Michigan State University Professor Emeritus David Arsen received the Champion for Children Award from the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators (MASA).
The distinguished honor recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to improving the quality of education within Michigan. It is not an annual award and is given at the MASA Board of Directors’ discretion. Upon Arsen’s nomination, he had unanimous approval.
Arsen is best known for his research on school funding and school choice, including bringing attention to challenges within Michigan’s schools—and identifying policy changes to address them.
An example is the 2019 report: “Michigan School Finance at the Crossroads: A Quarter Century of State Control.” He found funding for Michigan’s public schools had fallen more sharply than any other state over the past quarter century. The report, co-authored by then-doctoral students Tanner Delpier and Jesse Nagel, found total revenue for Michigan schools declined by 30% since 2002, when adjusted for inflation. Arsen and co-authors detailed solutions the state could take to fix the problem.
“We aimed to explain the ways schools were funded and how we could do a better job in Michigan,” said Arsen. “The state is implementing many of those changes now, though not just because of that report. My role was to provide evidence to explain the complicated issues as clearly as possible.”
Much of Arsen’s work has focused on urban schools. He has written about emergency management, Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority and litigation for the “Right to Read” cases in Detroit. He served on the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren and worked with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in successful litigation for funding related to special education needs arising from the Flint Water Crisis. He is an active member of 482 Forward and the Michigan Education Justice Coalition.
Arsen’s current work has focused on rural education within the state. In 2022, he was the lead author of “Educational Opportunities and Community Development in Rural Michigan: A Roadmap for State Policy.” The report found the state’s policy reforms over the last two decades have largely ignored rural schools and thereby failed to support needed community development.
“We need to find common ground between administrative groups and unions and across regions of the state: urban, suburban and rural,” Arsen said in his acceptance speech for the award during the MASA Mid-Winter Conference in January. “It is critically important.”
That common ground may found, in part, by Spartans.
Many of Arsen’s former students, now serving in educational leadership positions, were present when Arsen formally accepted the award.
The experience and insights of his students, Arsen said, have always provided a rudder for his work.
“I spent much of my career talking to people in the field and working to make needed changes in policy. But to do that, I had to establish connections and develop trust over prolonged periods of time,” Arsen continued. “The College of Education was the very best place for doing that work.”