Recruit. Respect. Retain. MEA launches Michigan Educator Project to hear from front lines about educator shortage

EAST LANSING — With media coverage continuing to focus on Michigan's educator shortage, MEA has launched www.MichiganEducatorProject.org so the public can hear directly from front-line teachers and other education employees about what's driving the crisis. “Recruit. Respect. Retain.” Under that banner, the new site includes videos from educators – recorded both before and during the pandemic [...]

A State Edu-Budget Primer and Call to Action

Every year at this time, talk of the state budget in Michigan can be confusing because of competing spending plans that must get negotiated. However, this year’s discussions about education funding have added complexity from various federal COVID relief acts for responding to the public health crisis. Also complicating the conversation is the fact that […]

MEA President statement on latest GOP in-person learning demands for pandemic funds

MEA launches MiSchoolRelief.com to lookup federal funds pending by school district, contact lawmakers urging immediate distribution EAST LANSING — The following statement can be attributed to MEA President Paula Herbart on the House Republican proposal in this morning’s Appropriations Committee meeting to tie further COVID relief funds to a demand for 20 hours per week [...]

Herbart Sings to Energize Work of MEA RA

Making real change is not easy, but working together and pressing through difficulty can get us past old barriers – as evidenced by recent guilty verdicts in last year’s killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, MEA President Paula Herbart said in a speech to last weekend’s MEA Representative Assembly. “Those verdicts are a […]

Whitmer Outlines Urgent Priorities in MEA RA Speech

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke to delegates at the virtual MEA Representative Assembly last weekend about a variety of pressing issues on which educators need to make their voices heard. RELATED – Herbart Sings to Energize Work of MEA RA Funding Whitmer said billions in federal relief dollars for public schools in Michigan represent a can’t-be-missed, […]

48 outstanding public school students awarded 2021 MEA Scholarship

EAST LANSING, Mich., April 23, 2021 — The Michigan Education Association today announced the recipients of the 2021 MEA Scholarships, honoring exemplary public school students from across the state who will be attending a Michigan public university next fall. Among the 444 applications submitted for scholarship awards this year, the MEA Scholarship Fund Trustees chose […]

School bus safety bills pass House

On Tuesday, the State House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan, MEA-supported legislation designed to improve safety on Michigan school busses. Two of the bills, HBs 4201 & 4203, would prohibit unauthorized individuals from entering a school bus without the driver’s permission and allow for notices on busses about the prohibition. HBs 4202 & 4204 aim to prevent […]

Tell Lawmakers to Act NOW on Evaluation, Third Grade Reading Bills

As federally mandated testing is underway and the school year enters its final two months, the time is NOW for lawmakers to take action on bills removing student growth data from teacher evaluations and delaying the implementation of third grade reading retention. While using standardized test data to retain students and judge teacher effectiveness is […]