Detroit mayor-elect Mary Sheffield has chosen her deputy mayor.

Brian White has been her chief of staff during her time as city council president. White says he’ll help Sheffield deliver on her promises to spread Detroit’s growth into the neighborhoods. 

Sheffield has also announced she will keep Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison in his position. In a press statemen the Sheffield transition team credited Bettison with a record drop in violent crime across the city. Sheffield said the chief has the “respect of his peers…the loyalty of the rank and file… and the hearts and trust of the people.” 

Additional headlines from Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Federal childcare assistance

New federal bills would replicate a Michigan program to help with childcare in every state.

The “tri-share” childcare program splits the cost of childcare between income-eligible families, employers and the state. Republican Representatives Hillary Scholten and John James co-sponsored the bill.

If passed, the legislation would give states enough funding to run the programs for three years. 

Whitmer aims to improve reading scores

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says improving Michigan’s student reading skills will be her number one priority next year.

She told the Michigan Literacy Summit in Detroit that last year’s reading test scores show the need for urgent action. “Today, we’re 44th in the country in fourth grade reading. Just four in 10 third graders in Michigan read at grade level, and almost one in three Michigan students tests below average, and that’s what would call a crisis and the vast majority of the people of our state would agree.”

Whitmer says school districts need to focus on a small number of proven strategies to build reading skills, such as phonics.

She says she will share more details about her plans during her final State of the State address early next year. Kids Count ranked Michigan among the ten worst states in 4th and 8th grade reading scores. 

Detroit attorney joins the race for District 13 Representative

Detroit attorney Maurice Morton has announced he is running for Michigan’s 13^th Congressional District seat. Morton will challenge Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar as an independent. 

Financial aid information

The state’s last virtual FAFSA webinar of 2025 is this week.

The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education Advancement and Potential’s Student Aid and Access Outreach team offers online information sessions for students and families preparing to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. 

The FAFSA is used by colleges and funding organizations to determine financial aid for students. The MiLEAP webinars also offer information on federal financial aid programs, state financial aid programs and resources for finding scholarships. The last FAFSA webinar of the year is Thursday, Dec.18 at 6:30 p.m. 

To register or to find a recording of a previous webinar, go here.

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Youth are especially at risk of over-engaging with digital worlds and disconnecting from reality. Gaming addiction is just like any other—and according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, having an addiction to anything is six times worse if it starts before adulthood.

How can we guard ourselves and impressionable young people against a new medium that triggers a familiar form of addiction? 

Harvard trained psychiatrist Dr.Alok Kanojia aka Dr.K joins The Metro to explain more about gaming addiction and how to deal with it.

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For more than half a century, Helen “Mother” Moore has been a familiar sight at Detroit school board meetings, whether she is at the microphone, in the hallway rallying parents, or being removed by security after a showdown with the board.

Today, at 89, Mother Moore is still at it. She has helped lead court fights over the state’s management of Detroit’s schools, challenged emergency managers and charter expansion, and pushed for literacy to be recognized as a civil right. 

She also helped launch Let’s Read, a volunteer-driven literacy program created with the Detroit school district. Along the way, Moore has mentored generations of parents to also fight against classrooms with broken heat, missing textbooks, and teacher shortages.

Because, as Mother Moore once put it at a school board meeting: “Education is how we get free.”

This weekend, the Dexter-Elmhurst Recreation Center reopens in her honor. The newly renovated Helen Moore Community Center sits in the west side neighborhood where she nurtured her organizing. It is a brick-and-mortar monument to a woman who has spent decades insisting that Black children should not have to leave their communities to find opportunity.

Moore joined Robyn Vincent to discuss the moments that shaped her and why she keeps fighting. 

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Detroit’s schools are still recovering from the deep wounds of systemic neglect. Redlining, segregation, and a crash in city revenue starved schools of resources. Meanwhile, state funding for Detroit continues to lag behind wealthier districts. 

Over the years, control of Detroit schools has taken many turns that have added to the trauma.

First, it was mayoral control, and later, state‑appointed emergency managers. These interventions were supposed to help, but they often made things worse.

Through it all, poverty has entrenched itself in the households of many Detroit students. Housing instability, unreliable transportation, and inaccessible healthcare have added trauma on top of trauma. And then came the pandemic,  erasing precious early learning time.

But like the city itself, Detroit schools have been slowly, steadily rising. The latest glimmer is the new M‑STEP results, which show Detroit public school students largely making steady incremental improvements in math and English.

A Chalkbeat Detroit analysis of Michigan’s 2024-25 standardized tests puts the results into deeper context, showing Detroit’s third‑graders reading at their best level in over a decade. 

Still, only about 13% of DPSCD third graders reached reading proficiency, that’s compared to nearly 39% statewide.

So what do these modest gains really mean, and how long can they last?

Dr. Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, joined Robyn Vincent to answer these questions.

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You can’t trust everything you see and hear nowadays, especially text messages and emails.

One of the most common scams recently are fake toll road fines that are sent via text message. The FBI calls it “smishing,” which combines the abbreviation for text messages, SMS, with phishing.

The problem has gotten so big that the Michigan Secretary of State’s website has as pop-up warning at the top of their homepage, reminding Michigan residents that the Secretary of State will never solicit payment via text message.

Among the most vulnerable for cyber scams are senior citizens.

Last year in Michigan, seniors reported scam and fraud losses of $92 million, according to the FBI’s IC3 2024 Elder Fraud Report. That breaks down to around $29,000 per claim.

The leading categories of fraud and scams are investments, personal data breaches, identity theft, romance, and tech support.

This tracks with the national trend. Last year reported cybercrime losses in the U.S. topped $16 billion.

What’s behind the text message toll road scams? How can people identify a scam? What makes seniors so vulnerable to cyber scams?

Lexi Lutz joined the Metro to help answer those questions. Lutz is the senior corporate counsel for privacy and cybersecurity at Nordstrom, and she appeared on The Metro in her capacity of founder of Opt-Inspire, a nonprofit that works to keep seniors cyber-secure, and helps them use digital technology safely to connect with loved ones.

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Right now, Michigan kids are struggling with something fundamental — reading. Over the last 20 years, the state dropped from 30th to 44th in 4th-grade reading scores. Last year, only 25 percent of fourth graders were considered proficient in reading.

What can Michigan do about this? Some suggest we should be looking to Mississippi, because that state has dramatically improved its math and reading scores for 4th graders, now ranking in the top 20 after it was at the bottom a decade ago. But Mississippi isn’t flush with cash — it’s America’s poorest state. So how did they do it? And what does Michigan need to do to change its rankings?

To discuss all that, we have Adrea Truckenmiller on The Metro today, an associate professor of special education at Michigan State University.

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New tariffs imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration are starting to raise prices on some consumer goods, and many Michigan households are struggling as a result.

According to United Way’s latest ALICE (asset limited, income constrained and employed) report, roughly 41% of Michigan households are facing financial hardship. So how can people make the most out of the money they do have?

Khadija Mutakabbir, a licensed financial literacy counselor and an experienced loan advisor with Detroit Peer Money Mentors, says it starts with building healthy money habits.

The youth-led effort, funded through the city’s Grow Detroit’s Young Talent program, helps to educate Detroit youth about financial wellness and money management. Participating mentors receive extensive training on how to lead workshops and encourage participants to take control of their personal finance.

Mutakabbir joined The Metro on Monday to talk about the program and how her background in finance shaped her mission to educate others.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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