In light of the protest in Lansing this week about the Stay Home, Stay Safe orders designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, a new petition is underway showing support for our front-line workers and keeping all of us safe. Operation Compassion shows our health care, food service, delivery and other workers helping to keep…
While educators across the country are doing amazing things to help our students, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is using this crisis to push her education privatization agenda – this time proposing “microgrants” that sound very much like school voucher programs she’s pushed for years. “Once again, she’s tone deaf. She’s out of touch,”…
New distance learning guidelines have been issued by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), taking into account that 500,000 of the state’s 1.5 million students – one-third of the K-12 school population – do not have home internet access. Mostly teacher written, the document is designed to help district administrators and local union leaders who…
EAST LANSING – The following statement can be attributed to MEA President Paula Herbart regarding today’s extension of the Stay Home, Stay Safe order through April 30: “MEA supports Gov. Whitmer’s efforts to listen to public health experts and to take the necessary steps to address the coronavirus outbreak. That includes both her decision…
Reaching and teaching amid coronavirus school closures By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Sarah VanderMeer says her heart aches with missing her developmental kindergarteners from Brown Elementary School in Byron Center, so she checks in via FaceTime to see how they’re doing, setting up appointments through parents. Recently she spent half an hour…
Education has become a front-burner issue in a bid for re-election by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan because of the stark contrast between him and his opponent, he says. Peters has fought back against the destructive budget cuts and policies of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. His Republican challenger, John James, is being aided…
Rolonda Gleason is a secretary at Ferris State University. The Alaska native knows what it’s like to work without a union, so now she’s a one-woman MEA welcoming committee. What work did you do before coming to FSU? I was a support-staff person at the University of Alaska and worked closely with the School of…
You can listen now as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and members of her education policy staff join MEA, AFT Michigan, and AFSCME for a Teletown Hall following her Thursday announcement that schools will remain closed for the rest of this school year. Whitmer told thousands of union members assembled on the call: “I know this is hard,…
Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-35 earlier today, which orders all K-12 school buildings to close for the remainder of the school year — unless restrictions are lifted — and ensures at-home learning will be provided to students, families in need will still be provided meals, and all school employees will continued to receive…
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor If schools remain closed for the rest of the year, educators at the local level should decide what learning opportunities are most important to provide for their students and how best to deliver them, says MEA President Paula Herbart. The union has been advocating for local control of local…
