In the wake of gun violence erupting at Michigan State University, with news of student casualties just 15 months after the devastating Oxford school shooting, MEA members across the state are again faced with difficult conversations among students and family members while navigating their own grief. Many educators are understandably reeling from sadness, anger and […]
From school safety and student mental health to curriculum flexibility and overhauling how public education is paid for in Michigan, there is a long list of pro-education policies that the Legislature and Gov. Whitmer need to address over the long term. MEA’s legislative agenda for the coming years is set by the MEA Legislation Commission, […]
In a bipartisan vote, the state Senate voted this week to eliminate the retention requirement from Michigan’s “Read by Grade Three law.” The bill now goes before the state House. Introduced by Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, Senate Bill 12 would no longer require schools to hold back third-graders if they underperform on the M-STEP exam. […]
Yesterday, Gov. Whitmer proposed a $20.9 billion education budget for the coming year — continuing a string of historic funding increases that, if enacted by the Legislature, would total a 22% increase since she took office four years ago. This long-needed funding sets up students, educators and schools for success in the long term. Note […]
Bryan Schuerman plays two roles that put him in the spotlight: Family Consumer Sciences teacher in Grosse Pointe and weekend meteorologist at WDIV-TV in Detroit. How did you end up pursuing two demanding careers? In about 2012, I was working Monday through Friday nights doing the 7 and 11 p.m. newscast in Hagerstown, Maryland. I […]
In just over three years since she became co-president of her local support staff union in Kalkaska, Jessica Davenport has worked hard to rebuild membership numbers that had dropped low enough to put her unit on the cusp of being disbanded. She faced bigger-than-normal challenges not long after getting started when the global pandemic made […]
A few years ago MEA member Sarah Garrett set her hopes on nominating longtime Battle Creek Public Schools secretary Bernadette Gordier for an NEA award — believing her friend deserved national recognition for tremendous service to the school district and community. However, Gordier would soon pass away at the age of 74, in January 2021, […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Several years into her career as an occupational therapist in Warren Woods Public Schools, MEA member Michele Morgan realized why her high school students didn’t always make an easy or successful transition from school to work. It wasn’t a lack of technical skills holding them back — she had […]
Just over four years ago, Dayna Polehanki and Matt Koleszar were working as classroom teachers — facing firsthand the challenges that decades of under-funding and misguided policy presented for public education. Today, they not only serve in the Michigan Legislature, but have been named the new chairs of the Senate and House Education Committees under […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Sen. Dayna Polehanki called it “our first victory for public education” resulting from the Democratic trifecta voters put in place with last November’s election — which is the first time in 40 years the party has controlled the state House, Senate and governor’s office. Shortly before the new Legislature […]
