Why I'm Running
We don't need reform.
We need transformation.
Over the past decade of working on education policy, I’ve read and participated in a lot of studies and reports. Some are about Michigan’s schools, some are about other states, and others about high performing education systems abroad.
I’ve learned a lot about how Michigan’s system works, what doesn’t work, and seen what can. I know that nothing happens, or will change, unless we build coalitions with similar visions and work together meticulously to see them implemented. The Michigan Constitution charges the state Board of Education to lead that effort, and in the 21st century, that really means that we lead in partnership with other colleagues in state government, at intermediate school districts, and in local schools. To see change enacted, we all must work together.
Below, I’ve described a framework for a transformed system of public education in Michigan. The implementation of such a framework won’t look exactly the same in every community, and that is a strength of our diverse state. But if properly implemented, it will create a system that will provide every Michigan student with equal opportunity to a world class education, align our structures to be able to enact this guarantee in all schools, provide the support that Michigan’s professional educators deserve, and include sufficient investment to make it a reality.
Keep our Kids and Educators Safe
Before we talk about the important ways that we need to improve academic achievement, we must take steps to ensure that our young people and educators are and feel safe in their buildings and on their campuses.
Guns have no place in or around schools. We all should be concerned with the gun violence we have seen occur all over America, and especially at places where we send our children. Michigan’s Legislature and Governor have taken important steps with commonsense solutions like requiring guns to be kept unloaded and locked up in homes where children are present, requiring universal background checks, and establishing extreme risk protection orders (“red flag laws”), but we have more to do in this sadly, continual fight.
Create a World Class Guarantee
In order to be able to build anything, we first must have a vision. I believe that if we want to make Michigan’s economy globally competitive, attracting employers and people to our communities and growing our population, then we need to have globally-competitive schools.
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To make Michigan schools the best in the nation and among the best in the world, we need to guarantee every young person has access to at least the following: ​
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High quality College and Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways that allow them to pursue at least two years of credit-bearing college and trades courses while in high school,
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Universal access to quality early childhood education (childcare and Pre-kindergarten),
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Universal access to before and after school programs, and
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Universal access to high quality tutoring programs to help anyone struggling catch up....
Build a Connected, Coherent and Effective System
In Michigan, we have over 800 independent publicly-funded local school districts (traditional districts and charter public academies), 56 independent regional service agencies (commonly known as intermediate school districts) and two state departments that have some direct role in the public education system. These numbers are down from our peak of over 8,000 local districts a century ago, a number that arguably included a lot of one room school houses. But it’s up 30% from the effects of passage of the School District Reorganization Act of 1964; a time when high school access became universal across our state. Our student population is just over 1.4M young people, down from a peak of over 2M around that same time.
I write all this to illustrate the magnitude of independence...
Provide Adequate and Equitable Investment
Report after report indicates that Michigan’s public education system is both inadequately and inequitably invested in. The passage of Proposal A by Michigan voters in 1994 provided huge improvement to solving these problems, as have recent changes to the
per-student funding formula with the inclusion of an Opportunity Index. But even with these changes, our funding structure is still woefully insufficient and out of date. I believe we need to modernize school funding by:
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​Creating a per-student formula that funds each student by what they need to be successful, recognizing that students have different needs,
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Modernize special education funding by ensuring that it is not solely dependent upon local property taxes,
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Fund transportation costs separately so that we can ensure all students can get to school safety,
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Create a special fund for school building improvements, because we know that out-of-date buildings are a hinderance to student learning, and
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Build robust support systems for educators, creating career lattices to help them advance, compensate them competitively, and treat them as professionals....
Fix our Special Education System
It doesn’t seem to matter who one talks to - be it young people, parents, or educators - everyone who interacts with our special education system is dissatisfied. We must change that.
To fix special education, I believe we must dramatically improve funding, parental involvement and service quality:
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Modernize special education funding so that it is not solely dependent upon local property taxes,
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Create an independent office at the state level to improve parental voice and ensure violations of 504 plans and IEPs are resolved,
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Improve support for parental advocacy, and
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Expand support for Special Education educators....
