The Michigan Education Associated recently quoted a public school teacher who said that her family experienced every salary cut over the past several years “times two” because she was married to a teacher who worked in the same district.

What the state’s largest teachers union didn’t report was that this teacher and her husband were, between the two of them, paid nearly $163,000 in total salary in 2017-18, with a very large increase over the past two years.

The June 26 feature on the MEA website mentioned an Ann Arbor Public Schools teacher, Jennifer Garcia. Her husband, Frank Garcia, teaches in the Ann Arbor district as well.

“Ann Arbor health and physical education teacher Jennifer Garcia told several Senate staff members that being married to an educator means her household has experienced every salary cut and increase to health premiums over the past several years times two,” the MEA wrote.

“This state still has not recovered from the $1.4 billion in cuts to education from 2010,” Garcia said, according to the MEA article. “It’s beyond urgent. We passed urgent a while ago.”

Garcia’s claim that state funding for education has been cut since 2010 is not accurate. State funding has increased, according to figures from the Senate Fiscal Agency. Also, the total salary for both these Ann Arbor teachers rose significantly in the two years from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

Frank Garcia’s total pay increased from $64,430 in 2015-16 to $82,357 in 2017-18. His total compensation included extra pay for coaching a district sports team.

Jennifer Garcia’s total compensation increased from $71,223 in 2015-16 to $80,536 in 2017-18. This amount included extra money she received for accepting extra duties.

Both teachers’ salary information come from the state’s Office of Retirement Services, which tracks total salaries for pension purposes. Michigan Capitol Confidential files an annual Freedom of Information Act request with this office for data on public school salaries.

Two students who attended a Detroit charter school made the news when they criticized Universal Academy during their graduation speeches, saying they received an inferior education.

The Detroit Free Press reported that students Tuhfa Kasem and Zainab Altalaqani used their speeches to criticize the charter school for its use of substitute teachers, and for firing some popular teachers.

Universal Academy is, however, one of the rare Detroit schools where students who face the greatest social and economic challenges are making progress academically, at least compared to other schools with a similar population. It was ranked the 14th-best school in a Mackinac Center for Public Policy report card that compares academic growth at schools after adjusting for the socioeconomic background of their student bodies. Universal Academy received an “A” on the report card, which looked at test results from 674 Michigan public high schools.

The charter school had 728 students in 2018-19, of which 98.35% were considered “economically disadvantaged,” based on their eligibility for federal meal subsidies.

In the rankings from the Michigan Department of Education, Universal Academy ranks as the 2,715th-best school out of 3,405.

The state’s rankings don't give as much consideration to the very different backgrounds of student populations at different schools. By factoring in socioeconomic status, the Mackinac Center’s report card gives an apples-to-apples comparison between schools. Without this adjustment, standardized tests generally find that affluent students do well and poorer students struggle.

The Detroit school district’s academic struggles have been well documented. The district has 22 high schools, 18 of which earned an “F” on the Mackinac Center report card. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, dubbed “The Nation’s Report Card,” releases biennial evaluations of the academic progress of students in America’s largest urban school districts, based on fourth- and eighth-grade student test results on math, reading, science and writing. The Detroit school district finished last in every one of those categories in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.