(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/05/2023) Two Republican state Board of Education members asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to provide them legal representation so they could stop the Democratic Governor’s “unlawful removal of education functions” from the BOE.
BOE members Tom McMillin (R-Oakland Township) and Nikki Snyder (R-Dexter) also asked for a “customary department conflict wall.”
In July, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced an executive order launching the Department of Lifelong Education, Achievement and Potential – or MiLEAP – with the focus on preschool and post-secondary education.
Nessel said in late August that Whitmer’s new department is not unconstitutional on its face, but if evidence shows it overlaps with the SBOE, it may change her viewpoint, which she gave at the request of state Superintendent Michael Rice.
A message seeking comment from the AG’s office was not returned Tuesday.
In an email to Nessel, McMillin said the Michigan Constitution states that leadership and general supervision over all public education, except to institutions of higher education granting baccalaureate degrees, is vested in a state board of education.
“With her recent Executive Order, Gov. Whitmer has certainly violated the clear meaning of this section of the state constitution,” he said in a statement. “She needs to be stopped from implementing her illegal desires to remove constitutional authority from the State Board of Education and consolidate educational authority under herself.”
