Michigan school opinions

Clearing up parent concerns about what classrooms teach and how well schools use their growing resources should be a high priority for Michigan.

Policies like Let MI Kids Learn haven’t worked in states that have tried similar schemes.

I’ve witnessed more than a dozen seniors shedding tears in my office when they found out there was a way for them to afford an education after high school.

Spend some time reading with the young ones in your life. We believe this will help these youth build a foundation anchored by a love of reading.

To teach history is not for the purpose of making anyone uncomfortable, but history may inevitably make many uncomfortable. So, too, though, the ignoring or plowing under of history leaves its own marks.

Michigan has an enormous opportunity for its next economic renaissance. We can’t deliver on that vast potential while dead last in educational investment.

We spend a lot of time debating how much money should go into the education of our children, and very little thinking about how best to spend those funds.

A GOP bill allowing college students to teach in a classroom for a year without supervision feels like just another strategy to weaken and compromise public education by further de-professionalizing teaching.

The children and families we serve have already borne the brunt of the pandemic. If we truly care about those most in need, we must act.

When the dust settles and the laughter subsides, come May, I’ll find it hard not to be an alumnus embarrassed by the University of Michigan.

Many of us can’t imagine our four-legged friends being subjected to the brutality that is routine at Wayne State, and we shouldn’t ignore it because it’s done by people in white coats.

I invite our elected officials to come into the classroom and see what these drills are really like. Help us create plans to barricade the doors, decide what items could be used to throw at a shooter.

The expertise and knowledge are there to fix the state’s mental health crisis. What is missing is political will.

Repealing compulsory schooling would allow parents whose child is struggling with mental health issues to withdraw their child from school, to focus on improving the child’s mental health, without worry of jail time.

Oxford High officials are under the microscope for not sending Ethan Crumbley home before a shooting rampage. If we want different decisions in the future, schools need different mandates and guidelines.

Bills now in the Legislature would allow Michigan community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing, something that’s needed to address the healthcare staffing shortage.

Child care creates long-term public good that is too often subsidized by those who can least afford it: families and care providers.

In rereading a text thread with my daughter who was in Oxford High School during the shooting, I realized how many times I said "teacher." Heroes, every single one.

An overhaul of the Michigan Competitive Scholarship is one of the best possible uses to make a transformational change in our state’s trajectory.

We need a major investment to incentivize Michiganders to join, and remain in, Michigan’s classrooms.