State of Opportunity from Michigan Radio

[Note: Brianna Darin is a high school student in Kelloggsville Schools. We met her in a poetry class run by The Diatribe, a poetry group we profiled last year. We asked Brianna to share her story with us. Dustin Dwyer recorded and produced the piece. A transcript is below.]Growing up, if you see me walking on the streets, you’d think, ‘Oh, she comes from a caring and loving family.’ Which is true. We were always protected. But then you’d start to wonder, ‘Oh, where’s her dad? Maybe he just left

[Note: Brianna Darin is a high school student in Kelloggsville Schools. We met her in a poetry class run by The Diatribe, a poetry group we profiled...

Nearly every day, a silver Subaru makes its way through the tiny towns and white pine woods of Wexford County, in northern Michigan. Behind the wheel is Jeannie Schnitker, a nurse with the state’s Maternal and Infant Health Program. Last week, I tagged along for a ride.

Nearly every day, a silver Subaru makes its way through the tiny towns and white pine woods of Wexford County, in northern Michigan. Behind the wheel is...

It was February 2006, almost exactly 10 years ago, when then-governor Jennifer Granholm used her weekly radio address to urge state lawmakers to pass a new set of rigorous high school curriculum requirements. "We have to increase the skill level of our students," Granholm said. "We have to increase our efforts to give our children, who are our future workforce, the math and science education they need to succeed in the 21st century." The Legislature acted, and the next school year, the Michigan

It was February 2006, almost exactly 10 years ago, when then-governor Jennifer Granholm used her weekly radio address to urge state lawmakers to pass a...

Vanessa Gutierrez doesn't remember Mexico. It's there in her baby pictures, in family albums. She's seen what it looks like, and she knows she was born there, but she doesn't remember it. Her parents brought her to the U.S. when she was three. They worked hard, she says, they paid their taxes and went to church and gave her a great childhood. Then Gutierrez got to high school, and started thinking about her future. Gutierrez says it was right around the time her friends started signing up for

Vanessa Gutierrez doesn't remember Mexico. It's there in her baby pictures, in family albums. She's seen what it looks like, and she knows she was born...

Colin Parks gets an email alert almost every time a baby in Michigan dies in their sleep.Parks is head of Michigan’s Child Protective Services, and he tells me he gets far too many of these emails; they arrive almost every other day. “In Michigan,” he says, “we lose about 140 to 150 infants a year, and that’s a number that’s been pretty static over time.” It’s been static, even though Parks, and everyone else who works on infant safety has been desperately trying to get the message out. The

Colin Parks gets an email alert almost every time a baby in Michigan dies in their sleep.Parks is head of Michigan’s Child Protective Services, and he t...

Michelle Gach grabs a couple slices of pizza before we get started. She has a story to tell, and it turns out to be a long one, covering the past 14 years of her life, with more tragic turns than most people see in an entire lifetime. But that comes later. For now, we’re sitting in a room together: Michelle, two of her daughters, and two friendly pit bulls. The room is mostly bare, exposed plywood on the floor, blue strips of painter’s tape along the baseboard, new doors still leaning against

Michelle Gach grabs a couple slices of pizza before we get started. She has a story to tell, and it turns out to be a long one, covering the past 14 yea...

826michigan - a free tutoring and creative writing center for kids - is setting up a new shop. The group has already helped thousands of school-aged children in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti write poetry or just get their algebra homework done, and now it hopes to do the same in Detroit. "My invention is called the Crazy Boom," Mohamed Conde reads from his short story at 826michigan's writing center in Ann Arbor. "I can go back to prehistoric times. Like if I wanted to see George Washington or a

826michigan - a free tutoring and creative writing center for kids - is setting up a new shop. The group has already helped thousands of school-aged chi...

This story is part of the NPR reporting project “School Money,” a nationwide collaboration between NPR’s Ed Team and 20 member station reporters exploring how states pay for their public schools and why many are failing to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but it’s worth repeating: we have no idea – as a state – how much it costs to adequately educate a child in Michigan. Most states have done so-called “adequacy studies,” but Michigan hasn’t.