ESSER Expenditure Deadline Looms Large Over Local Schools

The deadline for spending $5.57 billion of federal money sent to Michigan school districts amid the pandemic looms large in many places that still lag behind the pace needed to allocate those dollars in time. The funding came in the form of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program during the COVID-19 pandemic’s […]

42 outstanding public school students awarded 2023 MEA Scholarship

EAST LANSING — The Michigan Education Association announced Friday the recipients of the 2023 MEA Scholarships, honoring exemplary public school students from across the state who will be attending a Michigan public university this fall. Among the 422 applications submitted for scholarship awards this year, the MEA Scholarship Fund Trustees chose 23 new award recipients […]

MEA helps members get millions in loan debt forgiven

It was April 1 of this year when MEA member Stacey Daniels received an email that said $50,000 of her student loan debt had been forgiven.  The Flushing teacher was among hundreds of members who utilized MEA assistance in applying for a temporary waiver last year that relaxed some qualifying rules for the federal Public […]

Unions join together to lobby for return of collective bargaining rights: ‘This is the way we can make change for our students’

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Five years ago when Nadia Rodriguez took a teaching job in Flint Community Schools, she knew world-changing history – the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1937 – had played out on hallowed ground across the street from her K-3 Montessori classroom at Durant Tuuri Mott Elementary. A Flint native who […]

COVID relief funds used to support students, educators

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic rippled out into nearly every aspect of our lives, and public education was no exception. Michigan’s students and educators have faced unprecedented challenges in the aftermath of extended periods of remote learning and emotional trauma inflicted by a worldwide pandemic. To help alleviate the impact and ensure our neighborhood […]