Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ventured into the Jackson County turf of Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) on Thursday to illustrate the struggles schools are facing without a state budget and press Republican leaders to put real solutions on the table.
Join fellow MEA members as we celebrate Labor Day across Michigan! Don’t forget to wear #RedForEd at these events in Detroit, Marquette County, Grand Rapids and Muskegon (or wherever your Labor Day plans take you!). If you’re in Detroit, join MEA Vice President Chandra Madafferi, Secretary-Treasurer Brett Smith, and Executive Director Mike Shoudy at the […]
First-year educator Stephanie Connell briefly paused and held her head in her hands to contain the overwhelm she felt while shopping in the New Teacher Store at Rochester Community Schools last Friday. The high school English teacher and brand new MEA member was allowed to take whatever she wanted for free from a room crowded […]
MEA member Virginia Weichert would like to start using flexible seating in her St. Clair County special education classroom. Her students with cognitive impairments enjoy activities more when they are not confined to desks, she says. But Weichert also has basic school supplies to purchase with her own money, and she can’t afford to buy […]
MEA members, This morning, I received a letter from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that I thought you should all see: As a new school year is upon us, I wanted to reach out and tell you again how much I respect and appreciate the hard work you do on behalf of our kids. Preparing our students […]
Collective bargaining in school districts around the state has been hampered by the Legislature’s failure to pass an education budget before leaving for summer break, MEA President Paula Herbart said this week. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 157 unsettled contracts among MEA-affiliated locals across the state. “For the first time this decade, the Legislature […]
MEA President Paula Herbart used her monthly “Labor Voices” column in The Detroit News to slam various schemes being floated by Republican leaders in the Legislature to bond, restructure, or reamortize the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System. A pension is a promise of a secure retirement, she writes, but too often in Lansing pensions […]
A survey earlier this year of nearly 17,000 educators by Launch Michigan – a coalition of business, civic, and education leaders – revealed school employees’ attitudes on a range of topics, including professional development, literacy resources, and evaluations. Now those results have been broken down by region. See how perceptions in your area compare to […]
A pension is a promise of a secure retirement. But too often in Lansing, they’re viewed as piggy banks to be broken into for political purposes. As a young educator, I remember then-Gov. John Engler diverting state payments from the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System to fund other priorities — which accelerated us down a […]
Matt Cottone, a sixth-grade World Studies teacher at Van Hoosen Middle School in Rochester, has been selected as a 2020 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow. As a fellow, Cottone will spend a year in a peer learning network of 44 educators from across the country building their comprehension of issues of global significance and their […]
