Politics is for people
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 — both professors and union members — who taught her the meaning of life is to value humanity.
After earning a fine arts degree, Martinez was teaching grant-funded dance lessons in high-need schools and wondered, “How can I make dance accessible for as many people as possible?”
She took over the Everett High School Dance Program in 2017, then got more involved in the Lansing Schools Education Association (LSEA), becoming an LSEA board member and delegate to the MEA and NEA Representative Assemblies.
In 2024, Martinez was on a school trip with a group of dancers when they learned students had been killed in a shooting back home. She decided to run for Lansing City Council; took an NEA training called See Educators Run; and won a city council seat in 2025.
“When I knocked on people’s doors and I said, ‘I’m running to have safe and healthy neighborhoods, strong city services and opportunities for our kids,’ I found those are universal things that, fundamentally, we all believe in.”
Frustration over systems failing our children is a good reason to engage in politics — not turn away, Martinez says. “There’s no avoiding politics; the personal is political. Feeling like the system isn’t working is a perfect reason to get involved.”
QUOTABLES
“Today’s political attacks on higher education cover a wide range of topics.”
Alec Thomson, a political science professor at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, says Gov. Rick Snyder shifted costs for higher education onto students and families. But as president of NEA’s National Council for Higher Education, he warns of greater threats to research funding and academic freedom faced by colleges and universities today.
“The reality is many politicians want to reduce and control higher education. They do not see it as a public good. The coming election is critical because the Democratic majority that has led us back from Snyder is fragile.”
“I could get married on Saturday, but I could get fired from my job on Monday for just being gay.”
That was the stark reality before June of 2023, says Frank Burger, immediate past president of the union in Flint’s Carman-Ainsworth schools — until the state Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended discrimination protections in the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to LGBTQ+ people in Michigan.
The “monumental victory” — 40 years in the making — is especially significant given ongoing political attacks against transgender people, said Burger, this year’s inaugural recipient of MEA’s Gerry Crane Human and Civil Rights Award.
Since a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalized gay marriage, union contracts ensure LGBTQ+ educators can access benefits such as spousal health insurance and family leave, Burger said, but more work remains to guarantee marriage equality in Michigan.
“These are benefits that our straight counterparts took for granted for many years, which in the past my relationship was not afforded within the collective bargaining agreement.”
Read all of the stories in our special report, ELECTIONS MATTER >> by Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor:
