Stories by Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor Michigan Education Association MEA member Greta Brock comes from a family of educators and has spent 29 years working with special education students in Boyne City, where she is local union president. Nearing the end of her career, she wants newer educators to know the importance of elections. […]
MEA-Retired member Dr. Cleorah Scruggs-DeBose has been promoting the importance of diversity in education since her early days as a Flint teacher in 1970 — and she’s certainly not stopping now. “The movement for justice is a life’s work, so I’m not done yet,” she says. Despite political attacks against diversity, equity and inclusion, Scruggs-DeBose […]
At 34, MEA member Clara Martinez has an eclectic resume: Dance director, social worker, union activist, Lansing City councilwoman. Her story counters cynicism: “I think of politics as an invitation for you to be part of the conversation,” she says. Martinez was drawn to teach dance at a public high school by her parents — […]
By the time MEA member Nathan Fleshman began teaching in 2013, the “social contract” that he believed in growing up — ensuring educators could rely on stable pay, benefits and retirement — had been broken. Fortunately for Fleshman, a science teacher and union president in East Jordan, some of what was lost has been won […]
Just nine years into a second career as a technology teacher in Pontiac, Candice Ridley is union president and senior staffer in her building. Anti-educator policies drove out veterans. Data shows Michigan also experienced a nation-leading 70% plunge in the number of aspiring educators enrolling in teacher preparation programs during Gov. Rick Snyder’s reign — […]
As a 27-year history teacher, Ryan Furkas knows the importance of documenting the past while those who lived it are still around to tell the story. Now that his daughter is becoming a teacher, Furkas feels urgency to share what life was like before Gov. Rick Snyder and how he destabilized the system. Otherwise, newer […]
MEA member Chuck Alberts remembers Dec. 11, 2012, when the Michigan Legislature rammed through passage of union-busting bills to weaken organized labor’s collective power. Back then Alberts was a new vice president of the Lansing Schools Education Association (LSEA), standing among thousands of protesters who filled the Capitol and the lawn outside as horse-mounted state […]
Thirty years ago, MEA member Carl Lowe was a decorated Division I college athlete with a pre-law degree when he chose to become a history teacher. Lowe drew inspiration from Richard Gordon, a history teacher and track coach at John Glenn High School in Wayne-Westland where he was a star athlete and returned to teach. […]
To educate younger MEA members, veteran Wayne-Westland teacher Tim Sullivan made a video of news clips from 2011 when Gov. Rick Snyder and a Republican-controlled Legislature cut $1 billion out of the state education budget. “They talked about the cuts as ‘shared sacrifice,’ but then they also gave businesses a $1.4 billion tax break,” Sullivan […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA-Retired member Jo Bird started her teaching career in Zeeland in 1974, formally retired in 2006, and subbed for a dozen more years before finally leaving the classroom. But she never stopped being an activist. Over decades, Bird has devoted her time and energy to many causes, through good […]
