Blog
New MEA benefit offers low-cost graduate credits
A new MEA offering allows members to earn up to nine post-graduate college credits per year for just $275 — and choose from a variety of online courses to address their professional development interests. The PD Course Subscription gives MEA members access to online non-matriculated graduate courses for one low annual fee through a partnership […]
Wear #RedForEd on Thursday for May Day Strong
This Thursday, May 1, is International Workers Day – and this year it will be marked with a May Day Strong National Day of Action that NEA is participating in across the country. Educators will join workers, parents, students, and community members to stand for dignity, justice, and public investment in our careers, our schools, and our students’ lives. Here in Michigan, we’re asking […]
National report calls for improving educator compensation – which new Michigan Senate education budget emphasizes
EAST LANSING – A new report issued today by the National Education Association underscores the importance of improving compensation for educators – something the state Senate’s proposed education budget takes seriously, as highlighted in its presentation today. Michigan is lagging behind other states when it comes to paying educators competitive wages, leading to educator shortages […]
Huge local action draws attention and support for schools
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor In Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss, only the kindly elephant with his enormous ears can hear cries for help from residents of a microscopic community he can’t see — the Whos in Who-ville — who populate a speck of dust blowing in the wind. Horton protects the […]
Letter to members: Celebrating excellence for our students
Reading the cover story about this year’s NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence winner prompts two thoughts: First – East Jordan’s Matt Hamilton is a truly exceptional educator. And – every student, no matter where they live, deserves a Matt Hamilton in their life. Matt’s work both in and outside of the classroom is more [...]
Michigan educator known for ‘Shoe Club’ wins NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence
By Brenda Ortega and Heather Palo MEA Staff It was mid-August, the dog days of last summer, and MEA member Matt Hamilton looked like a mayor on parade walking down Main Street in East Jordan, a small town along the Jordan River in northern Michigan’s Charlevoix County where he teaches middle school social studies. The […]
Tuition-free community college changes lives
By Chris Curtis Chris Curtis is an award‑winning professor of psychology and former president of the faculty association at Delta College in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Like most professors, I’ve accumulated small gifts from students over my career: a Sigmund Freud pencil sketch, copies of Psychology for Dummies and The Journal of Irreproducible Results, [...]
Growing Libraries with Representation
The Aspiring Educators of Michigan (AEM) wrapped up their latest reading/writing competition with an awards ceremony for students who were asked to analyze which voices were missing from their school’s book collections. The “Growing Libraries with Representation” project, funded by a CREATE grant from NEA, asked secondary students in Mason to survey their classroom and […]
QUOTABLES
“We will use all the tools at our disposal—congressional action, legal action, and collective action—to stop the politicians and billionaires who want to defund our public schools.” —NEA President Becky Pringle, calling on members to get involved in pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on public education. NEA is signed on to two federal […]