Richard Whitmire

Veteran newspaper reporter, Author of The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation’s Worst School District

The class action lawsuit the ACLU announced last week against both Michigan and a tiny Detroit area school district for failing to educate its own children raises this question: Can schools ever compensate for the ills of poverty?

Maureen Costello

Director, Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project

Last month Brooke Harris' eighth-grade class asked her about the "kid who was killed over some skittles." She seized the opportunity to bring her students' lived experiences into the classroom. And that's when things got weird.

Eddie N. Fakhoury and Teresa Duhl

Executive Director, Dearborn Education Foundation

A small boost for a district that finds itself caught in the middle means protecting it from falling to the high-need end of the scale where investment will be more costly and return on investment will take more time.

Dennis Van Roekel

President of the National Education Association

The only way to turn around struggling schools is to work together -- by demanding concrete changes that make low student achievement totally unacceptable for any group of students.

Annis Brown

Executive Director, Teach For America in Detroit

Our friendly rivalries aside, U of Michigan and MSU students alike are stepping up in meaningful ways to make an impact in the lives of students and the future of our state and country.