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We need you! Join the Opportunity for All campaign!

The team at the Education Trust-Midwest has been hard at work advancing priorities for the coming fiscal year centered on investing in students and establishing a fair system of school funding in Michigan that supports every child’s needs.

As state leaders wrestled with the possibility of difficult budget cuts, we’re proud to have worked with equity advocates who asked state leaders to protect the state’s most underserved students, including by signing the Fair Funding Pledge.

To advance those efforts, we hope others will join a new campaign — Opportunity for All.

Our work is just beginning. We need you!

While it’s important to celebrate successes – like the bipartisan School Aid Budget signed by Gov. Whitmer on Sept. 30 that protected education funding — it’s also important to recognize that our state has a long way to go to have a fair funding system that supports every child to achieve at high levels.

For instance, did you know that there’s a wide funding gap between Michigan’s wealthiest and poorest districts? And not everyone knows that research shows it takes more money to educate some students with greater needs.

Our state can do better, and you can help!

Despite our progress, under this budget, Michigan will still invest far too little in students living in poverty, students of color, students with disabilities and English learners. Not enough will be done to ensure transparency and accountability of spending, and in too many ways, Michigan will preserve an educational system failing to meet the needs of far too many young people.

That’s where you come in!

Together, we know we can make a difference. The Education Trust-Midwest remains as committed as ever to advancing educational excellence and equity, and we hope that we can count you in for continuing this work in the months and years to come.

We invite you to be part of this new campaign, Opportunity for All, to ensure every student has the opportunity to achieve at high levels.

Sign up today by clicking here!

 

The Education Trust-Midwest: Standing Up for Equity in Education

By Kylee Mitchell Wells, Executive Director, SE Michigan, Ballmer Group

As the effects of coronavirus continue to compound, Ballmer Group grantee The Education Trust-Midwest is fighting to shield underserved students in Michigan from the effects of state budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic.

The Education Trust-Midwest is using its expertise in research, policy development, and advocacy to stand up for these students. Michigan’s state leaders are in an extremely challenging position: trying to balance the economic realities of coronavirus while effectively serving people across the state.

But The Education Trust-Midwest’s research shows this crisis also presents an opportunity: State leaders can consider solutions rooted in equity, to ensure that communities that have historically been underinvested in and underserved by Michigan’s education funding system—typically in low-income and rural areas—are funded fairly in any immediate budgeting decisions.

The Time Is Now: COVID-19 and Fair Funding, a report published by The Education Trust-Midwest, illustrates how Michigan’s current “equal funding” model for education falls far short in providing the equitable outcomes for which our state should strive. The report provides specific recommendations and a fair funding scale model that state leaders can apply to budgeting decisions. Businesses, civil rights organizations, and community leaders have all joined The Education Trust-Midwest to advocate for solutions outlined in the report as part of the Opportunity for All campaign.

Read the full blog here.

Capital Update

The State Board of Education will meet tomorrow, October 22 at 9:30 a.m. The agenda includes educational updates related to COVID-19 and a presentation goal of expanding early childhood learning opportunities. Information about viewing the meeting and participating in public comment will be available at michigan.gov/mde.

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