Education Funding Updates

Wendy Winston, a middle school math teacher in Grand Rapids Public Schools, has been named the winner of MEA’s 2026 Maurine Wyatt Feminist and Gender Equity Award. Winston’s lengthy and impressive resume includes advocating for students — including girls seeking futures in STEM — as chair of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI-STEM Advisory Council. She was also named a regional semi-finalist…

May 21, 2026

Retired Ann Arbor teacher wins MEA Human Rights Award for lifelong commitment

Retired Ann Arbor special education teacher Kathy Kosobud has been named the winner of MEA’s 2026 David McMahon Human Rights Award. Initially, Kosobud set out toward a career in theater design, but after college, she shifted to education and applied her manual arts skills in pre-vocational settings for children with disabilities, spending many years as a special education teacher in…

May 21, 2026

Carman-Ainsworth teacher wins statewide MEA Human and Civil Rights Award

A longtime advocate for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ students and educators, Carman-Ainsworth teacher Frank Burger has been named the first recipient of MEA’s new Gerry Crane Human and Civil Rights Award. A 28-year educator in the Flint-area Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools, Burger advises Carman-Ainsworth’s Prism Club, a place for LGBTQ students to come together for support and to plan…

May 21, 2026