The Michigan House today voted on a bipartisan plan to reform university boards and improve accountability, transparency, and stability at Michigan’s largest public universities. The plan required 2/3 of the House and Senate to approve, but House Democrats voted no, blocking the effort. The vote failed 52-54.

“House Democrats just protected a broken system,” said Hall, R-Richland. “House Republicans did the right thing and stood with students, parents, and taxpayers who all want reform. Gov. Whitmer even called on the Democrats to act this morning. Instead, the Democrats bucked their governor and cowered in fear of their most radical extremists. We put together a great plan to solve all of these problems, and they killed it.”

“Rep. Joe Tate did the right thing and voted with us. He wants to help Michigan State and others get back on track. But the Democrats aren’t listening to moderate voices like Joe Tate and Gretchen Whtimer. They’re fully owned by extreme voices like Amir Markled and Abdul El-Sayed. That’s what killed this proposal today.

The recent Democrat convention resulted in several upset victories for the extremist wing of the party, including candidates like Amir Markled who has expressed support for Iran and Hezbollah in tweets he’s since deleted. That leftist power play convinced many Democrats to vote no with their own contested primaries just two months away.

The Democrats’ vote is at odds with many Michigan families who have watched years of dysfunction, infighting, ethics concerns, and political gamesmanship on the governing boards at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. Instead of addressing those problems, Democrats voted to preserve the status quo.

House Joint Resolution U would have brought accountability to these boards by moving to an appointment process that emphasizes qualifications and experience over partisan politics. The decision would have been given to the voters on the August primary ballot. Similar systems are already used successfully at Michigan’s other public universities and throughout the country.

“Michigan families invest billions of taxpayer dollars in higher education, and they want boards that work and that stay out of the gossip pages with all of their drama,” said Hall. “There’s been a lot of talk about this issue, but I was the only one to put a proposal on the table and on the voting board. Everyone is sick of the nonsense at the boards, and two of these universities are trying to hire new presidents. This was our chance to get this done and give the people of Michigan peace of mind. But the extremist wing of the Democrat party has these legislators shaking in fear, and these far-left activists are now controlling their votes.

“The problems on these boards aren’t going to go away just because Democrats are too afraid to solve them. We had a plan. We had bipartisan support. We had leaders like Joe Tate and the governor at the table. We were going to let the people decide.  And we even would have protected the voice of party convention delegates to have a say and nominate names for the boards. Democrats killed it because they’re more worried about their primary elections than they are about fixing a broken system.”