MEA Votes

In her monthly column in The Detroit News, MEA President Iris K. Salters writes about the Legislature's failure to adequately fund public education. Absent real, long-term solutions to the budget crisis, Salters said voters can elect new leaders in November to fix the crisis once and for all.

"It's time politicians in Lansing end the gimmicks and quick fixes and finally get serious about making every level of education funding a top budget priority," she said.

Listen to an MEA Votes podcast with gubernatorial hopeful Virg Bernero, MEA's recommended candidate in the Aug. 3 primary.

In this 13-minute podcast, Bernero discusses education funding and why it's so important that the state provide adequate, equitable, and stable aid for public schools.

About 7,000 proud union members and their supporters traveled to Lansing June 24 for a massive MEA rally on the Capitol lawn. Their message was clear: Enough is Enough!

The event highlighted the need for adequate, stable, and equitable funding for public education. Rally-goers urged lawmakers to stop attacks on public education and instead invest in Michigan’s future through education.

Speakers included gubernatorial hopeful Virg Bernero, teacher-turned lawmaker Rep. Jennifer Haase, and others. The Enough is Enough campaign doesn’t end with the rally – this energy will carry through to the primary and general election...and beyond.

For more coverage, go to www.mea.org/enough.

MEA Votes has conducted several question and answer sessions with MEA's recommended candidate for governor, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. Over the next three weeks, we'll be sharing Mayor Bernero's answers with you here. This week's topic: school funding.

There was a great quote earlier this week from Lansing political veteran Bill Ballenger in a Grand Rapids Press story about school millage approvals in West Michigan on Tuesday.

Ballenger said the results might be instructive for state legislators, many of whom are "scared to death" of proposing any kind of tax increase.

"Apparently, the voters are saying, 'Maybe that's what you think. It's not what we think.'"

Check out MEA President Iris K. Salters' column in today's Detroit News! Enough is Enough!

On Friday, more than 600 delegates to MEA’s Spring Representative Assembly marched to the Capitol steps to make their voices heard.

They called for lawmakers in Lansing to stop treating school employees like political punching bags. They advocated for real, balanced solutions to Michigan’s decade-long budget crisis – not more games and gimmicks that balance the budget on the backs of students and school employees. They demanded adequate, equitable, stable funding for public education.

School employees have given almost $1 billion over the past three years in salary and health insurance concessions. You pay hundreds – if not thousands – out of pocket every year for basic instruction supplies. You fund your continuing education and training to keep your skills sharp for your students. You work with increasing class sizes and decreasing resources. The vast majority of you pay into your retirement system and pay out of pocket for your health benefits.

Apparently, your bosses – or at least their statewide organizations – don’t care.

Yesterday, the “SOS: Save our Students, Schools, State” campaign, a group of school management organizations, released its reform agenda. While MEA agrees with their central premise that our school funding system is broken and needs to be overhauled, that’s where our agreement ends. SOS has apparently chosen to ignore the sacrifices made by its own employees by insisting that even more be taken out of your hides.