Saginaw Valley prof talks design and preparing students for careers

MEA member J. Blake Johnson received MEA’s Distinguished Servant of Public Education Award for the Cardinal Solutions program he founded at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) in 2013, which allows students to do design and other work for local nonprofits and businesses before graduation. ____________________________________________________________________ What art and design work did you do before becoming […]

Higher Education Chair Meets with MAHE Board

On March 31, state Rep. Carol Glanville (D-Walker) met with the board of MEA’s  Michigan Association of Higher Education (MAHE) to discuss issues affecting colleges across the state. As the Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, Glanville has spent 30 years in the field of education as both a teacher and administrator, working with […]

Faculty at Monroe County Community College vote no-confidence, charge unfair labor practices

Faculty at Monroe County Community College have overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote in President Kojo Quartey and filed charges of Unfair Labor Practices against the college, which the faculty association addressed with a show of solidarity at the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday night. A four-page resolution detailed reasons behind the no-confidence vote, including […]

Higher Ed Union Elevates Member Voices

The pressures of COVID have reinforced a belief long held by David Schneider, a Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) professor and the faculty union’s chief negotiator for 25 years: “Not everything needs to be negotiated for us to have a voice.” Funding in three federal COVID-relief packages included tens of millions of dollars for Michigan […]

Big Changes in Public Service Loan Forgiveness Announced

An overhaul of the broken federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) announced on Wednesday is meant to restore the promise made to educators and other public service employees who have suffered under the program’s 98% rejection rate. Changes include a limited one-year waiver that allows all payments by student borrowers to count toward PSLF, […]

Education Funding Begins Legislative Movement

Tuesday marked the beginning of key legislative movement in the State Legislature on both distribution of much-needed federal COVID relief funding and the annual education budgets for the 2021-22 school year. Relief Funding The House passed HB 4421, which appropriated the remaining ESSER 2 ($841 million from December) and all the ESSER 3 ($3.3 billion from […]