Opinion: Educators deserve more funding

June 19, 2019 By PAULA HERBART/President – Michigan Education Association Unions learned an important lesson decades ago: collective action gets results. Tuesday, educators from the Michigan Education Association and American Federation of Teachers Michigan — along with parents, students, and other public education supporters — descended on the Capitol to urge legislators to “Value Students, Respect […]

Together We Can Seize this Moment

Editor’s Note: Much has been written about educator demoralization in Michigan and across the country. Politicians have simultaneously cut education funding while increasing demands on schools and educators. The resulting effects have led to growing staffing difficulties, from K-12 teachers, to bus drivers, paraeducators, and higher education faculty. Declining pay and benefits. Large class sizes. […]

Teaching ‘shouldn’t require financial martyrdom’

By Brenda Ortega Editor Four years ago, MEA member Brady Crites returned to teach at his high school alma mater in Rochester after earning a Bachelor’s degree in Germanic Languages and Literature and obtaining secondary teaching certification at University of Michigan. But he couldn’t return to live in Rochester. He can’t afford it. Instead 26-year-old […]

Backdoor Voucher Plan Reappears

A backdoor voucher plan that failed to pass in the wild Lame Duck legislative session in December has reappeared in a pair of House Bills that got a hearing in the House Education Committee this week. HB 4626 and 4627, first introduced by term-limited Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw) last year, would create a new type […]

Are You Ready to Rally?

Now that we’ve seen all three state budget plans, it’s time to rally support for the one that provides students and educators the supports they need—Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposal to make a historic reinvestment in public education.

The Budget Battle Begins

As spring heads into summer, state budget negotiations will heat up along with the weather—especially given big differences between the education priorities of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican leaders in the state House and Senate.

Leaving a Global Legacy

MEA member Robert Lurie feels a special connection to Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager whose diary became a classic of world literature after she perished in the Holocaust. Lurie’s father was a Jewish American soldier who fought in World War II to liberate Anne and others, and his mother – who just turned 90 – […]