MI Ed Justice
Public Schools: Reinvest, Advocate, Humanize
We are people who believe that to save public education from privatization, we need to reinvest in, advocate for, and humanize our schools.
What We Do
If you would like to join any of our collectives, you must first register as an official member through our membership form. Our meetings are open and free to the public and publicized via our listserv.
Community Presentations
Movements need people to feel connected to one another. They also require that every community is equally informed on issues in their schools.
We host custom informative community meetings on a variety of educational injustices impacting our students across the state. Presentations have included the Read or Fail legislation, over-testing in schools, the truth about technology overuse and abuse in schools, and what parents can do if they feel their schools are falling short of their responsibilities.
We can cater presentations to your community’s needs. We can also purchase, publicize, present and debrief movies that deal with ed justice issues.
Invite us to speak to your organization anywhere in the state of Michigan.
MI Budgeteers
We are activists who believe budgetary transparency is a right of a public schools’ stakeholders including parents, educators and students.
When we understand the numbers, we are better able to lead and inform the direction of our public schools. Consequently, the Budgeteers organize, publicize and facilitate workshops on the fundamentals of school finance and support state-level efforts for greater equitable funding of all public schools in Michigan.
Additionally, we will support any community member or organization in finding and analyzing their local school’s budget.
MI FOIA
The Freedom of Information Act provides everyday citizens the access to records for any and all federally funded institutions. The process of filing a FOIA can be a prohibitive barrier to any layperson and we aim to bridge this gap by filing FOIA requests for any individual or any community organization that shares our belief in saving our public schools.
Decolonizing Collective and PLC
Educators can fight oppression in their classrooms. We have grown a Decolonizing Collective for classroom teachers who want to intentionally focus on decentering whiteness in their instructional practices and curriculum and uplift the valuable voices and backgrounds of their students. The collective is intentional about documenting and sharing our work beyond our members.
Additionally and less formally, we are supporting educators who want to ground their classrooms in critical pedagogy and social justice through our monthly teacher professional learning community (PLC) meetings and other one-off teacher workshops. The PLC meets on the second Sunday of every month in Dearborn, Michigan.
MI Offline
The harmful effects of extended (and in some cases minimal) screentime, especially for our youngest and most vulnerable children are yet to be well documented, but there’s enough research to raise alarm. MI Offline is a co-op made up of educators and parents who want to fight the creep of exploitive ed-tech* into our schools and the overuse of screens in our everyday lives.
*Ed-tech does not include augmentative and alternative communication devices (AAC).
MI CORE
The Michigan Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (MI CORE) connects unionized teachers across the state and came out of the work of MI Ed Justice. Members of this caucus believe that in order to humanize schools, our unions need to forefront fights against systemic oppression with students, parents and community partners.
MI CORE is also working to identify, uplift and actively support parent and community organizations that are fighting for the same humanizing policies and services that our children need to thrive in schools and in their homes.
MI Opt-Out
In partnership with the United Opt-Out Michigan movement, we advise parents, teachers and students of their rights to refuse any and all high-stakes or standardized testing in schools.
We share research and data on how these high-stakes or interim tests (M-STEP, NWEA, i-Ready, WIDA, etc) yield scores that are then weaponized against students, schools and districts, especially those in poor communities of color.
Right to Literacy
This campaign stemmed from the Read or Fail legislation that was signed into law in 2016 by Republican Governor Snyder. This was proof of the failure of legislation to cure a systemic block to the fundamental right to literacy. We have organized a number of community meetings on topics related to literacy including: Fundamentals of literacy instruction, the read or fail legislation, parental rights to refuse unfair retention, and what parents can do at home to support foundational literacy development.
Subscribe
For updates on our work and ways you can participate, sign up for our email listserv. Our most detailed updates and actions are sent through email.
Donate
Your donations are critical to moving education in Michigan towards justice. Click the button below to donate on Venmo.
