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Examining efforts to aid educators in metro Detroit

Posted at 6:24 PM, Jan 20, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-20 19:32:32-05

(WXYZ) — In tonight's 7 UpFront segment we're looking at an effort to support local educators as they pursue national certification.

Joining us to talk about it is Armen Hratchin, the Executive Director of Teach for America Detroit.

You can see the full interview in the video player above.

"Our mission is to recruit and develop the educators who serve in under-resourced communities and we've been at this for 30 years. We've recruited and developed over 65,000 educators across the country and today we're supporting 100 educators in Detroit," Hratchin says. "My wife's a teacher, my parents are teachers. Every day our team is working with the 100 courageous educators and, I think about this every day, 100,000 of the very best pull out of their driveways before the sun rises and they spend all day going 100%. They've been doing it since the start of this pandemic and for years before and they close their computer well after the sun goes down and they do it because they believe in the students who file into their buildings, they do it because they have an obligation to families and communities they serve, and they do it because they believe nothing is more important to the future of our state than what is happening in schools, but it's really difficult to be a teacher right now. It was hard before the pandemic, it's even more challenging over the past two years."