The districts are Detroit, Inkster, Saginaw Buena Vista, Holton, Vanderbilt, Mackinaw City and Coleman. Other districts could become eligible for vouchers with a majority vote of the school board or citizens. Don't expect either side to make it easy to sort through the measure, which would allow the state to help pay for private schooling in districts that are deemed to be failing. Some of the ads don't even mention the tuition vouchers. The issue of teacher testing requires some unraveling because the ballot language doesn't spell out what the tests would include, how often teachers would be tested and whether there would be any penalty for failure.
Backers say the vagueness is intentional.
The group hopes teachers would be tested every three to five years in the subject they teach, with some penalty for failing. But it acknowledges that the Legislature could come up with some other testing plan. That's a bunch of hogwash. Those opposed to Proposal 1 say the vagueness of the ballot measure only shows the testing issue is a red herring tossed in to help sell vouchers. The only reason it's out there is these guys did polling, found out what the public's interested in and just stuck it in there.