Michigan Education Justice Coalition’s Healthy & Healing Schools policy platform, informed by community listening sessions held across the state, reflects the path forward for creating an education system that supports our children, families, and communities.

Investments in our public schools are investments in Michigan’s future. 

Our public education system must be fully funded through a transparent system that provides resources based on student need:

1. Increase public school funding by a minimum of $4 billion to ensure schools can provide essential resources like nutritious meals, mental health support, culturally-affirming curriculum, and career and college preparation. 

2. End the use of “count days” to determine school funding; instead, employ a weighted formula that distributes funding based on the unique needs of each school’s students.

3. Increase school-worker pay to keep great educators and personnel in our schools and end our teacher shortage.
   

School climate is critical to students’ well-being and success in and outside the classroom, but far too many students today are struggling with the stress of academic and personal life. Our public education system must prioritize and invest in practical psychological safety and well-being strategies:

1. Increase funding for emotional health services by hiring social workers, trauma counselors, and school psychologists for students and staff. 

2. Mandate ongoing professional development for educators in transformative justice, which uses interpersonal and community-based solutions to reduce harm in schools.

3. Replace exclusionary practices like suspension and expulsion with peer-led practices that bring students together to resolve conflict by asking questions and airing grievances.

4. Invest in programs that allow educators to foster relationships with parents and families, creating a secure and inclusive environment that promotes community and student belonging. 

Michigan’s outdated and historically racist education system is hurting our students. We must reform standardized testing and implement a curriculum that recognizes systems of racism, oppression, and trauma in the past and present and prepares children to create a better future. 

1. Create diverse curricula that are student- and community-centered, counter systemic racism, and encourage and respect students’ unique cultures.

2. Allow teachers the autonomy and flexibility to adapt curriculum to fit local context.

3. Mandate ongoing professional development for all school staff on confronting and dismantling systemic racism in education and unintentional biases.
   

Solutions to improving public education will only be sustainable and impactful if they’re grounded in the perspectives of those most central to Michigan’s schools. Students must drive the future of Michigan’s education system. 

1. Allow students to be democratically elected to serve on local school boards and the Michigan State Board of Education, with voting rights.

2. Grant students greater ability to self-govern, whether that’s abolishing dress codes or allowing youth-led decision making for school policies. 

3. Provide students with a say in how their education system functions, including academic curriculum, strategies to address studen’s psychological safety, and how funds are spent within their districts.
   

Healthy Michigan public schools create stronger and more vibrant communities. Public school priorities must reflect the values and needs of the students, educators, and community members they serve: 

1. Create structures for communities to participate in budgeting, ensuring that families, educators, and students have a voice in school budgets.

2. Divest from systems that cause our school communities harm, such as school policing. These detrimental systems exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionately affect students of color and students with disabilities.

3. Invest in systems that support the well-being and safety of our school climate, such as mental health services that encourage psychological safety, resources to plan for careers and higher learning, smaller class sizes, and extracurriculars.