Over the last 20 years, education experts have increasingly questioned whether standardized tests are the best way to measure how students perform.

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

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of institutions let high school students decide whether to submit their standardized test scores with their admission applications, and many colleges and universities continue to have “test-optional policies” today.

So how much weight do these tests actually carry, and what do they fail to tell us about student achievement? This week on Created Equal, we were joined by Elaine Allensworth — a researcher who has studied testing and other measures of achievement for 20 years — to discuss America’s affinity for test culture and the shortcomings that come with it.

Allensworth says standardized tests can often be overused and over interpreted to the point of causing adverse effects on students and classroom instruction.

“There’s so much in school that is not captured on standardized tests and can’t be captured on standardized tests,” she said. “…beyond that, how students perform in the test is also affected by a lot of factors other than those specific academic skills that we intend to test.”

Guests:

• Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Executive Director of the University of Chicago Consortium

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

Once dominated by non-local LLCs exploiting the system for quick returns, new data suggests that fewer outside investors are “milking” the system, and more Detroiters are taking advantage of opportunities to participate in Detroit’s recovery.

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

A new article entitled “Detroit’s Sweat Equity” from Alex Alsup, published in Substack newsletter The Chargeback, discusses the change from outside investors to residents purchasing and rehabbing homes from the tax foreclosure auction. Alsup says local buyers are flipping the script on the traditional narrative of Detroit real estate. By investing personal labor — or “sweat equity” — into rehabbing homes, they reduce the costs associated with renovation and create value in a way that large, outside investors can no longer exploit. 

Foreclosures are at their lowest since 2005, and new ownership trends show a citywide gain of about 9,000 re-occupied homes since the pandemic. The old “milking” model — where the value was in extracting rent from undervalued properties — doesn’t work anymore because Detroit’s homes have gained too much value. This lucrative foreclosure-rental-foreclosure pipeline is drying up, and Detroiters are stepping up to take advantage of the opportunity. 

Chase Cantrell, CEO of Building Community Value, a nonprofit that helps Detroiters become property owners and rehabbers, says that the Detroit Land Bank Authority now privileges local buyers, giving them a better chance to purchase and improve properties. 

Online bidding on properties in the Wayne County tax foreclosure auction begins September 11 and runs through September 18, 2024. There are 1,748 Detroit foreclosed properties listed on the Wayne County Treasurer’s auction site.

 Guests: 

• Alex Alsup is the Vice President of Research and Development for Regrid and the author of the Substack newsletter The Chargeback.
• Chase Cantrell is the CEO of Building Community Value, an organization that provides training and resources for Detroiters interested in small-scale real estate development.

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.

One might believe that people perceive individuals who live in poverty as in greater need of help when faced with hardship compared to more affluent people, but research indicates the opposite is true.

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

The “thick skin bias” is a belief that individuals who live in poverty are more resilient than affluent people when facing a challenging situation. The assumption could, as a result, influence the degree of support those who are struggling receive from others.

Today on Created Equal, the team continued Wednesday’s conversation about a Wayne County judge who singled out a student for falling asleep in court during a field trip, and how society perceives and responds to people in poverty.

Psychology professor Nathan Cheek joined the discussion to help unpack the “thick skin bias,” where it comes from, and why this assumption is the wrong one.

“We are deeply uncomfortable with injustice and inequality, and we have deep motivation to believe in a just world. A world that is fair where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get, and so it’s really threatening to us when people confront inequalities.” he said. “So one of the strategies that people adopt to get through life is adopting beliefs that justify inequality.”

Guest:

• Nathan Cheek is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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

In August, Eva Goodman was placed in handcuffs and a jail uniform for sleeping in a courtroom during a field trip. Goodman, 15, was visiting with a group organized by the nonprofit the Greening of Detroit. During the visit, Judge Kenneth King of the 36th District court scolded the teen for her “attitude” and behavior.

Goodman’s mother told the Free Press after the incident that their family did not have permanent housing and got in late the night before. Judge King was temporarily removed from the court docket, and his classes at Wayne State University were reassigned due to his suspension.

Since the incident, the Created Equal team has been examining through conversations how society responds to people who live in poverty.

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

Dr. Rema-Vassar, a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wayne State University, spent 20 years working in education and studies race, gender and class implications in schools. She says King’s response to the incident in court was inappropriate.

“My adviser at UCLA used to say, ‘all behavior is functional.’ There’s a reason for all behavior. So if the baby is sleeping in the court, the human response is to figure out why,” Vassar said. “Teachers get to come in and say, ‘I haven’t had my coffee. Don’t bother me for five minutes,’ right? A judge can say, ‘I have to take a recess, I need to compose myself and come back.’ Why aren’t children allowed to do that? Why can’t children say, ‘hey, I’m tired.'”

Vassar joined the show on Tuesday to talk more about how a student’s behavior in school can be a reflection of their circumstances at home.

Guest: 

• Dr. Rema-Vassar is a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

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

Now that the major parties have officially selected their nominees for president and the conventions have passed, how do the two stack up?

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

Recent polls show Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump following the Democratic National Convention. Now, the attention turns to the first and only scheduled debate between the two — set to take place on Sept. 10.

But what other opportunities lie ahead for the two candidates to make an impact on the presidential race?

To discuss this, Washington Post columnist E.J Dionne, political analyst Jessica Taylor, and WDET reporter and All Things Considered host Russ McNamara joined Created Equal on Thursday.

Guests:

• Jessica Taylor is the Senate and Governors Editor at Cook Political Report.
• Russ McNamara is a reporter and host of All Things Considered at WDET
• E.J. Dionne is the Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a columnist for the Washington Post.  He says mocking former President Trump is a new strategy for the democrats.

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

Editor’s note: A previously uploaded version of this episode included incorrect audio from an earlier episode about grief and loss.

A staggering amount of metro Detroit’s polling stations are not accessible for disabled people — 84%, according to a 2022 audit by Detroit Disability Power.

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

Another, less visible, barrier to democratic participation is equitable access to information. Yet nearly half of Detroit households don’t have broadband access.

That picture only gets worse when you account for household income. 

Voting sites inaccessible 

There were four criteria Detroit Disability Power used in their audit to define accessibility at a polling location: 

1. An accessible parking area with a clear pathway into the building
2. A fully accessible voter assist terminal (VAT)
3. An accessible entrance into the building
4. An accessible booth for casting paper ballots privately

Dessa Cosma from Detroit Disability Power says that being able to vote in-person without barriers is a democratic issue, but the state of polling location accessibility now is not acceptable. 

“I can tell you as a disabled voter, it is frustrating and demoralizing and dehumanizing to go exercise my right to vote and realize that people weren’t prepared for me to show up,” Cosma said. “When they were thinking about who mattered and people they needed to set up their day for, I wasn’t on their list.”

Detroit Disability Power plans to conduct another audit of metro Detroit’s polling locations for the general election in November. 

Internet access 

Democratic acts such as voting, accessing a city hall website, attending virtual public meetings, or contacting representatives are all reliant on having internet access.  

Detroit is among the worst-connected cities in the nation, with nearly 40% of homes without a broadband connection. 

But access to broadband internet is only one of three pillars of digital equity, says Christopher Ali, telecommunications research at Penn State University. The other two pillars are affordability and skillset. 

“The internet is our window to the world right now. It’s how we get news and information […] it’s how we engage with the many of the governmental services we need to do on a daily basis. It’s how we book the COVID vaccine and apply for benefits and file our taxes,” Ali said.

Cosma and Ali both joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss equitable access to voting and information.

Guests:  

• Dessa Cosma is the executive director of Detroit Disability Power

• Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College at Penn State. Ali is the author of “Farm Fresh Broadband: Politics of Rural Connectivity.” 

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

When Lori Tucker-Sullivan’s husband Kevin died from cancer, she took it upon herself to merge her life-long passion of writing with music, a hobby she shared with her late husband. Though her husband was not a musician, the subject of her writing became clear after she heard Yoko Ono talk about life after her husband, John Lennon, was killed. Ono continued to build a name for herself as a multimedia artist and activist, and that inspired Tucker-Sullivan to explore other stories of women in the spotlight who lost their husbands.

Tucker-Sullivan interviewed widows of rock musicians who navigated the complicated aftermath of their partner’s passing. Some of these women’s lives were upended by legal battles, other’s reputations were distorted because of who their husbands were. Like Yoko Ono, many of these women were committed to defining their own narrative. In Tucker-Sullivan’s book “I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy,” she documents and shares those stories. She joined Created Equal to discuss what lessons she learned from these women who persevered through all the commotion.

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

Guest

Lori Tucker-Sullivan is a music writer and author. She says these women and their stories are a good reminder that life goes on. “…regardless of the depth of your loss, you can keep going, you can find purpose, you can find new love.” She goes on to say, “I hope they take from it that people who 10, 15 years on still have grief in their lives, but it’s not the central focus of their lives.”

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

Following speeches from high-profile Democrats — including Barack and Michelle Obama and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz — enthusiasm for the Harris campaign has reached a fever pitch at the Democratic National Convention.

Still, the question remains whether that enthusiasm will lead undecided voters to choose Kamala Harris in November.

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

Shikha Dalmia from the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism says the Democrats have taken the ideas of patriotism and freedom from Republicans.

“They’ve stolen the message of patriotism from Republicans,” said Dalmia. “But they’ve also stolen the message of freedom from Republicans, and giving a meaning to freedom that is inclusive in modern in a way that Republican conception of freedom doesn’t strike people us such.”

Not only have Democrats put patriotism back in their messaging, they’re also demonstrating something that Andrea Bitely, a political communications strategist, says the Democrats represent something that independent voters want: normalcy. 

“I think they’re making a case that they are the rational, normal party,” she said.

While normalcy and common sense have emerged as strengths of the Harris-Walz ticket, there is still a glaring gap in support from anti-war protestors from the progressive wing of the party represented by “uncommitted” delegates at the convention. 

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, co-chaired a forum at the DNC on Palestinian rights on Monday, but says the DNC is taking an unnecessary risk not allowing a Palestinian representative to speak.  

“It wouldn’t have hurt at all to invite a Palestinian American,” said Zogby. “Especially some of those who are very close to the Vice President, who she knows and respects, who she knows from when she was Attorney General. I never understand when campaigns make unforced errors and simply can’t recognize it.”

Now that the Democratic Party’s surrogates have given their endorsements rallying the base, all eyes are on Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech to close out the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.

Guests

• James Zogby is the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute. He currently serves as chair of the DNC Ethnic Council and was appointed to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom by President Obama, serving from 2013-2017. 
• Shikha Dalmia is the president of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. She is also the editor-in-chief of the free Substack publication, “The UnPopulist.”  
• Andrea Bitely is the former spokesperson for former Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and is currently the political and communications strategist at Bitely Communications.  

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

In museums across the United States, you can see artifacts and human remains that belong to the native peoples who were here before our country existed. But do you ever wonder where the institutions got those things or whether native people had any say about these displays of their culture?

The federal government considered these questions when the Interior Department enacted the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) over 30 years ago. The regulations require museums and federal agencies to identify and return Native American remains and belongings. The interior department issued a final ruling in December of 2023 that encouraged museums across the country to remove Native American items and remains from display and begin the process of returning them to native peoples.  

Chip Colwell was the senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for 12 years. He was responsible for repatriating the museum’s collection of Native American items. Colwell joined Created Equal on Monday to discuss the movement to reconcile science and history with the delicate nature of native possessions. 

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

Guest

Chip Colwell is the founding editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, an online magazine about anthropological thinking and discoveries. He was the senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for 12 years. Colwell says repatriation is the process of untangling the conflict between science and culture.

“Our bodies are maps of our histories and identities, and the science can use those to understand who people were and the larger human story, and that’s not to be discounted. But what’s to say is that not everyone shares that view. When it’s your ancestor, your grandmother, or your great-great-grandfather you have something different at stake,” he said.

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

The Democratic Party is expected to officially nominate Gov. Tim Waltz at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. 

As Minnesota’s governor, he’s passed a multitude of progressive legislation to help improve the lives of Minnesotans. In his first term, Gov. Waltz has made historic investments in education, expanded worker’s rights, provided tax cuts for working families and the middle class, expanded voting rights–and more.

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

Gov. Waltz’s progressive policies have made Minnesota perform much better with its economy, social safety support, and quality of life than other states in the Midwest.

To discuss what Minnesota is doing to unite liberals and conservatives on voting for these policies, Prof. David Schultz from Hamline University and Prof. Louis Johnston from Saint John’s University join the show.

Guests

Prof. David Schultz is a distinguished Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at Hamline University. He says the voting patterns in the St. Paul metropolitan area has driven the liberal policies within the last decade.

“There’s been this kind of political coalition and consensus — I’m going to say in the last 20 years, and especially in the last few years — what’s really happened to allow for the enactment of a lot of these progressive policies,” Schultz said. “Minnesota is dominated by Minneapolis, St. Paul, much in the same way that Detroit dominates, population wise, Michigan — but even more so. The metropolitan area is about 55% of the population in the vote, and it votes very liberally. And what’s happening, is that the liberal voting patterns of Minneapolis, St. Paul has really come to drive Minnesota politics in the last 10 to 15 years.”

Prof. Louis Johnson is a professor of economics in the College of Saint Benedict at Saint John’s University. He claims the recent progressive legislation is due to a second “Minnesota Miracle.”

“The Minnesota Miracle of 1971 came about because of Minnesota’s tremendous growth between the end of the Second World War and the late 1960s. This second one, if we’re going to call it that, is the same kind of phenomena,” Johnson explained. “Minnesota, especially starting in the mid-1990s, benefited tremendously from the end of the Cold War and the high tech boom. And so by 2022, we had very large budget surpluses, and the question was: ‘What are we going to do with them?’ With the Democratic control of both branches of Legislature and the control of the governor’s office, they doubled down on the idea of investing in people rather than cutting taxes and hoping that things would happen.”

It’s been 10 months since the war in Gaza started.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces after Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking 251 hostage.

With the ongoing violence, President Joe Biden faced backlash for his Middle East policy. Michigan voters started the “uncommitted” movement during the February primary to protest the U.S. government supplying arms to Israel.

Read: Dearborn Mayor Hammoud: ‘There must be a timeline of how we achieve a just Palestinian state’

Now that Biden stepped aside, Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination presents an opportunity for change in policies surrounding the war. Her views appear to be in line with Biden’s in regards to Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Yet, she has also urged Israeli forces to allow humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip through a temporary ceasefire. 

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson talks to former Democratic Congressman Andy Levin and Abbas Alweih, an uncommitted delegate to the Democratic Party convention, about politics inside the Democratic Party, and how the war in Gaza — and the United States’ support for Israel — is affecting those politics.

Guests

Andy Levin is a Senior Fellow for the Center for American Progress and former U.S. Representative of Michigan’s 9th Congressional District. He’s concerned VP Harris won’t be able to win in Michigan in November’s election because of its large Arab American population.

“I don’t see how [Democrats] could win Michigan without changing policy on Gaza, because we’re the most densely Arab American state [and] we have many other Muslim Americans who are so upset about this,” Levin said. “Remember the AME bishops writing about this: thousands of Black pastors and many people in the African American community, progressives, Jewish progressives, students on our campuses [are upset]. Even though Biden beat Trump 14 times [more] in 2020 [than] Trump beat Hillary in 2016 in Michigan, he still only won by 154,000 votes.”

Abbas Alaweih is the spokesperson for the Listen to Michigan Campaign, and an uncommitted delegate. Though he feels he has a place in the Democratic party, its Middle East foreign policy is difficult to handle as someone with family members in Lebanon.

“[The] experience of going to work on Capitol Hill, even during Democratic leadership, oftentimes, was an experience of going to work in institutions that were actively funding the harming and killing [of] people like me,” Alaweih said. “For whatever reason, in our politics, there is just this sort of assumed idea that Palestinian lives, Arab lives, Muslim lives — matter just a little bit less.”

Martin Luther King Jr. is a towering figure in America’s history of civil rights and social justice. Despite this, there aren’t many comprehensive biographies on the activist. As more research and public records become available, King can be fully rendered as a person.

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers attempted to dig into King as an individual.

In 1986, David Garrow wrote Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The work is compiled of more than seven hundred interviews, King’s personal papers, and thousands of FBI documents to trace his life from a young pastor to one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement.

Jonathan Eig wrote King: A Life in 2023. It discusses the dark and complex emotions King faced in his personal and professional life as he grew into a civil rights icon.

Today on Created Equal, both Eig and Garrow joined host Stephen Henderson to discuss how America’s understanding of King has developed since his assassination on April 4, 1968.

Guests

David Garrow won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his book, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The author and historian says King was uncomfortable with being placed in a celebrity role when being credited for the Civil Rights movement. 

“King was not someone who sought out a public leadership role, and indeed, as he became more and more famous through the years, he became more and more uncomfortable about this degree of celebrity and praise that was focused on him,” Garrow said. “He quite rightly felt, [it] was excessive, [and] that the credit for the movement should be understood as being shared far, far more broadly.”

Jonathan Eig wrote King: A Life, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. The biographer and journalist said being able to read previous biographies of King allowed him to adopt a more intimate lens when creating his work. 

“I felt like it was time for a book that reminded us of his humanity, that he was flawed, that he doesn’t have to be perfect to be a hero and to be as courageous as he was, and that it would be a book that would exist in a different space than than some of those that had come before.”

Legislative Republicans’ actions to halt the implementation of minimum wage increases and paid sick leave in 2018 was ruled unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court. On July 31, Mothering Justice v. Attorney General ruled the actions of the Republican party “violated the people’s constitutionally guaranteed right to propose and enact laws.”

This ruling ensures the original language of the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act (IWOWA) and the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) are implemented over the current versions — which were modified in the November 2018 general election.

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

By implementing the original language of the IWOWA, Michigan’s $10.33 minimum wage will climb above $12 by February 2025 — and it will be at $15 an hour by 2029. To account for inflation, it will ensure hourly wages are proportionately adjusted as they are implemented. Further, the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is $3.93 an hour, will be phased out by February 2029.

Additionally, the original language of the ESTA ensures up to 72 hours of paid sick leave per year for Michigan workers. All Michigan employers must provide this leave, meaning all employees are eligible.

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson talked to Danielle Atkinson, an advocate whose work focuses on promoting economic fairness in Michigan, and Brian Calley, the head of Small Business Association of Michigan, which has said the new rules could cost them money — and cost Michiganders jobs.

Guests

Danielle Atkinson is the founder and national director of Mothering Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for policy to support mothers of color. She says this law is beneficial because most Michiganders don’t have access to paid time off for caregiving or for themselves — and deciding between health and paying their bills isn’t fair.

“Seventy percent of voters say that they are in favor of this [legislation]. The reason why they say they’re in favor is because they need it — they don’t have access to a single paid sick day,” Atkinson said. “[This] means they’re making the choice between going to work sick or paying their bills, putting public health in jeopardy, [and] not being there for themselves or their loved ones.”

Brian Calley is the CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan. He is concerned for Michigan workers, because those who already get a lot of time off may get less with the new ruling. 

“It imposes a one size fits all, which might help some people who had less than this or didn’t have anything at all. But it has also the potential to remove flexibility and to to also…remove the amount of time that [employees] have off today — especially if they don’t normally have sick days,” Calley said.

The Democratic Party has officially selected Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee on Monday afternoon — marking the first time a woman of color has won a major party’s nomination, and only the second time a woman has been selected.

Of the 4,567 Democratic delegates who cast ballots, Harris — who just held a rally at Detroit Metro Airport on Wednesday — won the support of 99% of the voters. Though Harris appears to be succeeding in her rushed bid for the presidency, it’s important to note that there are significant barriers women face when running for an election. 

Today on Created Equal, NBC News Correspondent Ali Vitali; political science professor Dr. Cathy Wineinger; and Kimberly Peeler-Allen, visiting practitioner at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, joined the show to discuss Harris’ nomination and the state of women in politics.

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

Guests

Ali Vitali is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News and the author of the book “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House…Yet.” She says that Michigan’s women-dominated leadership will assist Harris’ campaign because Michiganders are used to voting for, and seeing, women win top government offices. 

“Politically, Michigan is a battleground state. But from the perspective of gender and politics, you [have to] look up and down the upper echelons of leadership in Michigan,” Vitali said. “You have, of course, Gretchen Whitmer at the top of that, but then you have Jocelyn Benson and Dana Nessel. It’s important to look at the fact that Michigan voters are habituated to seeing women run for executive and top leadership roles, and they’re used to seeing them win.” 

Dr. Cathy Wineinger is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. She says the biggest barrier to office is firstly getting women to run, and then making sure they run as themselves. 

“I think getting women to decide to run in the first place is the biggest challenge to overcome. But I think we’re seeing that, and this change in the political landscape does send a signal to women [and] to women of color, that: ‘Hey, I can run and I can run as myself. I don’t need to fit into this [white man] stereotype,’’ Wineinger said. “And that’s especially true on the Democratic side of the aisle – I think it’s maybe not as true on the Republican side.”

Kimberly Peeler-Allen is a visiting practitioner at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and was formerly the Senior Advisor to New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ reelection. She says the reason women of color experience harassment when seeking government positions is because of America’s history as a white, patriarchal society. 

“The vice president and [her] campaign aren’t leaning into the diversity of her experience and her identity, but the Republicans are,” Peeler-Allen said. “We’re seeing the increase of violence, threats and harassment against women and people of color in elected office across the board. A lot of that is sparked because of, for lack of a better phrase, their ‘difference’ from what the norm has been.”

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

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of a Supreme Court case originating in Detroit that’s had a lasting impact on equity in schools, both locally and nationwide.

The Milliken v. Bradley decision limited the courts’ ability to address segregation in schools by halting an “interdistrict busing” plan to tackle Detroit’s increasingly segregated classrooms. Under the plan, students from Detroit would have been bused into the suburbs and kids from the suburbs would have been bused to Detroit schools.

Legal scholars say the 1974 ruling eroded the progress of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared racial segregation in the classroom unconstitutional. After that ruling, districts across the country were experimenting with ways to integrate schools. 

The Milliken v. Bradley case originated when the NAACP filed a lawsuit against Michigan state officials on behalf of students and their families, arguing that school integration in Detroit could never occur where discriminatory practices like redlining and racial covenants are present. 

While the lower court ruling said the city, state and surrounding suburbs must comply and participate in a desegregation plan, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a narrow 5-4 decision signaled that the courts shouldn’t be involved in efforts to desegregate schools. 

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson was joined by three guests — Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Robyn Vincent, Detroit historian Ken Coleman, and Education Trust-Midwest Executive Director Amber Arellano — to talk about the Milliken ruling and its ripple effect on the Detroit public school system today.

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

Guests

Robyn Vincent, education reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, wrote a recent article entitled “Still segregated and unequal: The reverberations of Milliken v. Bradley in Detroit 50 years later.” Vincent says Detroit schools are not equitably funded in comparison to other districts.

“That became especially true with the adoption of Proposal A back in the ’90s, now that education policy is unequal in how much funding different school districts receive per student, and meanwhile we know Detroit schools serve a lot of kids from low-income households,” she said. “Nearly 80% qualify for subsidized lunches, so that tells us something.”

Ken Coleman is a Detroit historian and journalist. He says although Detroit’s Black population was growing, large swaths of the city had very few African American students up until the time of Milliken v. Bradley, and there was a clear correlation between segregation in schools and segregation in housing.

“There are lots of neighborhoods where Black kids don’t go to school with white kids because of race discrimination that was carried out in the real estate industry, and even pushback in city neighborhoods throughout the ‘40s and ’50s and ‘60s,” he said.

Amber Arellano is the executive director of Education Trust-Midwest. Arellano discussed how there have been a lot of changes within the past two years when it comes to schools being more equitable. She also talks about the recent funding mechanism that accounts for the concentration of poverty, which made history in Michigan.

“We are one of the first 10 states in the country to do this,” said Arellano. “It is an acknowledgment that we have had one of the most regressive and most inequitable state funding systems in the country, and in just two years, it’s driven almost $300 million more into schools for students with low-income background,” she said. It is really an important statewide change.”

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

The I-375 Reconnecting Communities project is an attempt to repair the wrongs that were done when construction of the freeway began in 1954. Voices across metro Detroit continue to weigh in on the current plans, and how much they come up short.

On this episode of Created Equal, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans joined the show to discuss where current plans stand, and how these decisions will shape the future of I-375.

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

When it comes to projects like I-375 Reconnecting Communities — and getting the community involved with the help of the county — Evans describes it as a chore. Building facilities like the criminal justice complex was a significant outreach to the community, but at the same time, he believes intentions of the project to “right the wrongs of the past” are insulting.

“There was nothing definitive in there that would make any reasonable person think that anything was going to be done for the purpose of repairing the past,” said Evans. “You repair the past by doing things that make for opportunities for people of color whose community was destroyed 60 or 50 years ago, and I don’t see it as much different now. I have not been deep enough in the project to determine whether the practical aspects of raising 375 or not make sense.”

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.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled this week that its 2020 decision — which held that former property owners were entitled to the profits of tax foreclosure sales — can apply retroactively.

That means the “windfall profits” generated by the foreclosing county treasurer would be returned to the previous landowners.

Since Detroit has a complicated history with homeownership, this ruling strikes at the heart of poverty and inequality in the city. Yet, it may not provide the intended restorative justice for Detroit residents. For example, landlords who bought a property through tax foreclosure but then lost it to the same process, could argue they are owed the windfall profits rather than the original owner. 

Alex Alsup, vice president of research and development for Regrid — a property data and location intelligence company — Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit reporter Nushrat Rahman, and United Community Housing Coalition Director Ted Phillips joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss what this new ruling means for homeowners, the government, and how it’ll affect issues like land speculation. 

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

Guests

Alex Alsup is vice president of Research and Development for Regrid, an intelligence company that specializes in gathering information about land parcels across the United States. He shares concerns about who this court decision actually benefits. 

“I think that the ruling in Rafaeli and the [one the] other day are cast as some sort of ‘justice’ for homeowners who lost their homes to tax foreclosure. [Though] there are enormous amounts of restorative justice that’s due to them, but I do not think these rulings amount to anything like that for Detroit homeowners,” he said.

Nushrat Rahman is an economic mobility reporter for the Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit. She says this ruling will also impact county coffers — where the excess profit is held after a house sells in auction. 

“I talked to the Michigan Association of Counties, and they said that they don’t know the fiscal impact at this point. They’ve advised their counties to prepare for this because [they] don’t know where the money’s coming from,” she said.

Ted Phillips is the director of the United Community Housing Coalition. He says the people who are going to most benefit from this ruling are investors.

“It seems ironic that if some of these investors did make a bad play on certain properties and lose them for more than what the taxes were, that they would now be able to recoup that money while skirting taxes for all these other years,” he said.

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

Local clerks play a critical roll in ensuring free and fair elections.

City and township clerks hold three major responsibilities – keeping track of records like birth, death and marriage certificates, and overseeing financial operations and local elections.

According to Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist, of the 1,240 Michigan township clerks up for election in November — accounting for roughly 82% of the state’s 1,516 local election officials — 118 have no clerk candidates on the ballot.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in history, 9.5% of all clerk races this year will have NOBODY elected.” he wrote on X earlier this month. “Why doesn’t anyone want to do this job? How does a state deal with such a massive labor shortage? Who will run elections in these communities?”

Today on Created Equal host Stephen Henderson was joined by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck and Michigan Advance reporter Jon King to discuss how to protect election integrity in cities or townships without clerk candidates.

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

Guests 

Jocelyn Benson is the secretary of state for Michigan. She says the state is prepared with a back-up plan when there aren’t clerks to fill positions.

“When there is a vacancy at any point — or if a clerk fails to do their duty, their legal duty, under the law — we at the state level have supervisory authority where we can appoint someone or come in,” she said. “Oftentimes that’ll involve working with folks in the community to identify someone [like] local officials, mayors, township supervisors, and county clerks. [They] also have different elements of supervisory power over local jurisdictions to make sure the job gets done. So even if there’s a vacancy, we still have ways of making sure the work happens, [so] that democracy continues to go smoothly.”

Jon King is a reporter for Michigan Advance and the author of a recent article about the state’s local clerk candidate shortage. He says the additional duties given to clerks means there’s a larger personal cost. 

“The people that are administering these elections are, I think, getting somewhat swamped. I mean, we talked about early voting starting this weekend…I saw several online posts from clerks who were at their early voting areas, and they have their kids in the other room, coloring,” he said. “And, [on] one hand, you go, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ On the other hand, you realize that there is a cost, a personal cost to be paid.”

Justin Roebuck is the clerk for Ottawa County, Michigan. He says clerks work with a system of municipal checks and balances, meaning that those who run elections know their community very deeply. 

“I’ve been a county clerk for a decade, and the people that I work with as my township’s clerk, are experts in their field, but they’re also experts in their communities,” he said. “You know, they know their communities.”

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

Many older adults want to stay in their homes as they age. But aging in place requires careful consideration and planning by the individual and/or their family.

Making this decision can be difficult for families as they navigate the logistics and challenges that come with an older loved one aging in place and ensuring both financial stability and the person’s safety and well-being.

Today on Created Equal, Wayne State University gerontology professor Amanda Leggett joined the show to discuss what it takes to be ready – from a number of perspectives – for the difficulties that come with aging and aging in place.

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

Guest:

Amanda Leggett is an assistant professor in the Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology at Wayne State University and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. Her research program focuses on the dementia caregiver stress process and mental health in late-life. 

Leggett spoke about the importance of being able to handle the basic activities of daily life, such as managing finances and basic mobility, and how some symptoms of aging can make it difficult for some older adults to manage those tasks independently. 

“When individuals start to need more assistance in managing these activities, that’s kind of when we start to think about, ‘is this something that the family can help with, or an in-home care aid might be able to help with? Or do we want to start thinking about that transition to a long-term care facility? And I think a big piece of this also really just boils down to safety, we want to make sure that if someone is independent in their home that they are safe,” said Leggett.

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