Press Release

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (June 2, 2016) – The founder and CEO of the national Education Trust Kati Haycock will speak today to Michigan and national business and civic leaders at the Mackinac Policy Conference. Haycock, a nationally renowned advocate for vulnerable students, will speak on the importance of funding equity and high expectations for all students in public schools.

In Michigan, as well as other states, the conversation about how to improve schools “has been stalled by a false debate – the debate about whether money is what’s needed to improve our public schools and close achievement gaps for students of color and low-income children,” according to an op/ed by Kati Haycock, CEO of the Education Trust, and Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, published in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press.

Improving Michigan’s public schools is one of the central topics at this week’s Mackinac Policy Conference. Haycock will be speaking as part of a panel at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 2. Click here to see a live stream of her presentation.

In addition to more equal funding, Michigan schools also need greater accountability and systemic improvements, according to Haycock. As Haycock and Arellano wrote this week:  “Yet we would be naïve to believe that money doesn’t matter in ensuring poor students and African American and Latino children have access to the strong public schools that they need and deserve.”

The Education Trust-Midwest has launched a campaign to make Michigan a top ten education state. See Michigan Achieves to learn more about that campaign and its recommendations for data-driven, nonpartisan ways to push for better education outcomes for Michigan children.

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The Education Trust-Midwest is a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to improving outcomes for all Michigan students, especially for African American, Latino, American Indian, and low-income students. The Education Trust-Midwest believes in the power of intelligent education policy and practices — informed by data, research, and the successes of other states — to make Michigan a top ten education state for all students.

www.edtrustmidwest.org/press