As Michigan school districts struggle to fill open positions, school district leaders want the option to hire recently retired workers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into a law a new measure to help with that.
Isabel Lohman
Isabel reports on early childhood, K-12 and higher education for Bridge Michigan. She loves visiting schools and analyzing how policies made in Lansing affect students and educators. Previously, she was the children’s issues reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee. There, she reported on the state's third-largest public school district's COVID-19 response and how a community copes after losing teenagers to gun violence. Isabel grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and has also lived in Missouri, Tennessee and Belgium. Isabel moved to Ann Arbor in January 2022 where she experienced her first Michigan winter. She has a warm winter hat with a snap-on puff ball. You can reach Isabel at ilohman@bridgemi.com.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan State launches tuition-free promise for families making up to $65K
Michigan State University is the latest Michigan university or college to announce a tuition-free guarantee.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
In Michigan mental health crisis, a tug-of-war over too few social workers
Michigan schools, mental health agencies and hospitals fight over too few social workers. Could relaxed licensing, better pay help?
Posted inChildren & Families
56,000 Michigan kids could lose child care as federal COVID funding ends
Federal pandemic funds helped child care providers raise salaries, buy new supplies and pay bills. They also boosted payments to childcare providers so parents could go to work. The funding ends Saturday.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan State University officially fires Mel Tucker for cause
MSU fired its head football coach two and half weeks after a national report outlined allegations in an ongoing school investigation about Tucker’s behavior.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan lawmakers consider making universal free school meals permanent
Michigan public school students can get free school breakfast and lunch at their schools during the 2023-2024 school year. Some lawmakers want to make the program permanent.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan lawmakers consider requiring panic alarms in schools
Would a panic alarm help a school respond quicker to an active shooter? It’s unclear, but a Democrat-sponsored bill would require them.
Posted inTalent & Education
3.0 GPA now guarantees admission to 10 Michigan public universities
Michigan public universities hope guaranteed admission with a 3.0 high school grade point average will encourage more students to consider attending college after high school.
Posted inTalent & Education
Excited but worried, Michigan teachers wrestle with artificial intelligence
Ever since ChatGPT launched in November, schools have fretted about whether generative AI would lead to cheating and intellectual shortcuts. It may. But educators are coming around to its benefits as a classroom tool.
Posted inTalent & Education
Longtime superintendent at Ann Arbor Schools agrees to leave next month
Jeanice Kerr Swift reached a deal with the board to leave Oct. 31 after a decade leading the district. The agreement followed months of tension with some board members and parents, including over special education