Eli Savit The Michigan Education Association is pleased to announce the recommendation of Eli Savit for Attorney General. Throughout his legal career and his recent service as Washtenaw County Prosecutor, Savit has shown he believes in the power of public education to change lives and communities. That’s why MEA’s Statewide Screening & Recommendation Committee recently voted to recommend Savit to…

By Chandra Madafferi, President & CEO, Michigan Education Association As America turns 250, we should acknowledge the critical role public education has played in making our nation the global leader it is today, and why we as a country must recommit ourselves to strengthening every single school — so that every single student has a shot at the American Dream.…

By Erik Edoff, Senior Executive Director, Michigan Education Association Alert: Please take 90 seconds to contact your lawmakers today and urge them to focus on passing a budget that protects Michigan students and schools by the end of June. Follow this link. State leaders must set aside election-year politics and bring much-needed stability to our local schools by passing a…

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…

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…

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…

Clarkston Community Schools teacher Daniel Clason has received the 2026 MEA Educational Excellence Award for his instructional leadership and creativity as an eighth and ninth-grade history teacher at Clarkston Junior High School. A Michigan native who taught in Mississippi and Texas before coming to Clarkston in 2022, Clason embraces project-based learning, helping to run projects that include “Constitution Fashion Shows,”…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (May 20, 2026) Contact: Matt Hamilton • matthamilton@ejps.org • 616-916-6569 For 18 years, Shoe Club Nation lived in a single Michigan middle school classroom. This past school year, it lived in four. Today, founder Matt Hamilton announced that the program will expand to ten additional Michigan schools for the 2026-27 academic year, on the strength of a…

The Michigan Education Association announced the recipients of the 2026 MEA Scholarship on Monday, honoring exemplary public school students from across the state who will be attending a Michigan public university in the fall. The MEA Scholarship Fund Trustees selected 24 new award recipients, each receiving $2,000. In addition, 22 already enrolled in college will each receive $1,000. “We are…

MEA’s Statewide Screening and Recommendation Committee, comprised of everyday educators from across Michigan, met on Saturday, May 9 to interview candidates for governor and then discuss potentially recommending a candidate for the gubernatorial election. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson accepted MEA’s invitation to participate in our member-driven screening and…