MIDLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS & "MISINFORMATION" PART ONE
Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown went looking for an answer to a fairly simple question today. Instead, she found an information network.
So before we discuss what Midland Public Schools considers "misinformation," perhaps we should first understand exactly who has been tasked with listening for it.
Because this story did not begin with a letter to the editor this week.
It began several months ago.
📜 In April 2026, Midland Public Schools announced something called the MPS ConNEXTion Team.
The district described ConNEXTion as a "living, breathing information network" designed to connect MPS directly with people throughout the Midland community.
On its face?
That sounds rather lovely.
Parents, students, staff, business partners and community members meet with district leadership, learn more about the schools, bring questions and concerns back to MPS, and help improve communication between the district and the public.
Lady Budgetdown has no quarrel with any of that.
But then we kept reading.
MPS explains that ConNEXTion members hear directly from district leaders and leave meetings with what the district describes as "clear, accurate information to share."
The district says members can become a "trusted source of information" within their own networks.
It even tells prospective participants:
"You're more than just informed, you're influential."
So let us make sure we understand the information chain.
🏫 Midland Public Schools selects community participants.
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📚 Those participants meet with Midland Public Schools leadership and receive information about district issues.
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📣 They take that information back into their neighborhoods, workplaces, organizations and other community networks as "trusted sources."
And then we arrive at September 2026.
A member of the ConNEXTion Team wrote a letter to the editor explaining that members had recently learned about school funding, bonds and millages from MPS Associate Superintendent of Finance, Facilities & Operations Anna Wamack.
And apparently, class came with homework. 📝
His words:
"The ConNEXTion team's homework is to listen for any examples of misinformation about school funding in the community and to raise awareness of MPS's transparency website."
Lady Budgetdown stopped there.
Because something rather important has happened between the beginning and the end of this information chain.
We started with community engagement.
We ended with community members receiving information from the governmental entity itself and then being tasked with listening for "misinformation" about that governmental entity's finances.
And that raises a question that deserves considerably more than a clever answer:
❓ When a government entity selects community members, teaches them the government's version of a subject, calls them "trusted sources," sends them back into their networks with information to distribute, and assigns them to listen for "misinformation"...
Where exactly does community engagement end and message management begin?
Lady Budgetdown is not suggesting that ConNEXTion members are dishonest.
Quite the opposite.
They may sincerely believe every piece of information they are sharing is completely accurate.
But therein lies the problem.
If Midland Public Schools supplies the information, and that information becomes the basis upon which participants recognize "misinformation," then what independent standard is being used to distinguish one from the other?
Government does not get a special exemption from showing its work.
🧾 If someone gets a millage calculation wrong, show the Form 3881.
🧾 If someone gets a debt number wrong, show the debt schedule.
🧾 If someone gets an expenditure wrong, show the audit, check register, invoice or financial statement.
Correct the record.
Bring the receipt.
But simply telling the public to obtain its "factual information" from the same institution whose decisions are being questioned creates a rather circular little ledger.
📖 "Factual information" is not whatever the district says it is.
Factual information is what the receipts can support.
And perhaps before anyone is tasked with identifying "misinformation," we should make very certain we have not confused an official explanation with an independently established fact.
Because in Part Two, Lady Budgetdown is going to open Midland Public Schools' own "Misinformation Mythbusters" ledger.
And we are going to ask a rather important question:
🔎 Is everything MPS has labeled "misinformation" actually misinformation?
Spectacles on.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown 🪶
Midland Public Schools
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