Social media companies are distracting people, sowing division, and preventing kids from experiencing normal childhoods.
Those are the big takeaways of the book, “The Anxious Generation”, by Jonathan Haidt. That book is a big reason countries, states and classrooms have been restricting social media and phone use.
Michigan schools have already taken action. Gibraltar, Dearborn, and Novi school districts have restricted phone use.
In Novi, the school superintendent gave copies of Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation” to anyone who wanted it.
About one year later, how has the book influenced Novi students, teachers and parents?
The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Novi Community School District Superintendent Ben Mainka to find out.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Detroit mayor-elect Mary Sheffield has chosen her deputy mayor.
Brian White has been her chief of staff during her time as city council president. White says he’ll help Sheffield deliver on her promises to spread Detroit’s growth into the neighborhoods.
Sheffield has also announced she will keep Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison in his position. In a press statemen the Sheffield transition team credited Bettison with a record drop in violent crime across the city. Sheffield said the chief has the “respect of his peers…the loyalty of the rank and file… and the hearts and trust of the people.”
Additional headlines from Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Federal childcare assistance
New federal bills would replicate a Michigan program to help with childcare in every state.
The “tri-share” childcare program splits the cost of childcare between income-eligible families, employers and the state. Republican Representatives Hillary Scholten and John James co-sponsored the bill.
If passed, the legislation would give states enough funding to run the programs for three years.
Whitmer aims to improve reading scores
Governor Gretchen Whitmer says improving Michigan’s student reading skills will be her number one priority next year.
She told the Michigan Literacy Summit in Detroit that last year’s reading test scores show the need for urgent action. “Today, we’re 44th in the country in fourth grade reading. Just four in 10 third graders in Michigan read at grade level, and almost one in three Michigan students tests below average, and that’s what would call a crisis and the vast majority of the people of our state would agree.”
Whitmer says school districts need to focus on a small number of proven strategies to build reading skills, such as phonics.
She says she will share more details about her plans during her final State of the State address early next year. Kids Count ranked Michigan among the ten worst states in 4th and 8th grade reading scores.
Detroit attorney joins the race for District 13 Representative
Detroit attorney Maurice Morton has announced he is running for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District seat. Morton will challenge Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar as an independent.
Financial aid information
The state’s last virtual FAFSA webinar of 2025 is this week.
The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education Advancement and Potential’s Student Aid and Access Outreach team offers online information sessions for students and families preparing to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form.
The FAFSA is used by colleges and funding organizations to determine financial aid for students. The MiLEAP webinars also offer information on federal financial aid programs, state financial aid programs and resources for finding scholarships. The last FAFSA webinar of the year is Thursday, Dec.18 at 6:30 p.m.
To register or to find a recording of a previous webinar, go here.
Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
What should teachers focus on when exploring sexual health with students? How should they broach sensitive subjects? What does it mean to have healthy relationships with others, and to monitor our own emotional wellbeing?
These are some of the questions that the Michigan State Board of Education tackled last month. That’s because the board changed its standards guidelines for the first time since 2007. Those changes include explaining and exploring things like gender identity, gender expression, healthy romantic relationships, and understanding one’s own emotions in the classroom.
Co-Vice President for the State Board of Education Tiffany Tilley joined The Metro to discuss what the changes might mean for schools and students across the state.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
For years, Detroit students have borne the weight of decisions made far from their classrooms.
They’ve studied in buildings neglected through decades of disinvestment, crossed dangerous neighborhoods reshaped by school closures, and grown up in a district that spent years under state control. This trauma came from policy decisions that left Detroit students with less than their peers across Michigan.
Now, a new ballot initiative, Invest in MI Kids, argues it can help repair that history. The campaign proposes a 5% surtax on only the very highest incomes, with the money flowing into Michigan’s public schools.
That surtax would apply to income above $500,000 for single filers and above $1 million for joint filers. All revenue would be deposited into the Michigan School Aid Fund, where it would be legally restricted to classroom and student supports. The money could go toward things like smaller class sizes, educator pay, mental health staff, and career and technical education.
Funds would then be distributed through the state’s existing school-funding formula, meaning every public district would receive additional dollars. Higher-need districts, such as Detroit, would see greater impact if the state administers funds equitably.
Imani Foster with 482 Forward is organizing families and young people around this campaign. She joined Robyn Vincent to discuss what Detroit kids and students across Michigan stand to gain.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is bringing back dozens of Education Department staffers who were slated to be laid off, saying their help is needed to tackle a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints from students and families.
The staffers had been on administrative leave while the department faced lawsuits challenging layoffs in the agency’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates possible discrimination in the nation’s schools and colleges. But in a Friday letter, department officials ordered the workers back to duty starting Dec. 15 to help clear civil rights cases.
A department spokesperson confirmed the move, saying the government still hoped to lay off the staffers to shrink the size of the department.
“The Department will continue to appeal the persistent and unceasing litigation disputes concerning the Reductions in Force, but in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers,” Julie Hartman said in a statement.
In the letter to employees, obtained by The Associated Press, officials said the department needs “all OCR staff to prioritize OCR’s existing complaint caseload.” The office handles everything from complaints about possible violations of disability rights to racial discrimination.
More than 200 workers from the Office for Civil Rights were targeted in mass layoffs at the department, but the firings have been tied up in legal battles since March. An appeals court cleared the way for the cuts in September, but they’re again on hold because of a separate lawsuit. In all, the Education Department workforce has shrunk from 4,100 when President Donald Trump took office to roughly half that size now, as the president vows to wind down the agency.
The department did not say how many workers are returning to duty. Some who have been on administrative leave for months have since left.
The Office for Civil Rights had a backlog of about 20,000 discrimination cases when Trump took office in January. Since then, with a significantly reduced workforce, the backlog has grown to more than 25,000, AP reporting has shown using department data.
Trump officials have defended the layoffs even as complaints pile up, saying the office wasn’t operating efficiently, even at full staff.
The Office for Civil Rights enforces many of the nation’s laws about civil rights in education, including those barring discrimination based on disability, sex, race and religion. It investigates complaints from students across the country and has the power to cut funding to schools and colleges that violate the law, though most cases are resolved in voluntary agreements.
Some former staffers have said there’s no way the office can address the current backlog under the staffing levels left after the layoffs. Families who have filed discrimination complaints against their schools say they have noticed the department’s staffing shortages, with some waiting months and hearing nothing.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE – The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
When six Southern public university systems this summer formed a new accreditation agency, the move shook the national evaluation model that higher education has relied on for decades.
The news wasn’t unexpected: It arrived a few months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April overhauling the nation’s accreditation system by, among other things, barring accreditors from using college diversity mandates. It also came after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in May made it easier for universities to switch accreditors.
The accreditation process, often bureaucratic, cumbersome and time consuming, is critical to the survival of institutions of higher education. Colleges and their individual departments must undergo outside reviews — usually every few years — to prove that they meet certain educational and financial standards. If a school is not accredited, its students cannot receive federal aid such as Pell grants and student loans.
Some accreditation agencies acknowledge the process needs to evolve. But critics say the Trump administration is reshaping accreditation for political reasons, and risks undermining the legitimacy of the degrees colleges and universities award to students.
Trump said during his campaign that he would wield college accreditation as a “secret weapon” to root out DEI and other “woke” ideas from higher education. He has made good on that pledge.
Over the summer, for example, the administration sent letters to the accreditors of both Columbia and Harvard universities, alleging that the schools had violated federal civil rights law, and thus their accreditation rules, by failing to prevent the harassment of Jewish students after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
The administration’s antipathy toward DEI has prompted some accreditors to remove diversity requirements. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, for instance, removed diversity and inclusion language from its guiding principles earlier this year. Under White House pressure, the American Bar Association this year suspended enforcement of its DEI standards for its accreditation of law schools and has extended that suspension into next year.
But state legislatures laid the groundwork for public university accreditation changes even before Trump returned to the White House.
In 2022, Florida enacted a law requiring the state’s public institutions to switch accreditors every cycle — usually every few years — forcing them to move away from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, known as SACSCOC.
North Carolina followed suit in 2023, with a law prohibiting the 16 universities within the University of North Carolina system and the state’s community colleges from receiving accreditation from the same agency for consecutive cycles.
Then, the consortium of six Southern university systems this summer launched its new accreditation agency, called the Commission for Public Higher Education. The participating states include Florida and North Carolina, along with Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news release that the commission will “break the ideological stronghold” that other accreditation agencies have on higher education. Speaking at Florida Atlantic University, he said the new organization will “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels.”
“We care about student achievement; we care about measurable outcomes; we care about efficiency; we care about pursuing truth; we care about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic,” DeSantis said.
Jan Friis, senior vice president for government affairs at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which represents accrediting agencies, said the century-old system is in the midst of its most significant changes since the federal government tied accreditation to student aid after World War II.
“If the student picks a school that’s not accredited by a recognized accreditor, they can’t spend any federal aid there,” Friis said. “Accreditation has become the ‘good housekeeping seal of approval.’”
What’s next for the new accreditor
Dan Harrison, who is leading the startup phase of the Commission for Public Higher Education, described accreditation as “the plumbing of the whole higher ed infrastructure.”
“It’s not dramatic. It’s not meant to be partisan. But it’s critical to how schools function,” said Harrison, who is the University of North Carolina System’s vice president for academic affairs.
Though the founding schools of the new commission are all in the South, Harrison said, he expects accreditation to shift away from the long-standing geography-based model. In the past, universities in the South were accredited by SACSCOC simply because of location. In the future, he said, public universities across the country might instead be grouped together because they share similar governance structures, funding constraints and oversight.
“In 2025, if you were designing accreditation from scratch, you wouldn’t build it around geography,” Harrison said. “Public universities have more in common with each other across states than they do with private or for-profit institutions in their own backyard.”
The Commission for Public Higher Education opened with an initial cohort capped at 10 institutions within the first six states. Harrison said that based on the interest, the group could have accepted 15 to 20.
“I thought we’d be at six or seven. We reached 10 quickly and across a wider range of institutions than expected,” he said. “We already have an applicant outside the founding systems. That’s well ahead of where I thought we would be.”
That early interest, he said, reflects frustration among public institutions around finances. In particular, public universities are mandated to undergo audits from the state, but also feel burdened by audits required by accreditors.
“Public universities already undergo multiple audits and state budget oversight,” he said. “Then accreditation requires them to do the same work again. It feels like reinventing the wheel and it pulls faculty and staff away from teaching and research.”
Harrison estimates it will take five to seven years for the new accreditor to be fully up and running, and that institutions will need to maintain dual accreditation to avoid risking Pell Grants and federal loans.
The commission is busy assembling peer review teams made up primarily of current and former public university leaders such as governing board members, system chancellors, provosts, chief financial officers, deans and faculty. In contrast to regional accreditors, which typically draw reviewers from both public and private institutions, the new commission is prioritizing reviewers from public universities.
“Ultimately, we want to be a true nationwide accreditor,” Harrison said. “Not a regional one. Not a partisan one. Just one that is organized around sector and peer expertise.”
While the creation of a public university accreditor is new, the concept of sector-specific accreditation exists in other parts of higher education, including for two-year colleges.
Mac Powell, president of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, said that tailoring accreditation to a sector can make the peer-review model more meaningful, because reviewers can identify with similar challenges. He said reviewers have been moving away from measuring resources and bureaucratic compliance toward assessing what students actually get out of their education.
“The big shift was moving from counting inputs to asking, ‘Did students actually learn what we said they would learn?’” said Powell, whose organization accredits 138 colleges across Arizona, California, New York and the Pacific.
The most important metric all accreditation models should value is how they transition their students into the workforce, he said.
“Every accreditor today is paying much more attention to retention, persistence, transfer, career outcomes and return on investment,” Powell said. “It’s becoming less about how many books are in the library and more about whether students can find a pathway to the middle class.”
The institution evolves
Stephen Pruitt is in his first year as the president of SACSCOC, the accreditation organization that the half-dozen Southern state university systems just left. Pruitt, a Georgia native, jokes that his “Southern accent and front-porch style” has helped him break down the importance of accreditation to just about anyone.
In simple terms, he said, accreditation is the system that makes college degrees real. But he feels he has to clarify a misconception about the role of accreditation agencies like SACSCOC.
“There’s this myth that I’m sitting in Atlanta deciding if institutions are good or not,” he said. “That’s not how American accreditation works. Your peers evaluate you. People who do the same work you do.”
At the same time, Pruitt isn’t dismissing the concerns that prompted states such as Florida and North Carolina to explore alternatives to SACSCOC. According to Pruitt, institutions have long raised concerns about slow turnaround times, redundant paperwork and standards that have not always adapted quickly to the evolving landscape in higher education.
“Some of the frustration is real. Institutions want less redundancy and more responsiveness. Competition isn’t something we’re afraid of,” he said. “We’re doing a full audit of our processes. We have to be more contemporary. Faster approvals, more flexibility, more transparency. Accreditation shouldn’t just be the stick. It should be the carrot too.”
Soon to be graduates pose for a photo at the University of North Carolina on May 1, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images North America/TNS)
Police are investigating a potential threat against Groves High School, officials said Friday.
The Beverly Hills campus is part of the Birmingham Public Schools district.
School staff alerted the police department’s school resource officer at 9:30 p.m. Thursday about a “concerning” image posted on social media, according to authorities. The image displayed several hunting rifles lying side by side. It had no captions and was posted on a group thread related to the school district, police said.
Officers visited the student’s home to conduct a welfare check. Investigators said the student and his parents were cooperative.
“It was determined last night that there was no immediate threat to the community and there were no guns located at the individual’s residence,” Edward Arnold, the village’s Director for Public Safety, said Friday.
He said there are no firearms registered to the parents, and the photo had been taken several months ago when the student was in the Upper Peninsula.
On Thursday, district officials told parents in a letter that the police department received a tip from the state’s OK2SAY system for reporting school threats anonymously.
The report involved a social media post made by a Groves student that included an image depicting several rifles, the letter said. “Importantly, there was no direct threat made toward any individual or toward the school.”
School officials said although police deemed there was no immediate threat to the school’s students and staff, they will “continue to exercise due diligence and work closely with law enforcement to thoroughly review all aspects of the situation.”
The district also said the student suspected of posting the image of the weapons will not return to the school while the investigation is conducted.
“Additionally, families can expect an increased police presence at Groves and our feeder schools throughout the day (Friday) to provide added reassurance for students and staff,” officials said.
Groves High School has about 1,100 students.
In August, Michigan State Police said the OK2SAY system received 11,671 tips in 2024, a 20% increase from the previous year and the highest reporting level of the program since its inception in 2014.
More than 600 of those tips related to threats, 252 were about guns,125 were about bombs, and 73 involved weapons possession, according to the program’s annual report. That compares to 741 tips about threats, 185 about guns, 64 about bombs, and 73 about weapons possession in 2023.
The growing awareness of the value among parents wanting to develop and inspire their child’s interests is not only driving more companies to develop educational products but pushing sales.
According to a report by Global Market Insights the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) toy market is projected to reach $13 billion by 2032. Among the toymakers meeting the demand is Assaf Eshet, CEO and founder of Clixo , a flexible, origami-inspired magnetic system that was recently named one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025. As an industrial designer who has worked for some of the top names in the toy industry, Eshet said his mission has always been to create toys that inspire exploration rather than dictate outcomes.
Brooklyn Knott, 9, left, and Ava Salcio, 9, fourth-graders at Clintondale Community Schools’ McGlinnen Elementary School and members of its student council try out Clixo, one of several STEAM toys not only earning awards but the attention of kids who love to build things. (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Hichel/Clintondale Community Schools)
“Kids should have a real appetite for curiosity,” said Eshet. “Our job as parents, teachers and toymakers is to strike that nerve of wonder and keep it alive.”
That’s what Playmobil did for him as a child.
“I used to assemble them and then reassemble them to make them my own,” Eshet said during a phone interview from New York City.
Now children are taking his kits, assembling them as they are and then reimagining them to be something else.
“Things that we can’t even imagine they are already creating,” said Eshet, who launched the brand in 2020 with a few kits and has expanded it to include 20 kits ranging from $15 to $200. New this year for aspiring paleontologists is Dinosaur Adventure (6-up, $49.99).
“It’s an amazing set,” Eshet said, of the newest addition to the Clixo family featuring 36 pieces that can be used to make a variety of dinosaurs or whatever creature comes to mind.
“You can mix and match them, too,” said Eshet, whose Clixo brand is also in the running for the Toy Foundation’s Best Creativity Toy of the Year.
The company also earned the Best Creative Fun Award by Tillywig and was named to Toy Insider’s Top Holiday Toys list in 2023.
Clixo is a new favorite but the launch of STEM toys happened around the same time as the space race and the inauguration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958.
“The scientific achievements of the next three decades from the moon landing, artificial heart, personal computing and cell phones all yielded a call for enhanced science education,” according to a report from Forbes. “The call was answered by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which established guidelines for the teaching of science, math, engineering and technology in grades K-12, introducing the acronym SMET. However, educators and policymakers found the term awkward and unappealing, evensuggesting it sounded like ‘smut’. So in 2001, the NSF officially rebranded the initiative STEM and more recently STEAM, as ‘Art’ was added.”
“A lot of parents are buying STEAM toys that have educational value and those toys become treasures,” said Julie Everitt, co-owner of Whistle Stop Hobby and Toy in St. Clair Shores, which has been in the business of selling toys for more than 50 years. Everitt said there are a number of cool new STEAM toys out this year including Rail Cube by Sanko Toys (3-up, $99.99-$199.99).
“The set comes with magnetic tubes that you connect to create a little monorail for a little engine,” Everitt said. “It’s a super cute set and it really goes.”
Another favorite at Whistle Stop is Hape’s Lock and Learn Playboard (3-6, $34.99), a wooden busy board featuring little exercises that teach kids meaningful tasks like how to unlock a latch or turn on a light. Among the STEAM toys growing in popularity among older kids is Rolife’s miniature kits ($49.99). Tweens and teens, even adults can build everything from little houses and book nooks to tiny greenhouses.
“Most of them are for ages 14 and up but we do carry some for 8-plus,” Everitt said, sharing but a few of the STEAM toys making this year’s hot list.
More toys
Looking for a few more toys. Check out our kids’ review of this year’s lineup of STEAM toys along with many others that are expected to make Santa’s Wish List inside the Homefront section and on our website.
Meet toymaker Assaf Eshet, an industrial designer who came up with the idea for Clixo, a STEAM toy that’s been making everyones hot list of toys this holiday season including Time’s 2025 Best Inventions. (Photo courtesy of Clixo)
Amid increased immigration enforcement across the country, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald urged students, teachers and families not to interfere with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — but to also know their rights if agents show up at a school or detain parents.
McDonald said in a Friday news release that interfering with ICE or other law enforcement “increases the risk for everyone.” The county prosecutor said ICE agents may enter public areas in schools without restriction, but must present either a judicial warrant or permission from the school to enter private areas like classrooms or offices.
McDonald’s statement follows news on Wednesday that ICE agents pursued purported gang members who had fled on foot near a Clarkston Community elementary school, Oakland County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Steve Huber said Friday. The district issued a shelter-in-place order, sheriff’s deputies provided additional security to the school and assisted the search, Huber said.
The search and shelter-in-place order lasted for about an hour, according to district officials.
In preparation for a possible ICE presence, McDonald said schools should require visitors to sign in, make sure security cameras work, follow student privacy protections and have a communication plan. She also said faculty and staff should treat ICE agents like they would any visitor who’s not a parent or guardian and educate the staff on how to identify a judicial warrant.
The prosecutor also said parents and caregivers should remember their right not to answer any questions about immigration or birthplace, make sure the school has correct emergency contact information, ask their schools if they have an ICE preparedness plan and make a family plan if a parent is detained while their children are at school.
“As ICE raids have happened across our country, many community members, including our students, parents, and teachers, have experienced understandable anxiety and fear. Schools should be places where kids feel safe, and worrying that a teacher, child, or classmate could be detained can impact a student’s health and well-being. Working together, there are steps schools and families can take to keep kids safe, informed, and protected,” McDonald said in a statement.
School superintendents across Michigan vowed in January that they would keep their students and school buildings safe and instructed staff on proper procedures as the Trump administration increased its immigration enforcement efforts nationwide.
ICE officials said in September their agents do not “raid” schools, but could enter a school if an undocumented immigrant with a felony record were to flee into a school.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald urged students, teachers and families not to interfere with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — but to also know their rights if agents show up at a school or detain parents. (Katy Kildee, The Detroit News)
On Nov. 10 Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz formally adopted the Okanagan Charter.
The charter provides institutions with a common language, principles and framework to become a health and wellbeing promoting campus and outlines two calls to action: to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across the administration, operations and academic mandates, and to lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally.
“We know that a mentally and physically healthy community leads to a thriving campus. Adopting the Okanagan Charter means we’re joining a global movement of health-promoting universities and reaffirming our commitment to embed health into every part of campus life,” said Becky Lewis, director of University Recreation and Well-Being and chair of OU’s Healthy Campus Network. “As part of the adoption, and as we move forward, we will foster an environment where everyone can live well in all areas of wellness – physical, mental, social, environmental and financial.”
Oakland is one of the first 50 universities in the country to adopt the charter.
“We’re so proud to lead by example and adopt the Okanagan Charter,” said Pescovitz. “By doing so, we are reaffirming our commitment to care for one another, nurture a campus where all can flourish and build a future rooted in health.”
President Pescovitz signs the Okanagan Charter, reaffirming OU's commitment to promoting health and wellbeing across campus and in surrounding communities.
Photo courtesy OU
The Roeper School has announced a new transportation service beginning in the 2026–2027 school year.
O’Neal Turner, Roeper’s director of enrollment and financial aid, said inaugural routes will serve families in and around the Livonia area and the southwestern suburbs.
“We’re proud to partner with Cranbrook Schools to make this service possible. By sharing a single route, both schools can reduce costs for families and minimize environmental impact,” Turner said in a statement. “This collaboration helps meet the needs of families who commute from communities as far as Ann Arbor while ensuring their children can continue to enjoy a Roeper education.”
The annual fee includes round-trip transportation and before-care/after-care services. For 2026–27, the cost will be $2,500 for the first child with a $500 discount for each additional sibling.
The proposed schedule includes a 6:45 am pick-up and 5:45 pm drop-off, though these times may be adjusted.
Registration for new and returning families will open in spring 2026. The exact pick-up locations and additional details will be shared before registration begins.
The Roeper School is a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 day school for gifted children located in Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham.
The Roeper School, founded in 1941 by George and Annemarie Roeper, is a prekindergarten
through grade 12 independent day school for gifted children located in Bloomfield Hills and
Birmingham,
Photo courtesy the Roeper School
Thousands of students from southeast Michigan experienced hands-on learning in a new way.
Over 9,000 high school students from 132 schools across six counties turned out for MiCareerQuest Southeast, the region’s largest career exploration, at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.
The event in its fifth year featured more than 210 career demonstrations in advanced manufacturing, construction, health sciences and technology. The interactive exhibits and hands-on demonstrations exposed students to industrial technology and may have helped some decide what their career choice will be.
“Some of these engineering tools really make me want to pursue something in that field when I go to college next year,” said Jared Jackson, a senior at Novi High School. “The tools they use to create cars and buildings and other things is amazing.”
“Hands-on events like MiCareerQuest open our students’ eyes to real-world career paths and inspire them to imagine their futures,” said Lisa Butts, director of K-12 Career Focused Education at Oxford Community Schools.
Nyla Rushin from Children’s Village tries on fire department gear from the Novi Fire Department. Several municipalities brought in personnel and equipment to show students what career opportunities they have.
Photo by Matt Fahr
Alyssa Valdwin, a sophomore at Brandon High School, was interested in a specific career, but got a chance to see what other careers were available.
“I really want to be a postpartum nurse so the healthcare area was what I really wanted to see, but I wanted to see what other things they had to offer,” Baldwin said after she helped take lugnuts off a tire at the Baker College Auto Diesel Institute display.
One display that drew a crowd was a virtual reality set up from Emerge.
The company, started in 2017 and based in Troy, offers “virtual extended reality experiences”, according to Joe Bamberger, co-founder of the company.
Carissa Hanna and Apple Gillum from Royal Oak High School walk among the planets at the Emerge display.
Photo by Matt Fahr
Students put on virtual reality headsets and to explore the galaxy, oceans, deserts and more. Emerge can bring those experiences into classrooms through virtual field trips.
“We can do anything related to any educational area and we can provide in-building field trips and educational lessons in an immersive way,” said Bamberger. “Students can dissect things, try anything that is too dangerous or impossible or expensive to create in a classroom setting we can do over and over again. If you can think of it, we can create it.”
The company has been to all 28 school districts in Oakland County and last year went to schools in 29 different counties in Michigan.
“The kid that usually has his head down and asleep in class is usually the kid that we can’t get out of the headset,” said Bamberger.
Carissa Hanna and Apple Gillum, juniors at Royal Oak High School, gave their evaluation of the technology after a few minutes of moving planets around.
“It was fun and it was weird and it was cool,” said Hanna. “We were walking among the planets!”
Ken Gutman, superintendent of Oakland Intermediate Schools, explained the value of the event.
Students from Oakland Community College work with Tom Coates from the Marine Trades Institute in Cedarville, Michigan on woodworking.
Photo by Matt Fahr
Media News Group
“With industry having the opportunity to share what they do, they can fill jobs they struggle to fill, but they can also show the value in what they do,” said Gutman. “There are over 200 careers here that they (students) may have never heard of. What a great opportunity for our kids.”
“I would recommend this to everyone because it is very helpful if you are still looking for your career and you get to do hands-on things and learn what you want to be in life,” said Erandy Ferreyra from Avondale High School.
A survey of students and administrators from last year’s event shows how effective the event can be:
89%t of students said they learned about career and training opportunities previously unfamiliar to them.
78% said the event helped them plan their post-high school education.
93% of educators said it effectively showcased potential career paths.
98%t agreed it represented a strong cross-section of in-demand careers
Students from around the county got a chance to try out construction, health and technology equipment through the 400,000 square feet of displays during CareerQuest.
Photo courtesy CareerQuest
An Oakland Community College faculty member continues to make an impression in the art world.
Tylonn Sawyer had two pieces in art exhibitions this fall, ART Basel Paris and Palais de Tokyo, as well as fashion magazine W.
Art Basel is a global series of art platforms connecting collectors, galleries and artists, while Palais de Tokyo (Tokyo Palace) hosts contemporary art exhibitions as part of Paris Art Week. This marks Sawyer’s second consecutive year exhibiting in Paris.
His pieces were selected to represent Detroit artists by Detroit-based cultural organization Salonnière.
Sawyers’ 30 x 22-inch oil on paper, “The King James Version,” featured at ART Basel Paris depicts a young Black man holding an American flag.
At the Palais de Tokyo, his 8 x 6-foot charcoal, pastel and glitter on paper, “Black Man on Horse Bayard,” shows a Black man in a white riding suit on a black horse.
“This is the second year Salonierre has sponsored my trip to Paris to display my work. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to participate in Paris Week alongside other Detroit-area artists and curators,” Sawyer said.
His art was also highlighted in “W” magazine’s feature, “How Two New Art Exhibitions Are Spotlighting Black Queer History.” The magazine showcased his 72 x 48-inch lavender pencil on paper piece, “Strata Drawing 4: Cake Walk.”
Sawyer has taught art at OCC since 2016, covering all levels of drawing and oil painting.
He has also created public murals and collaborative projects for organizations such as Quicken Loans Corporation, Market International Festival at Eastern Market, Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art and The Detroit Institute of Arts.
“I like to teach art students as if they have never seen a pencil,” Sawyer said. “Once a student has learned foundational skills, then we work on establishing ways to use those skills to manifest whatever they observe or imagine.”
Tylonn Sawyer with his 8 x 6-foot charcoal, pastel and glitter on paper, “Black Man on Horse Bayard,”
Photo courtesy OCC
For more than half a century, Helen “Mother” Moore has been a familiar sight at Detroit school board meetings, whether she is at the microphone, in the hallway rallying parents, or being removed by security after a showdown with the board.
Today, at 89, Mother Moore is still at it. She has helped lead court fights over the state’s management of Detroit’s schools, challenged emergency managers and charter expansion, and pushed for literacy to be recognized as a civil right.
She also helped launch Let’s Read, a volunteer-driven literacy program created with the Detroit school district. Along the way, Moore has mentored generations of parents to also fight against classrooms with broken heat, missing textbooks, and teacher shortages.
Because, as Mother Moore once put it at a school board meeting: “Education is how we get free.”
This weekend, the Dexter-Elmhurst Recreation Center reopens in her honor. The newly renovated Helen Moore Community Center sits in the west side neighborhood where she nurtured her organizing. It is a brick-and-mortar monument to a woman who has spent decades insisting that Black children should not have to leave their communities to find opportunity.
Moore joined Robyn Vincent to discuss the moments that shaped her and why she keeps fighting.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
In a city that gave the world Motown, techno, and countless other artistic movements, too many Detroit children still grow up without access to art or music education.
In the 12 years since the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy, a new generation of voters came of age.
A sizeable portion of Gen Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—are now old enough to cast their ballots in Tuesday’s election. That group in 2022 voted at a higher rate in their first midterms than Millennials, Gen X, and likely Boomers when they were the same age, making them a relatively more civically engaged cohort.
As we approach a different kind of off year election, when the keys to the future of Detroit are up for grabs, just how engaged is Gen Z in local politics?
Guests:
Imani Foster – Communication lead with 482forward, a coalition that supports education in Detroit.
Johnathan Shepard – Film marketing and journalism student at Wayne State University and the multimedia manager for the the school’s newspaper.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights and pro-Israel lobbying organization, quietly filed a sweeping Freedom of Information Act request with Wayne State University seeking emails from thousands of faculty, staff, and administrators that referenced Palestine, Zionism, or the student group Students for Justice in Palestine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 20 Democrat-led states are challenging a new Trump administration policy designed to block nonprofit and government workers from a student loan cancellation program if federal officials determine their employer has a “substantial illegal purpose.”
The policy is aimed primarily at organizations that work with immigrants and transgender youth.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in Massachusetts, the states argue the Trump administration overstepped its authority when it added new eligibility rules for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The overhaul will worsen job shortages and create instability in state workforces, the suit said.
The legal challenge is being led by New York, Massachusetts, California and Colorado. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the rule is “a political loyalty test disguised as a regulation,” adding that it’s “unjust and unlawful to cut off loan forgiveness for hardworking Americans based on ideology.”
A separate coalition of cities, nonprofits and labor organizations also filed a legal challenge in Massachusetts on Monday. That suit was brought by Boston; Chicago; Albuquerque, New Mexico; San Francisco; Santa Clara, California; and the National Council of Nonprofits.
Responding to the lawsuits, Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said it’s unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity.
“This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children,” Kent said in a statement. “The final rule is crystal clear: the Department will enforce it neutrally, without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology, or the population they serve.”
Another lawsuit challenging the rule is expected to be filed Tuesday on behalf of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights advocacy organization, the American Immigration Council and The Door, a legal group. They’re being represented by the groups Student Defense and Public Citizen.
Congress created the program in 2007 to steer more graduates into lower-paying public sector jobs. It promises to forgive their federal student loans after they make payments for 10 years while working in government jobs or for many nonprofits. More than 1 million Americans have had their loans canceled through the program, including teachers, firefighters, nurses and public defenders.
Under the new policy finalized last week, employers can be removed if they engage in activities including the trafficking or “chemical castration” of children, illegal immigration and supporting terrorist groups. “Chemical castration” is defined as using hormone therapy or drugs that delay puberty — gender-affirming care common for transgender children or teens.
The education secretary gets the final say in determining whether a group’s work has an illegal purpose, weighing whether the “preponderance of the evidence” leans against them.
In their lawsuit, the states argue that entire state governments, hospitals, schools and nonprofits could unilaterally be ruled ineligible by the secretary. They say Congress granted the benefit to all government workers, with no room for the Education Department to add limits.
The states also object to the department’s reliance on the phrase “substantial illegal purpose,” saying it’s an “overbroad and impermissibly vague term” that is aimed “at chilling activities that are disfavored by this Administration.”
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the policy unlawful and forbid the Education Department from enforcing it.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE – The U.S. Department of Education building is photographed in Washington, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The Red Hot Chili Peppers may be strongly associated with southern California, but drummer Chad Smith’s heart never left the Midwest.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who grew up in suburban Detroit, is gifting a need-based music scholarship to the University of Michigan.
“A lot of people (say), ‘The Chili Peppers, West Coast band, California this and California that.’ I get it. I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Smith told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday, just hours before he made the official announcement during a surprise appearance at the Ann Arbor school’s annual Band-O-Rama event. “The Minnesota connection is strong. The Michigan connection is strong.
“And that’s why we’re here. It’s a natural, authentic fit for us.”
Smith, 64, performed the RHCP hit “Can’t Stop,” alongside the Michigan Marching Band at Hill Auditorium.
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith holds a pair of drum sticks in Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
The Curtis & Joan Smith Scholarship, which is named in honor of Smith’s parents, will be awarded to an incoming University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance student, beginning in 2026.
The scholarship is a partnership between the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Chad Smith Foundation and comes on the heels of one with the same name launched two months ago at the University of Minnesota. Smith’s parents are Minnesota alums.
Michigan’s version of the Curtis & Joan Smith Scholarship will support incoming freshmen to the School of Music, Theatre & Dance undergraduate program who demonstrate financial need and a strong commitment to pursuing a music career. The scholarship reinforces CSF’s mission to expand access to high-quality music education and career pathways for aspiring musicians across the country.
Smith attended Lahser High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and began his career playing in clubs and bars across the Detroit area. He credits his parents with nurturing his love of music and supporting his dream to pursue it professionally.
“My mother is 98 years young. Still going. She’s here today — amazing,” Smith said. “So, to be able to honor her (and) my father unfortunately passed away, but they were so integral in helping me with my musical path.”
Smith has been with the Red Hot Chili Peppers since the late 1980s. During that time, the quartet, which also includes singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea, have been one of the biggest-selling music acts, mixing layers of funk, punk, rap and traditional pop over a foundation of rock.
The backward-baseball-cap-wearing Smith has held down the beat on such hits as “Give It Away,” “Under the Bridge” and “Dani California.” The Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
“I’m fortunate to be in a band people like and I play the drums and maybe some drummers or musicians will get inspired just from my story,” Smith said. “So, yeah, it’s just an opportunity to give back to what I’ve been so lucky to have and for next generations of musicians to be able to pursue what they love.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith performs with the Michigan Marching Band in Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
Login
