April 17, 2019 By PAULA HERBART/President – Michigan Education Association For some time, Michigan educators have been ringing the alarm bell about our broken evaluation system. It’s time for policymakers to listen. A recent survey of nearly 17,000 educators by Launch Michigan — a coalition of education, labor, business and philanthropic organizations — found only…
EAST LANSING – The Michigan Education Association today called on lawmakers in the state House to take swift action and pass Senate Bill 122, which would delay a drastic increase in the weight student test scores have on teachers’ evaluations, making the current broken evaluations system worse. “Michigan educators have been demoralized by the current…
This year’s 10 Michigan Regional Teachers of the Year were announced last week by the Michigan Department of Education. From those regional finalists, the state’s top educator honoree – Michigan Teacher of the Year – will be revealed next month. The regional teachers of the year were selected for their dedication to the profession, as…
EAST LANSING – On Thursday, MEA President Paula Herbart praised Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for issuing Executive Order 2019-9 creating the Educator Advisory Council within the Department of Education. The 15-member council will be composed of a broad cross-section of Michigan educators, including teachers, administrators, counselors, specialists, and support staff. The new Educator Advisory Council will…
In more than a dozen stops around the state throughout March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited classrooms to read with young people. At every point along the way, she also spoke with adults – educators, administrators, parents – to sell her proposal for reinvesting in the state. She had to make difficult choices in writing a…
Only 25 percent of all Michigan educators – and just 20 percent of teachers – would recommend a career in education to a young person they know, according to results released Wednesday from a statewide educator survey conducted last month. Factors that most negatively affect Michigan educators’ professional satisfaction include lack of support from policymakers…
March 20, 2019 By PAULA HERBART/President – Michigan Education Association With reading month every March, educators see a flood of policymakers wanting to spend time in classrooms reading to children and touting the importance of literacy. This year, however, there is a genuine effort to put money behind efforts to help all students read and learn,…
Michigan’s K-12 public schools would receive a $120-180 per-pupil boost in funding, plus additional aid to support the costlier needs of at-risk, special education, and career/technical students, under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s first state budget proposal released today. The governor’s spending blueprint follows the recommendations of several recent studies which examined Michigan’s school funding system and…
EAST LANSING – The following can be attributed to MEA President Paula Herbart regarding reports of Gov. Whitmer’s proposal to increase education funding in tomorrow’s budget presentation: “Research is clear – from the School Finance Research Collaborative to MSU’s recent study – that we can’t keep shortchanging our students and expect better results. Gov. Whitmer’s…
EAST LANSING – The following can be attributed to MEA President Paula Herbart regarding tonight’s State of the State address from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer:“It is a welcome change for Michigan’s school employees to hear from our governor about the need to respect and listen to educators on the front lines. Michigan teachers and education support…
