Every 4 years, Michigan elects a new governor. The state’s newest governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was elected in November and, since taking office in January, has already signed twelve executive directives. Half of these new orders had the goal of making the state government as transparent as possible. But, beyond that, many of the new executive directives have the possibility of impacting students.
Executive Directive 2019-1 (signed January 2)
Whitmer signed directive 2019-1 as a result of the Flint water crisis to prevent another event public health emergency from happening. It forces the state government to release any information that poses a potential threat to public health. This shows up in more than just Flint as well (most recently, down the street from Northview with the PFAS crisis in Rockford and surrounding areas).
Executive Directive 2019-9 (signed January 18)
Directive 2019-9 widens the range of qualities that employers are no longer allowed to discriminate against. Anti-discrimination regulations were already in place for an employees race, religion, age, etc., but this new directive added the umbrella of “sex” to this list. Not only does it cover gender, but also gender identity and sexual orientation.
Executive Directive 2019-12 (signed February 4)
In response to President Trump dropping out of the Paris Climate Agreement (which aimed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions on the international scale) in 2017, many states joined together and created a similar program called the U.S. Climate Alliance. Many aspects of this alliance have been based off of the Paris Agreement but are managed on a gubernatorial level. This directive added Michigan to the list of 22 states and U.S. territories taking part in this group. Not only will it potentially affect the environment of our states through “reducing air pollution [and] improving public health,” it will also create many new job opportunities.
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