit filed against the school system by the American Civil Liberties Union. In the lawsuit, the ACLU alleges that students were packed into classrooms, and that many teachers weren't teaching students.

But the ACLU filed its lawsuit less than nine weeks after the management of Highland Park schools changed. In May 2012, Gov. Rick Snyder appointed an emergency manager to oversee the school district. The emergency manager selected a charter school company, the Leona Group, to run the district. 

What this means, practically, is that the Highland Park district is a new school system, run by administrators brought in from other Leona public charter schools. Over the summer, the Highland Park district became Highland Park Renaissance Academy. In just a few months, administrators had to interview and hire teachers, clean up school buildings and reconcile student records.

Due to the ACLU lawsuit, Highland Park administrators and teachers won't comment about how this year compares to last. However, changes are obvious. Student average test scores are posted outside of each classroom so that teachers, parents and students know how the class is doing. Teachers also regularly highlight exceptionally good student work, in an effort to encourage students to achieve.

This year if you don't do your homework, Mia and Frankie said in unison, "You get a phone call home, and then the second time you get written up." 

Last year, if you didn't do homework, they said, "you just get a zero." 

Staff members are also striving to make Highland Park schools serve as neighborhood schools. Every month, parents come in for "Muffins with Mom," or "Doughnuts with Dad." Just before winter break, the Highland Park Fire Department came in for a "Student of the Month" lunch to honor students who had shown remarkable improvement. 

There is nothing wrong with the motivation behind the ACLU lawsuit. Students attending public schools should be assured some standard of quality. But in this case, the ACLU has selected the wrong target.

The Leona Group and its employees are not responsible for the Highland Park district's failings in 2011-12, or in previous years. If anything, they are the one team that has the ability to fix the previously failed system and to provide a quality education to Highland Park students. 

In its suit, the ACLU notes that during 2011-12, only 35 percent of fourth-grade students and only 25 percent of seventh-grade students scored proficient on the state reading test. By these measurements, sadly, there are plenty of other low-achieving schools for the ACLU to choose from to make its point. 

The nearby River Rouge District, for example, reported lower scores. During the same year, just 23 percent of River Rouge fourth graders and 17 percent of seventh graders scored proficient or better on the state reading test. The district has had a contentious year, and one former official admitted to accepting a bribe.

Why not drop the lawsuit against Highland Park? The school system has changed, and Mia and Frankie say they'd recommend their new school to friends. In an attempt to make a point, the ACLU is eating up time and resources that could be better spent educating Highland Park students.

Individual legislators missed 2,234 votes in 2012, according to MichiganVotes.org 'Missed Votes Report'

Michigan’s 38 senators and 110 representatives missed 2,234 votes in 2012, according to the Missed Votes Report compiled by Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org.

The Michigan Senate took 1,082 roll call votes during 2012, and the House took 904*. Although the figure is slightly higher than the 1,437 votes missed by individual lawmakers in 2011, on a percentage basis it is lower since nearly twice as many total votes were taken this year.

The number of missed votes has been on a dramatic downward trajectory since 2001-2002, when MichiganVotes.org began tracking this information and the average number was more than 10,000 every year.

Here are the tallies for the full two-year session of the just concluded 96th Michigan Legislature, and of the previous five Legislatures:

2001-2002 (21,162 missed votes);
2003-2004 (12,178);
2005-2006 (9,598);
2007-2008 (10,324);
2009-2010 (7,173);
2011-2012 (3,669);
total missed votes, 2001-2011 (64,104).

During the 2012 session, four senators and six representatives missed 50 or more votes each. Thirteen Senators and 62 Michigan lawmakers missed no votes. Find out how many (and which) votes your local state legislators missed at the full “Missed Votes Report.”

The online report can be sorted by name or by number of missed votes. The total number of possible votes is also listed for each legislator (those who were not in office for the entire session have lower numbers). By clicking on a legislator’s name, you can see a brief, plain-English description of the actual votes that he or she missed. Missed vote totals for previous periods can be viewed by entering a different date range.

McHugh said the missed-votes feature is an example of the power of the MichiganVotes.org database. “We now have 12 years of bills and votes in the system — the complete legislative careers of many members. To obtain this information anywhere else, it would be necessary to read and record information from thousands of pages of legislative journals,” he said.

McHugh added that in most cases missed votes occur when other demands within the legislative process call a lawmaker off the floor for a few minutes, or when serious family or personal issues require an absence for an entire day or longer.

"Legislators are people too," McHugh said. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions or assume bad faith. But if a legislator demonstrates a consistent pattern of missed votes for months on end, voters have a right to ask why.

"Large numbers of missed votes get people’s attention, but they should be more concerned about the votes their own legislators actually do take, especially when many of these appear to serve the system ahead of the people."

MichiganVotes.org is a free website provided by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It provides concise, objective, plain-English descriptions of every bill and every vote by every politician in the Michigan Legislature, searchable and sortable by legislator, topic, keywords, date range and more.

MichiganVotes.org roll call vote totals do not include some purely procedural or duplicate votes. When these are included there were 913 House roll calls in 2012, and 1095 in the Senate, not including any votes taken on a pro-forma Dec. 27 “sine die” session.