The Michigan Education Coalition (MEJC) was formed in December of 2013 with the goal of 
bringing together organizations and individual community members dedicated to ensuring that every child in the state of Michigan is given the opportunity to receive quality public school education. Our members include AFT Michigan, MOSES, 482Forward, Detroit Branch NAACP, ACLU of Michigan, and Black Family Development. MEJC seeks to bring together engaged citizens, policymakers, institutions of higher education, teachers, students, school administrators, and community organizations to share in this vision and to take meaningful steps towards actualization, acknowledging that student, parent and community voices are paramount to a successful and sustainable solution.
On December 6th, 2013, MEJC publicly launched our coalition by holding a “Day of Action” around the common goal of reclaiming the promise of public education at St. Luke AME Church in Highland Park, in order to highlight the fact that educational inequities face students across the state of Michigan, not just in Detroit. In February, MEJC held its first community forum in conjunction with the Detroit Branch NAACP’s General Membership meeting. This event invited concerned community members to brainstorm the education issues that matter most to them and how to create solutions that work.
Based on feedback from that event, MEJC organized three community teach-ins dedicated to fostering an engaged and informed citizenship around three key issues of concern to both member organizations and the community. Those issues were school discipline, accountability and transparency, and standardized testing. The teach-ins were organized as facilitated discussions with experts in each subject invited to provide the audience with a balanced understanding of all sides of the topic. Members of the community who were in attendance were invited to engage in conversation about how these specific are impactful on an individual, community and state level.
Most recently MEJC has focused on transparency and accountability, specifically regarding education in Detroit. In the month of October, MECJ hosted a series of voter education community forums in collaboration with our partner MOSES. The forums focused on the systemic issues our community is facing with education in Detroit. On November 10th, MECJ is hosting a strategy session to discuss how we can ensure that community voice is heard on education issues in Detroit. The strategy session will be held at the MSU Detroit Center located at 3408 Woodward in Detroit from 6-8pm. Childcare and refreshments will be provided.
