For as long as there has been civilized society, there has been esteemed forms of education. One might even go so far as to lump modern educators in with greats like Socrates, Plato, and any sophist thinkable.

Linda Myers is certainly no exception. As the campaign consultant for the Michigan Education Association, Myers has a long and distinguished career both as an educator and an education lobbyist and advocate. In layman’s terms, she’s a frontline fighter, acting on behalf of perhaps one of society’s most integral pillars: teaching, and the students who benefit from it.

Growing up in small, South Dakota town, it was an advanced case of sibling rivalry that first inspired Myers to pursue a path as an educator: “I’m a twin, and I wanted to do something different than what my twin was doing, and she was doing the same thing: she opted for nursing, and I opted for education,” she recalls fondly. “That was kind of how we did it. She became a very successful nurse and is now retired, and I’m still working because I love what I do.”

After teaching for 16 and a half years (specialty subjects included English, Spanish, and journalism), Myers eventually received her Master’s degree in Education Leadership from the University of Nebraska, and shortly thereafter took a post in the far-off land of Michigan, where she began her work with the MEA in Kalamazoo. It was here that Myers fully realized her true calling as political education advocate, and left her teaching career behind for good in favor of a devoting to public service that would help propel the MEA and its cause greatly forward.

Over the course of her long-running stint with the MEA, Myers has been at the head of championing – and combated – a number of education-related caused. Most famously among these would be Proposal A, a 1994 school-funding bill that altered the education funding system from a per-district standard to a more troublesome per-pupil arrangement. As a major victory, Myers also helped pass a CPR bill through the legislature, which requires all teachers to have a background or training in CPR treatment and therapy, just in case the unthinkable should happen to a student in class. This, Myers says, is a triumph truly to be proud of.

“I worked five or six years on [the CPR bill], and it finally came to fruition, I got to go to the signing of [it]. Even though it’s a minor bill, it was a victory for me,” she says. “I always felt successful when some of the other management lobbyists would come in and say, ‘Linda, you’re the hardest one to defeat on that because you’re so sincere about it; you tell such a good story.’”

Still, with all the legislative warfare and blood spillage, perhaps the hardest adjustment for Myers has been the loss of the bells. The school bells, that is.

“[The] hardest thing for me, after I got out of teaching, was getting used to not living by bells,” she laughs. “‘The bell rings, so I’ve got five minutes here. I’ve got a fifteen minute lunch period.’ [Now] I can truly go to lunch and not be interrupted. But that was the hardest thing: but, I’d have a hard time going back to a classroom today. I think it’s a tough job, and I don’t know if I could handle it anymore.”

Ironic sentiment for someone who takes a tough job and makes it look like a session of recess. For as long as Michigan schools will continue to operate, we should be grateful to have a fearless fighter like Linda Myers speaking on their behalf.

According to a Detroit News' database of Metro Detroit home foreclosures, 1,342 homes in the city of Southfield have been subject of foreclosure filings since January 2006.

Unfortunately, the Southfield Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday night to increase that number by as many as 350.

Your employer ordered you to tell them about your wife having cancer. How would you respond?

School employees in the Southwest Michigan community of Lawton recently were faced with that question. Based on requirements put in place by last fall's ill-conceived Senate Bill 418 (which, among other things, requires schools to get competitive bids for health insurance), these employees were ordered to complete an extensive survey about their and their family's health history.

What great news! The following is from a press release issued by the MI AFL-CIO - 

3,500 Anti-Right to Work Activists Assist Presidential Primary Voters at Michigan Polls and Fight Off Petition Effort Lansing -

Over 3,500 activists monitored polling places for a potential Right to Work petition drive on primary day, Tuesday, January 15th statewide.

“The Labor community, along with other allies of Michigan’s working families, is sending a very powerful message to special interests that ‘Right to Work’ isn’t going to happen in Michigan. Although the Right to Work forces are gone for now, we intend to continue educating people on the importance of a good job to our state’s economy. We’re not going to bring the economy back by cutting wages,” stated Mark Gaffney, President of the Michigan State AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO and the Michigan Education Association combined forces with the Change to Win coalition and trained volunteers to educate Michigan voters for the primary.

“We want to thank our union affiliates – the Michigan Education Association and the Change to Win unions – who worked alongside the AFL-CIO during this huge effort. Michigan Labor is united once again in our efforts to protect living standards of all union and non-union Michigan workers,” proclaimed President Gaffney.