Opinion | Michigan, attract and retain teachers by supporting workers’ rights

With the last day of school behind us, those of us with school-age kids know that summer is a relief for students who’ve worked hard all year. Sadly, for teachers, it can be filled with anxiety over making sure their students are ready for the year ahead. For some teachers, it’s anxiety over whether they want to stay in the field at all.

Teachers are some of the most important people in our kids' lives, and as a parent of a 2nd grader and trustee of the Jackson Public Schools Board of Education, I know just how hard my daughter's teachers worked every day this year. But over the past decade, our teachers have gotten anything but the thanks they deserve from lawmakers in Lansing.

When Governor Snyder and Republicans won a governing trifecta in Lansing in 2010, they led an assault on workers and their unions that did not spare public education. They shamelessly cut funding, stripped educators of collective bargaining rights, stifled teachers’ voices in the workplace, and made the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA) a playground for corporate special interests. 

Michigan teachers and students feel the impact of this assault on public education. It’s no surprise that Michigan teachers find themselves re-evaluating their futures in teaching. And it’s no coincidence that 91% of Michigan teachers are extremely or very concerned about the educator shortage, while 84% of Michigan educators are concerned about teacher and staff pay and benefits. In the last few years, we've seen thousands of our teachers leave the field, matched by related challenges in recruitment.

It’s why since 2022, Governor Whitmer and Democrats in the Legislature have reversed many of these policies to restore worker freedom in public education, and made record educational investments in the state budget. To reverse the ongoing educator shortage, Michigan has invested nearly $1 billion in the last two years in recruiting more teachers.

While progress has been made, more must be done. 

For just over a decade, Michigan has had an unfair law on the books. Public Act 152 of 2011 – colloquially known as the 80/20 rule – takes power away from local leaders, teachers and other public employees by prohibiting them from bargaining over their own health care. This overly prescriptive law preempts local control and unfairly shifts health-care costs onto the shoulders of teachers and other public servants. All this is happening at a time when national costs have been rapidly surging out of pace with inflation. 

As a school board trustee, I have seen firsthand that we need every tool in our toolbelt to attract and retain teachers. But that is not possible until the Legislature restores local control over teacher’s health-care decisions so we can attract and retain talent. Given that 97% of Michigan teachers said that increases in their salary and benefits would keep them in their current positions, repealing the 80/20 law and restoring teachers’ ability to negotiate over health-care is a painless, no-brainer step we can take to retain and attract quality teachers.

As my daughter graduates from 2nd grade in the Jackson Public School system, I hope her teachers and support staff — and the thousands like them across Michigan — will choose to come back this fall. The state Legislature should give educators a graduation gift: get rid of the 80/20 rule and restore power to teachers. Otherwise, these public servants may feel forced to drop out of our schools for other careers.