MASA News

MASA Executive Director appears on Off the Record

MASA Executive Director William Mayes appeared today as a guest on Off the Record. Mayes joined host Tim Skubick and a panel of journalists including Kyle Melinn, Rick Pluta and Chris Christoff to discuss the funding crisis facing schools today and call on state leaders to rise above political posturing and take real steps to find solutions.

“Michigan has to decide what’s important,” Mayes told Rick Pluta in the interview. “And if education is important—and every politician has run on this platform—then we bring in experts to tell us how we finance that. ... I’ve never been an economist. I’ve never even played one on TV. I’m an educator. I’ll tell you this: Michigan is in dire straits, and our education system—which everyone says is so important—is dying on the vine.”

Mayes stated clearly in the interview that there is more than enough blame to go around when it comes to Michigan’s economic stalemate.

“[Legislators] have all said they’re waiting for this, they’re waiting for that, they’re waiting for this person to sneeze. The bottom line is that our children are hurting right now. …The politics being played in Lansing is despicable at this time.”

View the interview online at www.wkar.org/offtherecord/