Five months after he apologized for calling different Republican politicians “moron” and "mental midget,” a public school superintendent in the Grand Rapids area posted on Facebook that politicians are "not intelligent enough to write a coherent bill on their own." 

David Britten, superintendent of the Godfrey-Lee School District, made the comments May 22 on Facebook. His most recent remarks about the Michigan Legislature come after he apologized to the public in December for comments on Twitter that personally attacked Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Alto, and Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville,

Britten posted the most recent comments on Facebook with a link to an MLive story about a bill that requires public school districts use student performance as the primary factor when determining teacher salaries.

"Another ALEC-backed policy bill moves to the House floor (most of the current Michigan legislators are not intelligent enough to write a coherent bill on their own)," Britten posted on Facebook. "Anything to further erode our public school system based on community needs, parent desires and local control."

ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, which describes itself as a nonpartisan membership organization of state legislators that favors federalism and conservative public policy solutions.

Britten and Godfrey-Lee School School Board President Dennis Groendyke didn’t respond to requests for comment.

"It is unfortunate that, of all people, a professional educator would think name calling and spreading misinformation is the best way to resolve something rather than promoting a thoughtful discussion of the facts on an issue," said Ari Adler, spokesman for the House Republicans.

In December, Britten apologized for his posts about Rep. Lyon and Agema. 

He wrote:

"I'm in a position as superintendent not only to demonstrate for our students how to effectively use the advocacy tools available in our political system, but to do so by focusing on the point of disagreement without resorting to name-calling and personal conflict. While I realize that many these past weeks have resorted to a lower level of debate, it does not excuse my inappropriate use of social media and disrespectful comments regarding Representatives Lyons and Agema."

Britten's most recent comments on Facebook appeared to be made inaccessible as of May 26.

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Supterintendent Calls GOP Reps 'Moron' and 'Mental Midget' In Right-to-Work Debate

School unions and administrators in Michigan were very busy early this year. At least 145 Michigan school districts signed right-to-work-dodging contracts that lock union members into paying dues or fees as a condition of employment.

Unions tried to get new contracts signed before March 28 when the state's right-to-work law went to effect. When contracts expire, union members in Michigan can exercise their right to get out of their union.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has been using the Freedom of Information Act to keep track of how many school districts signed new contracts.

"Our count is not exhaustive," said Michael Van Beek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center. "There are a few districts still working to get back to us and others that we might have missed.

"Some districts clearly used this opportunity to get concessions from unions, essentially trading off school employees' new rights to not financially support a union for fiscally stability," Van Beek continued. "Others, though, didn't seem to require much or any concessions from the unions, but signed off on the deal anyway. In those cases it's hard to see the beneficiaries of the deal being anybody other than the union bosses."

Some of the 145 districts that signed right-to-work dodging contracts agreed to more than just one. At least 260 different union contracts were signed during the roughly three-months between when the law was signed in December and when it went into effect.

"I'd estimate that about 10 percent of these were just coincidental and not motivated by right-to-work," Van Beek said.

The following are some examples of the union contracts that were signed:

• Wayne-Westland ratified new contracts for eight different employee groups over this period;
• Fraser and Macomb Intermediate School Districts each did six contracts;
• Dearborn did a contract with administrators that expires July 1, 2023;
• Van Dyke signed a contract with office personnel that runs until June 30, 2021, and specifically binds the parties and their successors; and
• Hartland signed three contracts that don’t expire until 2020.