There will be two education-related millage proposals on the ballot next week for Detroit residents that, if passed, would have a significant impact on students.

Voters in Wayne County will decide Tuesday whether or not to renew the Wayne County Regional Enhancement Millage, which provides supplemental funding to 33 school districts and over 90 public school academies in the county. If approved, the six-year 1.9812-mill property tax — first approved in 2016 then renewed by voters in 2022 — would be extended another six years, beginning in 2028. 

In addition to the Regional Enhancement Millage, Detroiters will see Proposal S — an operating millage renewal for the Detroit Public Schools Community District — on their ballots.

The millage is a property tax for businesses and non-homestead owners only, meaning voters who own or rent their homes would see no increase in their property taxes. If approved, it would help pay off the district’s debt by increasing the millage rate that supports public schools in the city.

In Detroit, that millage rate sits at 16.6 mills (or $16.60 for every $1,000 of taxable value), which is below the standard 18 mills that other districts collect. Under state law, when property values do not keep pace with inflation, the millage rate is rolled back.

Now, voters in Detroit are being asked to increase the rate back to 18 mills. If they do, it would mean roughly $10 million annually for the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) that would help the district pay off its legacy debt faster.

Related: Meet the candidates running for 3 seats on the Detroit school board

That debt stems from the school district’s split from Detroit Public Schools in 2016, when the Michigan Legislature created DPSCD to run the city’s public schools. At the time, the district was on the verge of bankruptcy from years of economic peril in the city. Mayoral control and emergency state management deepened the district’s financial hardships.

After that legacy debt is paid off, the district could use the funds to go toward teacher salaries, building and classroom improvements, and other operating costs, according to DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

I sat down with Vitti ahead of the November election to get more insight into Proposal S and the current funding challenges facing the district.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Listen: Nikolai Vitti talks Proposal S, funding challenges in Detroit school district

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent, DPSCD: I think most Detroiters feel that as the city is just starting to see an improvement economically, and, you know, with that improvement in city services and an improvement in a school district, there’s still this underlying feeling that businesses should contribute more with their improvement in the city and their profits in the city to the city’s overall improvement, accelerate that improvement, and I think Proposal S is certainly a way to do that. So in the state of Michigan, every school district is required to tax at 18 mills. That tax is mainly a business tax, but because the city economics has improved over the past couple of years, more revenue is being generated. With that revenue, there’s been a roll back on the mills from 18 mills to 16.6 mills, because essentially, you’re generating more revenue because property values have increased. On the surface, that sounds harmless, but to the district, it’s a loss of revenue of about $10 million a year. So by reestablishing the mills at 18 mills, it ensures businesses pay their fair share in the city’s overall improvement. In the district’s improvement, the district will generate $10 million more in revenue each year. That money is completely flexible and fungible, and it will mainly go to continue to increase teacher salaries and improved facilities, because general fund dollars, through this proposal in particular, is the only way you can pay teachers. You can’t use federal funds to do that.

Robin Vincent, WDET:  But first, the money will be going toward the legacy debt. Correct?

NV: Correct. Detroit is still paying two sets of debt, if you will. There’s an 18 mill debt, and then there’s a 13 mill debt, which homeowners are paying based on a construction bond in the early 2000. So we’re just about done paying off the 18 mill debt. That’ll be done by March of 2025, but we still have quite a bit to pay off on the 13 mill debt, but we’re able to accelerate that payment by passing this proposal.

RV: Now something I’ve heard you talk about a lot during school board and committee meetings is the fact that Detroit public schools are not equitably funded in comparison to other districts. How inequitably funded are they?

NV: In Michigan, every school district is required to tax at 18 Mills, and so back about two decades ago, something called Proposition A was passed by the legislature, and the positive part of Prop A was it created a floor in per pupil funding, so it guaranteed that in Michigan, regardless of where your child grows up and where they attend school, that at minimum, they will be provided a certain amount of dollars for their public education. That minimum amount this year is about $9,608 and so every district taxes at 18 mills. Once they collect that tax, if they’re below $9,608 then the state makes up the difference in state aid, so that it ensures a floor that’s positive.

The negative of this formula is that if you generate more than $9,608, you keep those dollars. So districts like Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Farmington, Romulus, River Rouge, Troy, West Bloomfield, are examples of districts that generate more than $9,608. Specifically Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Southfield, if you average those three, they actually generate $3,464 more per student than Detroit does. And as we all know, those districts border Detroit. So this creates great inequity in that those districts not only have more per pupil than DPSC does, but those dollars are completely fungible flexible, so you can apply them to anything, from teacher salaries to facilities to sport programs to after school programming. And so this creates a big issue for us when we’re trying to recruit and retain mainly teachers, special ed, special education teachers specifically, but it’s also about programming for students.

RV: I’d like to shift our focus before I let you go and discuss one of the most pressing issues that’s facing Detroit students and many children nationwide. I’m sure you know what I’m about to say, it’s chronic absenteeism. Roughly 65% of Detroit public school students missed more than 10% of school days last school year. Tell me about the ways the district is trying to address this problem, and what more you think needs to happen, more broadly?

NV: It’s one of our greatest challenges, and I name it as one of our greatest challenges, because what we’re definitely seeing in DPSCD is an improvement in student achievement. When you look at state test scores, we’re improving, especially since the pandemic, at a faster rate than the state on average, even suburban school districts. And when you look at our performance versus larger urban school districts throughout the country, we’re improving more in that above grade level performance since the pandemic than those districts as well. Our challenge is chronic absenteeism. When DPSCD students miss 18 or fewer days, they’re actually three to five times more likely to be at and above grade level in reading and math and to be college ready, defined by the SAT in 11th grade. So attendance matters because it is directly impacting student achievement. So we’re improving, but we need to accelerate that improvement with even higher numbers, and I think the best way to do that is by improving attendance. As you mentioned last year, 65% of our students missed 18 or more days of school. That’s actually an improvement since the pandemic, but we’re still not at levels even where we were before the pandemic, and that’s a challenge across the nation, not only in DPSCD, but our way of working on this is one, creating more awareness about attendance. I think a lot of our families, especially those with younger children, still think it’s okay to miss, let’s say a day of school once a week, or once every two weeks. So just trying to change the level of awareness and understanding of how absenteeism affects achievement. But beyond that, the greatest challenge that we have in DPSCD is concentrated poverty, and what that means is that we have families that are working multiple jobs. They’re trying to just get through life, and life issues are getting in the way of coming to school every day. We’re prioritizing attendance every day. So DPSCD, through philanthropic funds, excited that we have already started to implement our health hubs throughout the city. We provide free medical, dental, vision, mental health support. We also have family resource centers where we’re providing canned goods through pantries, getting uniform help, help with evictions, help with immigration services. These are all ways to address the concentration of poverty issues that our families are facing that leads to high levels of absenteeism.

RV: You’d like to see fundamental change to the way Detroit schools are funded on multiple levels. Is there any other way you see to address this big disparity?

NV: One is greater flexibility with federal money and state grants. The state did — for the first time after heavy lobbying — create some flexibility with what’s called 31a money, which is given for at-risk concentrated poverty, and so we are now putting some of the flexibility into teacher salaries with our most recent agreement. So that’s a sign of progress and one step in the right direction. But more than that, we got to get to a point where we’re not talking about a floor with per pupil funding, but a ceiling. You know, what is the right ceiling? I believe the right ceiling is placing it on the wealthiest school district, which probably would be Bloomfield Hills, that $13,443 per student, and so that all districts are minimally funded at that level, which would be the new floor. That would be one way to solve this. The other way to solve this is to move to a weighted student formula, where students in concentrated poverty, English language learners, special needs students, receive more per student than the average student.

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

In addition to the presidential, Congressional, and state House races, voters across the state will be casting their votes for who they’d like to serve on the boards of Michigan’s three largest universities.

There are two seats up for reelection on the University of Michigan Board of Regents in November. University board members oversee financial operations at the institution, and are responsible for the hiring of the university’s president and other key responsibilities — per the state constitution. Board members serve staggered eight-year terms, and serve without compensation.

There are six candidates running to join the U-M Board of Regents, including Democrats Denise Ilitch — an incumbent who has served on the board since 2008 — and Shauna Ryder Diggs. They’ll face Republican candidates Carl Meyers and Sevag Vartanian, as well as third-party candidates Andrew Chadderdon (Libertarian Party) and Donna Oetman (U.S. Taxpayers Party).

WDET distributed surveys to university board candidates on the Michigan ballot in November to gain a deeper understanding of what’s motivating them to run. Below, you’ll find candidate bios and their answers to WDET’s questions about their platform and political priorities.

For more information about the November election, visit WDET’s election guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Read more:

• Michigan State Board of Education candidates highlight their priorities 
• U-M Board of Regents candidate sues Michigan Democratic Party over convention results
• Why university boards are key to accountability in higher education

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

In addition to the presidential, Congressional, and state House races, voters across the state will be casting their votes for who they’d like to serve on the boards of Michigan’s three largest universities.

There are two seats up for reelection on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees in November. University board members oversee financial operations at the institution, and are responsible for the hiring of the university’s president and other key responsibilities — per the state constitution. Board members serve staggered eight-year terms, and serve without compensation.

Democrats Rebecca Bahar-Cook and Thomas Stallworth III are running for open seats on the MSU Board against Republican candidates Mike Balow and Julie Maday. Third-party candidates Janet Sanger and John Paul Sanger of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, Green Party candidate John Anthony La Pietra, and Libertarian candidate Grant T Baker will also be on the ballot.

WDET distributed surveys to university board candidates on the Michigan ballot in November to gain a deeper understanding of what’s motivating them to run. Below, you’ll find candidate bios and their answers to WDET’s questions about their platform and political priorities.

For more information about the November election, visit WDET’s election guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Read more:

• Michigan State Board of Education candidates highlight their priorities 
• Why university boards are key to accountability in higher education
• MSU trustees face removal over misconduct allegations

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

In addition to the presidential, Congressional, and state House races, voters across the state will be casting their votes for who they’d like to serve on the boards of Michigan’s three largest universities.

There are two seats up for reelection on the Wayne State University Board of Governors in November. University board members oversee financial operations at the institution, and are responsible for the hiring of the university’s president and other key responsibilities — per the state constitution. Board members serve staggered eight-year terms, and serve without compensation.

Incumbents Mark Gaffney (Democratic Party) and Michael Busuito (Republican Party) face seven other candidates in the race, including Democrat Rasha Demashkieh, Republican Sunny Reddy, and third-party candidates Farid Ishac (Libertarian Party), William Mohr II (U.S. Taxpayers Party), Sami Makhoul (Green Party), Suzanne Roehrig (Working Class Party) and Kathleen Oakford (Natural Law Party).

WDET distributed surveys to university board candidates on the Michigan ballot in November to gain a deeper understanding of what’s motivating them to run. Below, you’ll find candidate bios and their answers to WDET’s questions about their platform and political priorities.

For more information about the November election, visit WDET’s election guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Read more:

• Michigan State Board of Education candidates highlight their priorities 
• Why university boards are key to accountability in higher education
• Pro-Palestinian students, faculty share concerns at virtual WSU Board of Governors meeting

Tonight on the Detroit Evening Report, we cover a Boston-based education nonprofit’s expansion to Detroit; family-friendly Halloween activities that won’t break the bank and more.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Education nonprofit Bottom Line coming to Detroit

Boston-based education nonprofit Bottom Line is expanding to Detroit, thanks to a $600,000 multi-year investment from Greenlight Fund Detroit. The organization focuses on getting kids to and through college, providing post-secondary advising to high school seniors and continuing support until students enter “economically mobilizing” first careers. Detroit is the fifth city in Bottom Line’s portfolio, with the organization planning to serve 725 local students per year beginning this summer. It already operates in Boston, New York, Chicago and Dayton, Ohio. 

Free Halloween fun at the library

Halloween is upon us, and there are lots of fun free offerings for the whole family:

• The Elmwood Park Branch of the Detroit Public Library invites kids to “A Not So Spooky Halloween Painting Party” from 4-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
• The Hubbard Branch hosts a Halloween Edition of Story Squad from 6-7 p.m. Wednesday.
• The Duffield Branch’s “Dare to Trick or Treat” is from 10 a.m.-noon. on Thursday, Oct. 31, Halloween day.
• Halloween treats and crafts are on offer at the Chandler Park Branch from 3-6 p.m. on Halloween.
• The Edison Branch has a costume party contest at 3 p.m. and trick or treating at 4 p.m. on Halloween.
• The Lincoln Branch has tricks, treats and games from 4-5:30 p.m.
• The Main Branch’s Children’s library will host its book-themed Halloween party from 4-5:30 p.m. 
• The Bryant Branch of Dearborn Public Libraries is hosting a Halloween tunes-themed Family Dance Party from 4-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30. 

Halloween in the D

Halloween in the D’s Trunk or Treat events invite the community into local police stations, fire houses and recreation centers Thursday, Oct. 31. Visit halloweeninthed.org for a list of the 19 locations and event times. 

Our Inner Circle hosting Harvest Festival

For those looking for a different vibe for their Oct. 31 celebrations, the organization Our Inner Circle and Detroit Councilmember Mary Waters are hosting a Harvest Festival in Eastern Market’s Shed 3 from 5-8 p.m.. The event will feature hay and train rides, refreshments, arcade games, crafts and entertainment. Costumes are allowed but organizers request attendees not wear scary costumes. The family-friendly event is free but requires registration. To register, call 313-728-9677. 

Detroit Reparations Task Force hosting public session

Detroit’s Reparations Task Force will have a public session from 2-4 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 2, at Butzel Family Recreation Center, 7737 Kercheval Ave., Detroit. Attendees can join in person or virtually. To join online go to cityofdetroit.zoom.us/j/87510091466. 

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Teachers in classrooms are dealing with an especially tough set of circumstances. Many are dealing with the after effects of the pandemic on student mental health and taking responsibility for keeping kids safe from violence.

A panel of educational professionals joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss the teacher shortage in Michigan, its effect on students, and some possible solutions.

Subscribe to Created Equal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Amber Arellano, the executive director of Education Trust-Midwest, explained that many Michigan K-12 schools, especially in rural, urban, and working-class districts, are reporting difficulty in filling teaching vacancies as well as teaching staff leaving and retiring early.

Madeline Mavrogordato, an associate professor of K-12 educational administration, explained that Michigan is on the extreme low end of starting teacher salaries. This results in new teachers having to pay a wage penalty to pursue a teaching career.

In addition to legislation to increase teacher salaries, the panel emphasized the importance of guaranteeing teachers’ access to appropriate resources to support the populations represented in their classrooms and offering professional development opportunities to early-career teachers.

Armen Hratchian, the executive director at Teach for America Detroit, discussed how the shortage could be mitigated by investing in school and district leadership.

“It’s not just about the educator, it’s those leaders who are creating conditions for educators to thrive,” Hratchian said.

Guests:  

• Madeline Mavrogordato is an associate professor of K-12 educational administration at Michigan State University.
• Armen Hratchian is the executive director at Teach for America Detroit.
• Amber Arellano is the executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, a nonpartisan education research and policy nonprofit.

Oftentimes, when we think of the immigrant story, we think about people coming to a new country for better opportunities and a safer place to grow a family. 

It’s often a scary and intimidating process, but that’s why the Patchwork Culinary Project exists. Created by a soviet immigrant, the nonprofit restaurant and education program aims to train new Michigan residents in the culinary arts. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

It’s not just kitchen training and certification that goes on at the Patchwork Culinary Project. The space doubles as a restaurant and it’s also a kitchen many people in the program will work at.   

Nick Sanchez, founder and lead chef at Patchwork joined The Metro on Tuesday to share more about the project. He says the idea was born from his own personal experiences and wanting to help others find success in the U.S. 

“It came from being an immigrant myself, and starting a restaurant at a young age, and you know — learning how to deal with all the impediments and hassles of opening up a restaurant,” Sanchez said. “So I just figured we have an influx of folks coming into this country, so why not try to set them up for success?”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation with Sanchez.

More headlines from The Metro on Oct. 22, 2024: 

• The new Editor-in-Chief of Outlier Media, Erin Perry, joined the show to talk about her goals for the publication. Perry has worked at Outlier since 2021. She’s also a practitioner-scholar and uses her knowledge to make journalism more accessible. 
• It’s a pivotal time for Detroit Public Schools Community District. The results of the November election could change the makeup of the school board as over 20 candidates are vying for three open seats. If they’re elected, new board members could disrupt the current harmony on the board and make it more difficult for Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to achieve his goals. Proposal S would make a huge financial difference for the DPSCD if voters approve it. The proposal would pay off the school district’s debt and help make new investments. Robyn Vincent, co-host of The Metro, spoke with DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti about Proposal S and the school board election.
• The U.S. presidential election is just a few weeks away and while our focus is usually on how the election will impact us here in the United States, our neighbors in Canada are also watching the race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris closely. So closely, in fact, that Canada’s national broadcaster, CBC Radio, teamed up with NPR’s The Middle and WDET to host a live call-in special from WDET on Sunday, featuring Jeremy Hobson — host of The Middle — and Ian Hanomansing, host of CBC’s nightly news program The National and Cross Country Checkup. Stephen Henderson spoke with Hanomansing ahead of the broadcast to discuss the relationship between Canadian and U.S. politics. 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Eight candidates are vying for the opportunity to serve on the Michigan State Board of Education. There are two Republican incumbents, two Democrats, a libertarian, and other parties. 

Although they have different focus points, most candidates say school funding is a top concern. 

Democratic candidate Dr. Theodore Jones says that if elected, he would fight to increase education spending in Michigan. 

“Our state’s chronic disinvestment in education since 2008, local and state level spending on education is down by $5 billion and that has had serious real-world effects,” he said. “Our position is now 41st in the nation when it comes to education. We have 72% of our 4th graders not reading at grade level.”

Jones, a former teacher and social worker, has also worked in the administrative offices of the Detroit public schools. He says studying and remedying the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning and achievement is also important. 

“It has had detrimental effects for our students in terms of learning delays, social challenges,” Jones said. 

Adam Frederick Zemke is a Democrat from Ann Arbor who served in the state House of Representatives from 2013-2018. He says student safety is the most pressing issue. 

“Ensuring that there is good statutory support from our legislative partners to prevent gun violence and also sufficient funding for real school safety aspects is going to be very important,” Zemke said. 

Tom McMillin, one of the Republican incumbents, has served on the board for the last eight years. He emphasized the importance of defending parents and kids in special education. He has argued against the Department of Education’s handling of a lawsuit by its federal counterpart over special education violations. 

McMillin says the board should also better protect parents’ rights to choose between public schools, charter schools or homeschooling for more personalized learning. He says that kids all learn differently and that, “the assembly line way of doing things is outdated.” 

McMillin also acknowledges that being a conservative member of the board comes with its challenges. 

“We’ve had concerns, and I know some people say oh you know you’re trying to ban books. We’re not. There’s certainly books that have inappropriate material. And so you know a lot of times we get tagged as wanting to be right-wing or whatever, but really we’re just looking for reasonable policies,” McMillin said. 

The state board does not create education policy, but it does give recommendations to the Michigan Department of Education, legislators, and the state superintendent of schools. It also has the authority to hire or fire the superintendent. 

The board has recommended a list of changes it says would increase transparency in the operations of charter schools in the states. It recently challenged budget cuts to mental health and school safety funding. 

Mary Anne Hering is a candidate for the Working Class Party. She’s a long-time teacher in local community colleges. Hering says funding schools should be a top priority. 

“The money is there in this society for there to be a full tidal wave of funding in all the school districts, and I’m talking about all the way up to the Upper Peninsula, the rural areas, the urban areas,” Hering said. 

Scotty Boman, a libertarian, teaches physics, astronomy and mathematics at the Wayne County Community College and Macomb Community College. He also serves on Detroit’s Zoning Appeals Board and the city’s District 4 Community Advisory Council. 

Boman is against what he calls coercive means of funding. 

“What I’m referring to is taxation, that people are forced to pay for something that they may or may not use. I would support tax breaks on people who choose to spend money out-of-pocket to educate their children differently than through the public system,” Boman said. 

Ted Gerrard and Christine Schwarz are running for the Michigan Board of Education as members of the U.S. Taxpayers Party. 

Gerrard is a U.S. Navy veteran and electrical contractor. He stresses the need for strong vocational programs and for high school graduates to be prepared for the workforce. 

“We should not be training just college entrants. We need skilled trade out in the field, and I need people that can show up on my job site as a high school graduate and do basic math,” Gerrard said. 

Republican Nikki Snyder has been a board member since 2016. Snyder is running for reelection. Snyder and Christine Schwartz have not responded to WDET’s request for an interview. 

The two winners of this race will each serve an eight-year term on the State Board of Education. The election takes place on November 5. 

New polling from the Democracy Defense Project found a vast majority of voters would have confidence in election results if a dozen practices went into use.

That list included steps like securing paper ballot storage, double checking close elections with hand counts, and cleaning up voter rolls.

The problem is each of those measures is already in place.

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat, said most people didn’t think about how elections are run until misinformation and conspiracy theories began to spread.

“Once the questioning of the election, the integrity of our elections has already begun, we are trying to make up for the loss of faith and we have to rebuild the trust now. The clerks didn’t do anything to lose the faith but now we have to rebuild trust,” Byrum said during a press conference Thursday.

Byrum said it’s important for candidates to watch what they say and avoid creating further distrust in election results.

In the Democracy Defense Project poll, over 75% of people said they felt initial confidence in the election process, though there were stark differences between Republicans and Democrats.

That number broke down to a little over 60% confidence from supporters of former President Donald Trump and over 90% of supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump supporters also saw concerns like people who weren’t eligible to vote casting a ballot as a higher threat than Harris supporters did.

There are very few reported cases of voter fraud.

Byrum asked people with concerns to get involved.

“If you question, please, large jurisdictions are always looking for Republican precinct workers. So please contact your local city or township clerk. And it’s not a volunteer job, you actually do get paid, not well, but you do get paid,” Byrum said.

Overall, members of the Michigan team for the Democracy Defense Project say they view the poll as demonstrating a path forward and away from election denialism.

Education and outreach were listed as ways to rebuild the trust with the general public, who may not be in tune with how elections are run.

Former Republican Governor John Engler is on the board for the Democracy Defense Project. He said news outlets need to also do more to explain that U.S. elections are secure.

“And all of the media is no match for the internet. You’re being killed by social media. The conspiracy theorists on the internet dwarf whatever, and, I would say, minor, efforts have been made by traditional media,” Engler said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations – Michigan (CAIR-MI) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, requesting an investigation into the University of Michigan’s handling of Islamophobia on campus.

The complaint comes after leaked audio of U-M President Santa Ono where he seems to cite federal pressure to focus on antisemitism over Islamophobia.

CAIR-MI’s Zaynah Jadallah says the university has not adequately supported Muslim and Arab students.

“We have contacted the University of Michigan multiple times to have better treatment for the students, but the president didn’t show any progress in protecting his students,” Jadallah said.

In response, U-M’s Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Colleen Mastony told WDET:

“The University of Michigan is steadfastly committed to ensuring our community remains a safe and supportive environment, where all students — regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or other identities — have the opportunity to learn and thrive. President Santa J. Ono has spoken out repeatedly against antisemitism and Islamophobia, and he will continue to do so, as any form of discrimination or hate is an affront to our community.”

Over the past year, students across the U.S. have raised concerns for their safety amid ongoing campus protests about the war in Gaza. The student protesters are calling for universities to separate themselves from companies advancing Israel’s military efforts in the region, as the Israeli military has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians and more than 2,000 people in Lebanon since Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

Police have arrested more than 3,000 pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses nationwide since detainments at Columbia on April 18 — including on the campuses of Wayne State and University of Michigan.

Interactive map: Where protesters on US campuses have been arrested or detained

Michigan Advance reports that at least one person was arrested this week during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in U-M’s Diag, where a memorial event hosted by Jewish students commemorating the Oct. 7 attack was being held. After police arrested the individual, protesters surrounded the police officers and their patrol car, obstructing their movement, said U-M’s Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton. She says the individual who was arrested has since been released, and the incident will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for review.

The Associated Press and WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Michigan’s constitutional ban on direct or indirect public financial support for non-public schools.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation represents five families who argued the 1970 ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. The parents would like to be able to claim a tax break for private school tuition savings accounts.

A central element of the Mackinac Center’s case was an argument that the amendment is rooted in religious bigotry and animus toward Catholics in particular. That is despite the fact that the amendment is silent on religion.

“The time period that it was passed, 1970,  it was written facially neutral, but the way that it was campaigned upon was very anti-Catholic, and so there is this stigma that has remained with and we were hopeful that the court would recognize that stigma,” said Patrick Wright, the foundation’s legal director.

Lower federal courts held the voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution does not violate religious freedom protections. The Supreme Court refused the appeal without comment.

Douglas Pratt with the Michigan Education Association said that was the right call because, otherwise, the door would be opened to indirect diversions of money from public education.

“Michigan’s Constitution is very clear on public money not going to private schools,” he said. “Voters have stood up against efforts to change that over the years. Taxpayer funds should rightly go to our public schools, where the vast majority of our students attend.”

The Detroit Fire Department is hosting three community events this month in honor of National Fire Prevention Week.

The theme of this year’s National Fire Prevention Week — which runs Oct. 6-12 — is “Smoke Alarms: Make them work for you!”

Smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a house fire by more than 50%, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Roughly three out of five fire deaths nationwide happen in homes with either no smoke alarms or non-working smoke alarms.

While the Detroit Fire Department has installed smoke alarms for residents at no charge for years, the department is taking fire prevention a step further this year by launching a large-scale smoke alarm initiative. Detroiters attending the Fire Prevention Week events will be able to sign up to have DFD come to their home and install three to five smoke alarms, depending on size and need. The first 30 residents who sign up for installation at each event will also receive a free fire extinguisher, according to the city.

The goal is to equip between 1,000-1,600 homes in the city of Detroit with working smoke alarms.

The first event will take place from noon-3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, at Patton Recreation Center, 2301 Woodmere, followed by events later in the week on Detroit’s west and east sides, respectively.

Detroit residents unable to attend the Fire Prevention Week events can request smoke alarm installation at their home by calling DFD’s Community Relations Division at 313-596-2900 or sending an email to communityrelations@detroitmi.gov.

Other headlines for Friday, Oct. 4, 2024:

• The general election is about a month away and early in-person voting in Michigan begins this month. Visit wdet.org/voterguide for the most up-to-date voting and election information.
• Detroit’s Mexican Irish Festival is coming back after years on hiatus. The free event will be held Oct. 13 at El Mercado, 2826 Bagley St.
• The Detroit Harvest Fest & Food Truck Rally is taking place this weekend at the Dequindre Cut Greenway.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

The Detroit Parks Coalition’s Freedom Arts Festival is celebrating the Buffalo Soldiers on Saturday at Rouge Park with a family-friendly blues festival.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Buffalo Soldiers were an all-Black U.S. Army unit that made a name for themselves during the 19th century. The Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Association (BSHA) has kept the history of African Americans in the military alive by introducing youth in the community to horses housed in Rouge Park. In 2007, with support from the Friends of Rouge Park, BSHA worked out an agreement with city officials to operate the Rouge Park barn after the Detroit Police Mounted Division relocated. 

Read more: Detroit students follow the path of the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite

The Buffalo Soldiers and Blues Freedom Festival will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Rouge Park Horse Barn, 8886 Lahser Rd., Detroit. The free event will offer pony rides, games, food, and live music from Big Pete and Friends and others.

Friends of Rouge Park Program Director Lex Allen and Land Stewardship Manager Antonio Cosme joined The Metro on Thursday to discuss the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and how they’re being honored through this weekend’s event.

Use the media player above to hear the conversation with Allen and Cosme.

More headlines from The Metro on Oct. 3, 2024: 

• Vice Presidential Candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz met on Tuesday for their only scheduled debate of the 2024 election. Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump took the stage in September and are not likely to meet for another debate. We are 33 days away from the election and absentee voting has already started in Michigan. To discuss what young people are thinking about the election and the importance of local media today, freelance reporter Sam Robinson joined the show. 
• Some residents and experts believe that Detroit no longer needs to capture taxes to grow downtown since it is already developed. The Metro Producer Sam Corey spoke with Citizens Research Council of Michigan President Eric Lupher on a new report they published advocating for the phasing out of the tax capture practice.
• Last week, the Michigan House passed two bills that aim to improve reading instruction. They specifically would help schools identify and teach students with dyslexia or other reading difficulties. They would also require that public schools and teacher programs emphasize phonics to teach children to read. American Public Media Reporter Chris Peak joined the show to discuss the new bills. He investigated U.S. reading curriculum for the podcast “Sold a Story.”

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Art is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, but a lot of Black stories get overlooked, particularly in Detroit. 

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The Black Artists Archive (BAA) aims to ensure all people’s stories are preserved. The Detroit based-initiative fosters creativity, exhibition, learning, and the preservation of Black art history and visual culture.

BAA Founder Dr. Kelli Morgan joined The Metro on Monday to discuss how the organization is preserving history in the city. 

Use the media player above to hear the conversation with Morgan.

More headlines from The Metro on Sept. 30, 2024: 

• For Freedoms is hosting a conversation called “Pollution Has No Boundaries: Where Do We Go From Here?” on Monday night. The event aims to bring people together to share their personal climate stories and envision steps toward a cleaner environment. Community organizer and activist Theresa Landrum and Filmmaker  Wesaam Al-Badry joined the show ahead of the event to share more.
• It’s been gray for the last few days. And because of climate change, this season has also been unusually warm. Former WDIV Meteorologist Paul Gross joined the show to discuss what kind of weather patterns to expect this fall. 
• It’s now been a few years since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. While cases are going around in parts of the Midwest, it’s hard to know by how much since Michigan and other states no longer track the virus. Dr. Paul Kilgore is the director of research in the department of pharmacy practice and the co-director of the Center for Emerging and Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University. He joined the show to discuss the importance of flu and COVID-19 vaccines this fall.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Nearly two dozen people are running for three seats on the Detroit school board during a pivotal time for the school district.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is struggling with high rates of chronic absenteeism among students, low academic achievement, enrollment declines, and issues of climate and culture within school buildings.

The 16 candidates who answered questions for Chalkbeat Detroit’s voter guide have plenty of ideas for addressing these issues and more.

There will be 22 candidates on the ballot. One of the candidates, Jason Malone, said he is not running due to an injury. Only one of the three incumbents, Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, is seeking re-election. That means there will be two new faces on the board, as members Misha Stallworth and Sonya Mays have opted not to seek re-election.

The new faces could change the makeup of the board, particularly if they are candidates who are at odds with the priorities of current board members and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who received a contract extension earlier this year.

Below, you’ll find candidate bios and their answers to some critical questions about the district. For information about voting, including early voting and absentee voting, go here.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

The cost of child care is an enormous financial burden for parents and guardians of young children in the United States — especially low-income households.

Subscribe to Created Equal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

According to reporting from Outlier Media’s Laura Herberg, the cost of child care in Detroit is much higher than the federal government’s definition of affordable care, 7% of median income. In Detroit, the average cost of care is closer to 20-30% of median household income. 

Paradoxically, that high price tag doesn’t translate to high wages for early child care education workers. In fact, child care workers are in the bottom percentiles of salaries for careers in the U.S., according to a report from Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. 

That same report finds that the younger the children an educator is responsible for, the lower the pay. There are also racial pay gaps, with Black and Latina early educators making less than their counterparts as well. 

The child care worker crisis came into sharp focus during the pandemic, exposing a problem that was temporarily assuaged thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. That windfall, however, is drying up, leaving parents, legislators and educators wondering what’s next for the unaffordable child care system in the U.S. 

Herberg joined Created Equal on Wednesday along with Wanzi Muruvi of Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment to discuss these issues.

Guests: 

• Wanzi Muruvi is a Senior Research and Policy Associate at Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. 
• Laura Herberg is a civic life reporter for Outlier Media. 

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Frontier International Academy is hosting a safety training session for parents this week, following ongoing concerns from community members about road safety.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Guest speakers will be Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri and Wayne County Undersheriff Mike Jaafar. Many residents have expressed anxiety after multiple incidents of children being hit by cars in Hamtramck.

In July, a 3-year-old girl died after being hit by a Hamtramck school bus. That same day, another child was struck by a car in a separate incident, CBS Detroit reports. A third child was struck in August, suffering only minor injuries.

The training will take place at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, at Frontier International Academy, 13200 Conant St., Detroit. 

Other headlines for Monday, Sept. 16, 2024:

• Hamtramck residents will vote on a $2.75 million millage renewal this November. The funds go toward a 10-year plan for operating costs for the Hamtramck Public School District.
• The Kalasho Education & Youth Services held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new MIND Garden on Friday in Warren. The organization has served the Chaldean community — specifically immigrant and refugee communities — in mental health, education, and legal services for the past 23 years.
• Anthropologist and Legacy Keepers Movement Founder Zarinah El-Amin is hosting a free masterclass for older adults and their family members who want to learn how to write their life story.
• The Detroit + Dearborn Community Block Party is set to take place on Miller Road and Tireman Avenue from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, featuring free food, activities, games and vendor resource tables.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.