36 minute read
See Educators Run
By Zach Crim, MEA Public Affairs
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Theresann Pyrett has taught
at Macatawa Bay Middle School in West Ottawa for 11 years. She has seen educators demonized, public schools attacked, and the values that led her to become an educator dismissed by elected officials who have never taught a class. They have never driven a bus. They have never served a school lunch. They have never comforted a distraught student.
But Pyrett has also seen the positive impact school employees can have when they have a seat at the table.
This November, she will see Kim Nagy, a music teacher at Northview Public Schools, on her ballot. Nagy has stepped up to run for state Senate, and Pyrett will have the opportunity to help put her in “the room where it happens.”
Students need support from our leaders, and educators need champions now more than ever. Public school employees across the state have answered the call.
Twelve current or former public school employees across Michigan emerged victorious from primary elections over the summer and will appear on general election ballots with a seat in the state Legislature on the line.
This November, hundreds of thousands of school employees will make their voices heard in critical elections across the state. Like Pyrett, many of them will have the opportunity to cast their vote for fellow educators.
Needed in office
“Having more educators serving in the legislature would mean that those in our schools — students, teachers, support staff, and administrators — would have a stronger, much‑needed voice at the Capitol,” said state Rep. Matt Koleszar. The former Airport EA President is running for his third term representing western Wayne County and hoping to bring more supporters of public education with him to Lansing.
“Educators have been there. We have been directly affected by missteps in Lansing. Many of these poor policies were put into place by those who have never stepped foot in the classroom. We need the voices of those with experience in the classroom to right those wrongs and make sure they never happen again.”
State Rep. Nate Shannon, also running for his third term in the Sterling Heights area, agrees that public education has become an increasingly important campaign issue.
“The politicization of education has resulted in unprecedented attacks on teachers, students and staff,” said Shannon, who formerly taught in L’Anse Creuse. “More educators in office will add voices of reason while some other legislators seek to attack public education. We need more educators in Lansing to help defend our teachers and students.”
Four MEA members — Koleszar, Shannon, state Rep. Lori Stone and state Sen. Dayna Polehanki — are currently serving and up for re‑election. Several fellow MEA members across the state are following suit and seeking their first term in state office with hopes of joining their union sisters and brothers at the Capitol.
Jaime Churches, a fifth‑grade teacher in Gross Ile, is one of those hopeful candidates. She is running for a state House seat representing Downriver Wayne County. If successful, she will have the opportunity to continue to serve her students and their families every day — but now from the Capitol instead of the classroom.
“I am running for office because I believe in my students and the Downriver community,” Churches said. “I’m tired of feeling helpless because of decisions in Lansing that are made for us and not with us. I want to turn up the volume on the voices of educators that show up for our kids every day. I want to be an example to my students that when you see
Matt Koleszar
Bringing educator voice to the Legislature
something that’s wrong, you stand up for what you know is right.”
Answering the call
The continued attacks on educators over the past decade have given rise to an equal and opposite reaction. Recent elections have borne a groundswell of school employees running for office — a political movement not seen since 1964, when 17 teachers were elected to the state House and created protections for public school employees to bargain collectively.
“I decided to run because I wasn’t happy with the way things were going and I couldn’t just sit around and let stuff happen, especially with regards to education,” said Anthony Feig, a professor at Central Michigan University and candidate in the 92nd House District.
If elected, Feig would provide an especially unique view of issues facing public education.
“Look, we don’t have any higher education professors in Lansing,” Feig said. “As someone who trains science teachers, I’m tuned in to what’s going on with education and the challenges aspiring educators face.”
Churches’ decision to run for the state House materialized on a cold December afternoon in 2019.
“I asked my students during a lesson to write their dreams down on a paper plate,” Churches recalled. “If they could be anything, if they could do anything, tell me what and why. I sat after school and I read those one day, and I was like, ‘Wow, these are amazing.’”
“That made me think, ‘What would I want to do?’ I wrote my own dreams down on a paper plate too. ‘State Rep’ was the scariest one, the one I was most afraid of. I sat with it for a while. I did a lot of soul searching and I thought, ‘This is it. I am going to do this. Here is my way to make a bigger impact.’”
The state representative she is running to replace, Darrin Camilleri — who is now running for state Senate — was enthusiastic about what Churches would bring to the role of lawmaker.
“Jaime Churches is deeply rooted in the Downriver community and will make an excellent State Representative,” said Camilleri, himself a former educator in the Downriver area. “She understands the importance of public education and will fight to ensure that teachers can succeed in the profession while
Kim Nagy
Redistricting presents opportunity
In 2018, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment to empower an independent commission of citizens to draw legislative and congressional district lines for the 2022 election and beyond with the goal of eliminating gerrymandering and creating more equitable representation.
The independent citizens’ commission is comprised of thirteen private citizens of differing political ideologies, selected by random lottery. The new district maps were finalized late in 2021 and present an opportunity to shift the balance of power in Michigan’s Legislature. Republicans have controlled Michigan’s House for over a decade and the Senate for nearly 40 years thanks to shameless gerrymandering. However, the new non‑partisan maps could finally give voters a true say in what party controls the legislative agenda on education.
According to an analysis by Bridge Magazine based on 2020 presidential election results, both chambers could come down to a few key races. The analysis projects a slight edge for Democrats in the Senate with 21 of the 38 seats leaning left. The same data projects a two‑seat advantage for Republicans in the House. Essentially, it’s a toss‑up and will be decided by voter turnout.
“A Democratic majority is close at hand thanks to the new level playing field,” said Donna Lasinski, House Democratic Minority Leader. “By taking back our legislature we, together with the teachers, administrators and support staff who make our education system work, can push forward an agenda that will treat teachers and students with the respect they deserve.
“We can stop fearing what the next misguided policy will be from those who only wish to see public education fail and instead craft policy that will put our kids and our teachers first. With your help in the voting booth, we can make that happen.”
Anthony Feig
also making sure that students can get the educational opportunities and career on‑ramps they need to succeed in a 21st‑century economy. It’s extremely important to have teachers and middle‑class people representing us in Lansing — working families need representatives at the Capitol who actually understand the issues they face.”
Nagy, the music teacher from Northview and chair of the Ottawa County Democrats, worked tirelessly to recruit a viable candidate for her local state Senate race without success. Running out of options, she realized that if someone had to represent the values of her community, why not her? That may have been just the outcome her fellow Democrats were hoping for when they asked her to lead the search for a candidate.
“I was unwilling to just let this race go without a fight,” Nagy said. “When our current senator supported a bill requiring teachers to post detailed lesson plans prior to the start of the school year, it was clear he doesn’t understand anything about our schools. As a lifelong educator, I do.”
There’s work to be done
For those who prevail on Nov. 8, the work will have just begun. Public school allies have been in the trenches for years, fighting desperately to hold the line. With the prospect of reinforcements coming next term, many are ready to go on the offensive.
“There is still so much work to be done,” Koleszar said. “We still have a major teacher shortage. This shortage will not go away without action from the state that is truly supportive of students and staff alike. That action has been lacking in a Republican majority. I keep doing this because I truly believe in public education and want to continue to fight for it, but we need more allies in the legislature.”
The teacher shortage looms large over every discussion about education policy. It only makes sense that those who have been in the classroom should be at the table as officials work toward sustainable solutions.
Educators across the state are calling for those solutions to pair educator recruitment with retention.
“Attempts to funnel more aspiring educators into the profession without asking why veteran teachers are leaving is like trying to fill a leaky bucket,” Koleszar said.
“The biggest crisis of all is people are not staying,” Churches agreed. “They're fleeing the classroom at alarming rates because of the lack of respect and support being given to educators. We have to start taking on these problems, and retaining talent has to be first.”
For many, maintaining the momentum of recent historic state education budgets is critical to
Jaime Churches
MEA‑recommended current or former school employees running for the state Legislature
State Senate:
Erika Geiss (District 1)
Darrin Camilleri (District 4) Dayna Polehanki (District 5)
Kim Nagy (District 31)
State House:
Regina Weiss (District 6) Lori Stone (District 13)
Matt Koleszar (District 22)
Jason Morgan (District 23) Dylan Wegela (District 26) Jaime Churches (District 27)
Nate Shannon (District 58)
Anthony Feig (District 92)
Bringing educator voice to the Legislature
their work to support educators and students alike.
“The education budget is the second largest budget in the State of Michigan,” Shannon said. “The more educators we have in office, the more seats we have at the table to decide how that money is spent. Over the past few decades, we have seen attempt after attempt to defund our schools and give that money to corporate interests.”
Those efforts to defund and privatize education have been led by disgraced former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, most recently through a thinly veiled voucher scheme to funnel public dollars to her billionaire friends. (Her deceptive “Let MI Kids Learn” ballot measure will come before legislators for their consideration this fall or next spring — learn how you can help stop it at ForMIKids.com.)
The DeVos family has already spent millions on the upcoming election attempting to buy seats for opponents of public education. Most notable of these DeVos candidates is Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s opponent, Tudor Dixon, a failed actor who is now auditioning for Michigan’s most powerful office by reading a script written by Betsy DeVos.
Flipping the script
Educators and their allies across the state are fighting back, supporting candidates who understand what it truly means to support our students and keep public dollars in public schools.
“I first started out with a passion to run for office because of the lack of investment in students and teachers in the public education system,” Churches said. “If we want
Nate Shannon
to tackle our literacy problem, we need money to buy books and get reading specialists in every building. We need social‑emotional learning resources. We don't have the school staff that we need to address mental health. Our teachers need better wages and benefits for the tireless work they do.”
Funding is only a piece of the puzzle. Many pro‑education candidates have very specific objectives they’re hoping to bring to Lansing if elected.
“My number one legislative priority it to repeal the third grade reading law,” Nagy said. “I believe that having additional support staff in terms of interventionists is important, but this law just adds layers of bureaucracy and punishes and teachers and students.”
Excessive standardized testing is another overreach commonly cited as indicative of a growing lack of respect for the profession among politicians.
“I love teaching, but I feel my ability to be the best teacher I can be is suppressed by all of the focus on testing and data and the lack of respect and resources for educators,” Churches said. “We need to respect educators as professionals.”
While educators currently in office take pride in the hard‑won funding increases we’ve seen over the past two years, they have their eyes set on greater goals as more educators win legislative seats.
“The hard truth is that we have had to curb our expectations in a Legislature dominated by ultra‑conservatives,” Koleszar said. “We have made some incremental progress, but I know I am not alone in having some truly ambitious ideas in my back pocket. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to introduce those bills this January, when we have the votes we need to make them a reality.” v
Five Stories by Brenda Ortega, MEA Voice Editor
Chilling effects from ‘Don’t Say Gay’
Michael Woods has been
a teacher in Florida for 30 years, but a new state law left him uncertain of what he could and could not say to students when he returned this fall to sponsoring his Palm Beach County high school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance club.
“They’ve created a law that says ‘We are eliminating all discussions about LGBTQ people and denying that they even exist,’ but they don’t want to call it that,” Woods said. “I call it a solution in search of a problem.”
Florida lawmakers sparked widespread condemnation — from corporate executives to newspaper editorial boards — with the Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” and legal experts agree will certainly chill classroom speech.
“Teachers have a lot of unanswered questions because the law is so very vague,” Woods said.
A record wave of anti‑LGBTQ legislation has been introduced this year in 35 states, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Measures that passed in 13 states mainly target transgender youth. Parallel efforts seek to limit teaching about the role of race in U.S. history.
A sweeping law passed in Alabama bans transgender students from restrooms corresponding with their gender identity, requires schools to inform parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ, criminalizes gender‑affirming medical care for transgender youth, and restricts classroom speech.
Florida’s new law bars discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in “kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Parents who perceive a violation can sue for damages and costs.
In Michigan, GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon has said she would support a Florida‑style Don’t Say Gay law here. [Read more about Dixon vs. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on page 19.]
Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 15 other state attorneys general in challenging the Florida law for violating the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment, calling it “an affront not just to educators but also to LGBTQ+ students, especially those who may already be experiencing the stigmatizing effect of their identity at school.
“This bill is not motivated by the desire to limit inappropriate content in classrooms,” Nessel said. “It is meant to have a chilling effect on how educators do their jobs and may also violate the First Amendment rights of students and teachers alike.”
A ninth‑grade special education teacher, Woods said he was forced to remove his classroom library after the law went into effect on July 1 because he didn’t have time to comply with new requirements to review every book title using a checklist provided by the state.
Educators in some districts across Florida were told not to wear rainbow shirts or display stickers in support of LGBTQ students and to remove photographs of same‑sex partners or spouses.
Woods is especially alarmed by requirements to notify parents if a student asks to be referred to by a different pronoun, regardless of the student’s wishes — “in essence requiring me to ‘out’ a child,” he said. “If a teacher would have outed me in high school, I would have considered taking my life.
“People don’t understand — they think you’re being hyperbolic. But speaking to you as a gay man who was teased and beaten up in school, who didn’t come out until 31 because I was afraid of being fired, I can tell you without a doubt: when you create safe spaces for kids, it saves people’s lives.” v
Michael Woods
Echoes from history of the worst kind
In the summer of 1995 life was good for Gerry Crane, a young music teacher in west Michigan who had turned around a struggling high school program, earning awards and a glowing evaluation by his principal who described him as one of the best teachers at the school.
All Crane ever wanted to do was teach music, and he was loved by students — dozens of whom would attend the funeral following his death at age 32 a little more than a year later.
One newspaper described the young people’s reaction when the minister in his eulogy compared Crane to the main character — an inspiring music teacher — played by Richard Dreyfus in a movie popular that year: Mr. Holland’s Opus.
“Who needs Mr. Holland when we have Mr. Crane?” Rev. William Evertsberg said to a burst of applause from his former students, according to an account at the time.
What happened to Crane in the 1995‑96 school year is both the subject of a book — Private Love, Public School: Gay Teacher Under Fire — named a Michigan Notable Book this year by the Library of Michigan, and an echo of ugliness and hate that sadly still reverberates today.
Crane was a gay man who tried to keep his personal life private but was outed and driven from his job after his fourth year of teaching at Byron Center Public Schools south of Grand Rapids. The minister at his funeral told mourners, “He died of a broken heart, literally and figuratively.”
Crane suffered a heart attack in December 1996, six months after resigning. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy said stress from months of being hounded to quit may have contributed to his death, said the book’s author, Christine Yared.
“Here we are more than 25 years later, talking about this problem, that LGBTQ teachers have to worry about being harassed, having parents angry at them, losing their job, or having politicians use them as a part of their rhetoric,” said Yared, a lawyer and longtime LGBTQ activist.
Crane never wanted to be a symbol of courage. When he held a small, private commitment ceremony with his partner of five years in October 1995, word got out and the firestorm began the next day.
Over the next several months, as many as 700 people would show up at school board meetings to denigrate Crane and demand his firing. Some parents pulled children from his class. Some churches left fear‑mongering fliers on car windshields. The story made national news.
“The school board issued a statement that basically said homosexuals are not proper role models for students, and we will continue to monitor and investigate this situation,” Yared said. “It was horrific.”
More than a dozen complaints were filed against him, which Crane battled with legal representation from the union. The students who stayed became a big support, as school administrators turned against him and many co‑workers either didn’t back him or feared to speak out, Yared said.
“This is how weak the complaints were: He was accused of violating a directive from the board not to speak publicly about any of this when he directed the musical South Pacific — because it includes the song ‘You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught to Hate.’ Another complaint referred to him including the song ‘The Colors of the Wind’ from Disney’s Pocahontas in a choir concert.”
Crane finished the year, but when a school board election returned his detractors to their seats he realized the targeting would never end. “He signed a resignation letter in July and worked out a severance agreement for one year’s salary.”
Yared said she footnoted years of research in the book because she wanted to document Crane’s story for future audiences and historians. “When I sign books I write ‘Be a voice for others,’ because we need people who think this doesn’t affect them to stand up and say, ‘This is wrong.’” v
Gerry Crane (right) and partner Randy Block Christine Yared
Award‑winning teacher faces threats
MEA member Owen Bondono
remembers well‑meaning advice he got from a professor when he came out as transgender in college: either don’t transition or don’t become an educator. He would go on to do both — and be selected as Michigan Teacher of the Year in 2020 after five years in the classroom.
“Her other option for me if I transitioned was to do it really well and keep it a secret — never tell anyone — and then I could still work as a teacher,” he said.
Bondono kept his personal life a secret for the first three years of his career in Oak Park Schools for fear of being fired, but with the help of a supportive administrator and union he came out in 2018. The growing weight of not being the teacher he needed in high school had become too much to carry.
“I remember my principal being very surprised that I didn’t know she was fully supportive of me, and I had to explain to her that I know she supports me, and I know that she’s wonderful, but no one knows how they’re going to behave when the mob is there,” he said.
These days Bondono’s early concerns about his safety as an openly transgender educator seem prescient.
Nationwide hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ educators and students has ramped up over the past year alongside restrictive new laws in at least 13 states aimed at silencing their voices and denying their humanity. The most prominent example is Florida’s so‑called “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Last spring Bondono faced the threat directly as he confronted a “terrifying” internet mob directed at him by a right‑wing Twitter account dedicated to whipping up extreme anti‑LGBTQ fervor among its 1.3 million followers.
“I had mobs of anonymous internet strangers flooding all of my social media, flooding my emails — including my work email — accusing me of being a pedophile and groomer, talking about how I should kill myself and more.”
The hateful names, calls for his firing, and threats to his safety left him fearful and exhausted for several weeks after the April tweet targeting Bondono by “Libs of TikTok,” an anonymous account echoed by conservative hosts on FOX and other right‑wing sites, such as The Daily Caller.
“It was a very vulnerable feeling, like there was a boogie man in every shadow, and my body was in fight or flight all the time,” Bondono said. “It was a little bit comforting that it was all happening online, because I knew most of these people are not my community, but still it was terrifying because you know — it only takes one, right?”
Bondono believes the current wave of attacks marks a reactionary push‑back against recent civil rights gains. But it’s rooted in a long history of homophobic and transphobic bigotry that dehumanizes LGBTQ people and equates them with pedophiles who pose a danger to children and society, he notes.
“There’s a reason that queer people were targeted just as viciously as Jewish people by the Nazis. We’re an easy target; we’re visible, and we’re different, and different can be scary. How many times through history have we heard ‘We have to protect the children’ as a way to further bigotry?”
Bondono is concerned for individual educators and the profession as a whole, but more so he worries about young people who are seeing and hearing the vitriol aimed at their community.
“We already know that queer youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight cis‑gender peers, and they make up 40% of homeless youth in the United States. The rhetoric that is happening is going to result in some kids harming themselves because they feel hopeless and unseen.”
What brings him hope is activism joining LGBTQ folks with other allies in the fight for human rights: “Martin Luther King Jr. said the long arc of history bends toward justice, and what I have learned is that only happens if we make it so — because we don’t stop fighting to make it so.”
On that front, Bondono is bringing his voice to a new policy arena. In August, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed him to serve on the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council for a term ending in 2026. v
Owen Bondono
Loving families emerge from the shadows
When veteran educator and local MEA leader Cathy Murray
married her wife in December 2015, six months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same‑sex marriage, she was surprised to learn several others from her conservative small‑town school district also had formalized relationships.
“It was very telling to me that everyone was living the secret, closeted life up to that point to protect themselves,” she said.
Murray, who has taught high school psychology in Port Huron for 25 years, recalls early in her career — before she was open about her personal life — driving to a store out of town to buy the book One Teacher in 10: LGBT Educators Share Their Stories, which helped her feel less alone.
“Then I remember meeting my first colleague who was part of the LGBTQ community, and it felt so good to know that someone else was experiencing the same things. It was empowering.”
Murray and wife Alina — a nurse — share two children they conceived via fertility treatments: Cecelia, 5, and Eleanor, 1. Last year their oldest completed kindergarten and loved every part of school and every subject, said Murray, who is president of the local teacher’s union.
“I watched all of the joy she had coming home and being able to do things her teacher taught her, and I’m proud of the education she’s receiving, proud to live in the community that I work in,” she said.
When Cecelia told her teacher that she had two moms, the educator did a great job of reinforcing a message the girl’s parents have impressed upon her — that all families are different, Murray said.
That positive experience illustrates the importance of work being done by MEA’s three‑year‑old LGBTQ Caucus, she added. Book studies and lists of books and resources for educators have been created to share with members interested in creating a more inclusive classroom.
It also explains the depth of Murray’s emotion talking about recent cultural shifts that have emboldened anti‑LGBTQ forces in the U.S. to push for hard‑won rights to be taken away and try to sweep kindness and acceptance back out of the classroom.
“I’m sorry — I’m emotional,” she said, wiping away tears. “It just makes me worry about young educators who are in the LGBTQ community, or younger people who are thinking about becoming educators, because why would they want to if this is how they could potentially be treated?
“We could use their talents, and not only that, but we know the LGBTQ community — because of hate — has been more affected by suicide. Why would we do that? Why would we bring this on to people? I don’t know.”
Claims that LGBTQ educators are “indoctrinating” or “grooming” students to change them into something they’re not are flat lies, yet that is the kind of hateful rhetoric being used to justify attacks against LGBTQ people, Murray said.
“Finally in America, we were given a chance to openly love and fully be ourselves and now — in such a short time period — large groups of people want to take that away. It’s scary, it’s maddening, and it’s wrong.”
Murray and her wife hope to raise strong, independent daughters who can follow their dreams without anyone stopping them — and she wishes the same for all of the amazing LGBTQ educators and students in our schools, she said.
“It really is time to vote your conscience and make a difference at the ballot box,” she said. “Whether it’s local school board races, the state Legislature, the governor’s office, or the state School Board and Supreme Court. Good people have to stand up to the hate or we’re allowing it to happen.”
Already eligible to retire, Murray said she could leave the classroom, “but I love what I do and know we all make a difference with the lives of kids every day.” v
Cathy Murray (left), wife Alina and their two daughters
For those who didn’t hear
the important news in late July, MEA member Anthony Pennock wants it noted the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 5‑2 that individuals cannot be fired, evicted or otherwise discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The historic decision handed down on July 28 found the state’s Elliott‑Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 includes protections against discrimination based on an individual’s LGBTQ status.
“People maybe haven’t heard or don’t realize or understand because the ruling just happened, but we have that protection in state law,” said Pennock, a gay man who teaches and leads the local union in Battle Creek and also serves as co‑chair of MEA’s three‑year‑old LGBTQ Caucus.
However, as with the U.S. Supreme Court ignoring longstanding precedent to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision last June, Pennock also points out that court rulings do not offer guarantees. “People are fearing that if one right can be taken away, what will be next?”
Accelerating attacks against the LGBTQ community across the country drove Pennock to testify recently at his alma mater, Pennfield Schools in the rural outskirts of Battle Creek, where a majority on the school board had talked of removing so‑called “divisive concepts” from school curricula.
With their comments at a meeting in July, the board members appeared to be targeting books and lessons that discuss issues of race and gender, Pennock said, but he added, “They’re getting a huge backlash from the community, thankfully.”
A number of people turned out to speak against stripping the curriculum of inclusive materials and ideas at the monthly meeting in August, including educators, students, parents and community activists. Similar battles are being fought over library books and reading materials in various Michigan districts.
Pennock drew cheers — and afterward a hug from his former music teacher, MEA member Steve Bowen, who also spoke out against potential changes — with powerful remarks about the bullying he endured that led him to contemplate suicide in the eighth grade.
“Luckily, I did not go through with taking my life,” Pennock said, his voice shaking with emotion. “But I did make a promise to myself to do everything I could to ensure other children never had to go through the torment I did — in any school — and now I see this board acting like my bullies.”
Pennock offered ways to help students learn better — by welcoming, standing up for, and including all students in classrooms, books and curricula. “I would be happy to inform and educate you to clear up misconceptions you may have because that’s my job. I’m an educator, and I’m here to protect students.”
The increasing legislative attacks and hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ people affects young people in every realm — psychological, physical, emotional and academic — Pennock said in an interview, citing frightening statistics on the mental health of LGBTQ youth in the U.S.
The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of all LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, with even higher rates among young people who are transgender and Black and Indigenous LGBTQ youth and people of color.
No one deserves to feel that way, Pennock said. That’s why he successfully fought a few years ago to have his district’s non‑discrimination policy include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
It’s also why he continues to share his experiences publicly, even though they remain painful.
“I’ve always learned as an educator, as a leader in our union, and as an advocate that our power comes from our stories,” he said. “We have to give voice to it, because the students who are speaking up in large numbers across the country need to know we are with them.” v
Anthony Pennock (second from left) spoke at Pennfield Schools alongside a community activist, a district mom and former classmate, and MEA member music teacher Steve Bowen.
Analysis: Whitmer offers sharp contrast to DeVos‑backed opponent
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor
Follow Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
at campaign and speaking events, and you quickly notice one way she likes to introduce herself: “as a product of public schools and the mother of two daughters who attended public schools...”
Whitmer makes clear in how she talks to and about educators that she’s proud of the work all public school employees do to help young people learn and thrive — including bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, food service workers, paraeducators, counselors, teachers — everyone.
“Thank you,” she said at an MEA‑PAC event in July attended by all of the above. “I’m incredibly grateful for everything you do for our kids and for our communities. Thank you for helping create some normalcy for young people who’ve been through so much these past couple years — not to mention all you’ve been through.”
Perhaps a governor who appreciates the work of educators and the value of public education is not a radical concept.
But consider her opponent in the Nov. 8 General Election. A one‑time actor and conservative commentator who previously worked at a steel company owned by her father, Republican nominee Tudor Dixon has never held elected office. Her children attend private schools.
Dixon has said she would make education a “top priority” if elected. The problem is her education priorities are destructive. when Dixon promises to enact a voucher scheme long sought by the wealthy west Michigan family. More than 20 years ago, by a huge margin, Michigan voters crushed a DeVos‑bankrolled voucher proposal on the ballot.
The latest plan being pushed by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would divert $500 million away from public schools to private and religious schools in the first year alone, with that amount increasing in following years. (Read more on page 21 about DeVos‑backed efforts to circumvent the will of voters on this front.)
In an interview with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan, Dixon said passing the DeVos‑backed tuition voucher scheme would be her number‑one education goal if elected. In addition, she strongly supports the retention mandate in the third grade reading law, which Whitmer has called to eliminate.
Adding insult to injury, Dixon also supports plans to require school districts to post curricular materials at the beginning of the school year or risk the loss of state funding. In statewide polling by MEA in August, 84% of educators strongly disapproved of such a measure.
Dixon has joined in other divisive movements. She has accused schools of focusing on “indoctrination” of students and she participated in a bizarre June 30 press conference on the steps of the state Capitol in support of a bill to ban so‑called “drag shows” in schools.
Neither the bill language nor the press conference participants — which included a few GOP lawmakers in addition to Dixon — could define a drag show or cite an example of one happening at a school.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer praised student organizers of the March for Our Lives in June, here pictured at the Capitol with Lansing March co‑captains Neelu Jaberi and Berelian Karimian.
Whitmer met with members at the MEA Summer Conference.
The choice is clear, Whitmer said in her acceptance speech at the Michigan Democratic Party’s nominating convention at the Lansing Center in August.
“It’s a choice between culture warriors who want to divide us and distract us from their dangerous plans or problem solvers who are proven and make the seat at the table for everyone,” she said.
The stakes in this election are dramatic, she concluded in her speech: “Public education is on this ballot. Our economic future is on this ballot. Our democracy itself is on this ballot. And the right to choose is on this ballot.”
Last year Whitmer vetoed a voucher scheme the Legislature sent to her desk — like the one Dixon supports — to give tax breaks on private school tuition. “The movement to privatize education in this state has been a catastrophic failure, causing Michigan students to fall behind the rest of the nation,” she told reporters after the veto.
The basis of her education policy‑making has been to listen to educators, respect their expertise, and deliver needed supports.
“If we want to keep improving our schools in Michigan, we’ve got to reverse decades of disinvestment in public education and continue to make bold investments in our kids, our educators and our schools,” she told delegates to the MEA Representative Assembly last April. “Your tireless work puts Michigan students front and center, and when you succeed the state of Michigan succeeds.”
Whitmer has secured historic state funding for every student in Michigan for the past two years — without raising taxes — bringing additional increases for disadvantaged and special education students, and providing big boosts to preschool, child care and after‑school programs.
The 2023 budget includes $100 million for school‑related infrastructure needs, and for two years in a row impressive resources have flowed toward programs and hiring of staff to serve students’ growing mental health needs.
Next year’s budget also includes visionary new programs to eliminate hurdles to becoming an educator and begin to address a critical teacher shortage — including $10,000‑per‑year grants for some students in teacher prep programs; a $9,600‑per‑semester student teaching stipend; and grants for districts to develop grow‑your‑own programs to help support staff become certified.
She has championed creation of multiple pathways for Michiganders to earn college degrees and skills certificates to compete for high‑paying jobs. And her higher education budgets have delivered some of the biggest increases to colleges and universities in years.
She wants every child to have the opportunity for a good quality of life and every educator to have the compensation, respect and support they need to be the best educator they can be, she told supporters at a summer campaign event.
“We can make Michigan that place,” she said. “We are on the path to becoming that place, but we can’t afford a major setback now.”
Indeed, agreed MEA President Paula Herbart, the governor has shown time and again that she understands, values and prioritizes the critical work that educators do in building a brighter future for the state of Michigan. Now it’s time to send our support her way:
“There’s much to be done,” Herbart said. “Register to vote, knock on doors, donate to MEA‑PAC, make phone calls, cast your ballot for MEA‑recommended candidates. Let’s send Gov. Whitmer back to Lansing, along with legislators who support public education and are committed to strengthening the cornerstone of every community — our public schools!” v
DeVos is trying to sneak voucher scheme through back door
For more than 20 years, Betsy DeVos has tried to enact school vouchers in Michigan to drain tax dollars away from public schools toward private and religious schools. The only problem was she couldn’t get her plan past voters, who shot it down by a 69‑31 margin in 2000. Now DeVos thinks she’s figured out a way to jam her desired school voucher scheme into law while circumventing both the will of voters and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s veto pen — by exploiting a loophole in state law. DeVos’ group, deceptively named “Let MI Kids Learn,” submitted petition signatures to the Board of State Canvassers after the June 1 deadline for getting an initiative on the ballot. Why turn in signatures late? Because the group never intended to bring the matter before voters this fall. Instead they will try to get the Legislature to adopt the measure directly, a move that can’t be vetoed by Whitmer. The maneuver could be attempted after the November election and before the new Legislature is seated, during what’s known as the Lame Duck session in late December. According to financial disclosure reports filed in July, the DeVos group pushing for passage has raised more than $8 million for the signature gathering and campaign — more than half of which has come from DeVos family members. Stay tuned for Calls to Action from MEA — follow us on social media and sign up to receive Capitol Comments at mea.org/signup. The state estimates if enacted the tuition tax credit scheme would drain $500 million from the state’s education budget in the first year. That amount would be allowed to increase by 20% each year, meaning after five years the amount lost to public schools would be $1 billion. The irony is that paid signature gatherers throughout the spring and summer told registered voters the change would benefit low‑income students, which is not the case, said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB). MASB is part of a large and diverse coalition fighting to defeat the voucher plan, which includes MEA and AFT Michigan, education organizations such as the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators and the secondary principals association, parent groups such as the Michigan Parent Teacher Association and the Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools, advocacy groups such as the Michigan Education Justice Coalition and 482 Forward, and more. “Who will be served if this is enacted?” said Wotruba, who has worked for MASB for 25 years and remembers the campaign to defeat the DeVos voucher scheme back in 2000. “This creates a second system of publicly funded private schools. If we look at public education as a resource for everybody, as soon as you take a dollar out of that resource you diminish what’s available for everybody. “In essence you have the vast majority of people who remain in that public system but with fewer resources,” he concluded. When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a similar plan passed by the Republican‑controlled Legislature last year, she echoed Wotruba’s assessment. “Simply put, our schools cannot provide the high‑quality education our kids deserve if we turn private schools into tax shelters for the wealthy,” the governor told reporters after vetoing the measure. The measure goes against the Michigan Constitution, which forbids public money from going to private institutions, but beyond that most people wouldn’t even be able to use the tuition tax credit anyway, Wotruba said. Families of modest means couldn’t afford to make up the difference between the tax credit and actual tuition, and folks who live in rural areas wouldn’t have private school options nearby, “so all we’ve done is create a tax break for somebody to send their kids to private school that was already doing so.” For certain the state education budget would shrink in response to the lost revenue, Wotruba said, adding other public services, such as police and fire, could also face cuts. Even though such a large number of school, parent and education advocacy groups have banded together to fight against the DeVos voucher plan, the backdoor method of pushing it through the Legislature creates an uneven playing field. “A big problem with this proposal is that it bypasses voters, so there’s not a lot of media attention focused on it like there would be with a ballot proposal,” he said. “That means all of us need to do the work to raise awareness.” Go to ForMIKids.com to learn more.
