Students share ideas for positive change through essay contest EAST LANSING — Michigan elementary school students recently shared their ideas to make positive change in their communities, with six winning a statewide essay contest spearheaded by the Michigan Education Association’s Aspiring Educators of Michigan program. With the award-winning children’s picture book “We Are Water Protectors” […]
The firsthand accounts of survivors of school shootings are gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and becoming far too common. As preventable acts of violence continue to take the lives of students and educators across the country, recent polling shows MEA members stand firm in their support of common-sense laws to improve gun safety and prevent school shootings. A […]
By Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor Michigan Education Association MEA member Leah Ramirez is sick and tired. Sick of conducting practice lock downs to prepare against potential violence with her kindergarten students in Northview Public Schools in Grand Rapids. Tired of trying to reassure them they are safe despite the grim reason behind the drills. […]
EAST LANSING — The Michigan Education Association and local educators Friday praised Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for signing legislation that provides much-needed financial relief to Oxford Community Schools in the aftermath of last fall’s tragic shooting at Oxford High School. House Bill 6012 provides Oxford with $9.8 million to help the district recover from the Nov. […]
Casting aside the actual challenges facing Michigan schools, Republican state legislators this week have focused on advancing divisive legislation meant to fire up their political base and drive a wedge between educators and parents. On Tuesday, the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee passed House Bill 5097, which would restrict Michigan educators from teaching students […]
On Tuesday, the Michigan House of Representatives voted down House Bill 5859, which would have created a pseudo-voucher system to provide private tutoring programs for students, diverting taxpayer money away from public schools and into the pockets of private, for-profit vendors with little oversight. The bill, which was strongly opposed by MEA and other education […]
We all watched in horror the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 26 people, including 20 first-graders — precious kids with their whole lives in front of them — were murdered in a hail of bullets. A few years later, we watched what happened at Stoneman Douglas High School: 14 children and three school staff, […]
Part 5 of our 5-part “Freedom to Read” series By Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor Michigan Education Association Near the end of May two members of the Michigan State Board of Education proposed a resolution seeking to criminalize the work of teachers, librarians and administrators who allow students to read library books deemed “inappropriate” by […]
Last Thursday, after MEA helped increase pressure on lawmakers, the House and the Senate passed HB 6012, a supplemental budget appropriation for Oxford Community Schools in the aftermath of the tragic school shooting there on Nov. 30. The bill provides $9.8 million for Oxford to spend over two years, with funds allocated for: personnel, additional […]
Part 4 of our 5-part “Freedom to Read” series By Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor Michigan Education Association MEA member Troy Hicks has always been aware of the dangers of censorship as a professor of English and education at Central Michigan University. But he remembers when his thoughts grew into concerns this year. A troubling […]
