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As Michigan Radio’s series Three Things continues, Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley speaks with Freddie McGee. He’s the Principal of Fair Plain Renaissance Middle School in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Mr. McGee keeps his focus on education for his three ideas to help improve Michigan. First, he calls on parents to get more involved with their children’s academic performance and progress, especially in urban school districts. “If parents would pay much more attention to their students’ progress in terms of academics, that alone would help the state,” says McGee.

While many parents get involved in their children’s extracurricular activities, McGee doesn’t see that kind of parental involvement when it comes to academics. He says, “Our parents pay more attention things like sporting events or things like talent shows and things of that nature. If you have things like that, the parents come in enormous amounts. However, we have parent-teacher conferences. We only see those parents of the students who are doing well in their academics.”

Mr. McGee’s second idea focuses on the importance of children’s health and its impact on their education. Citing the epidemic of childhood obesity, McGee wants parents to pay more attention to their children’s eating habits. Speaking of his own school, McGee says, “We go personally into the homes and make sure that the parents know that the ways in which their students are eating affects them coming to school.”

Simply feeding a child breakfast before school can go a long way, says McGee, and in his school, every student is fed breakfast in class. “That’s two-fold,” he says, “What that does is that ensures that the students are in class on time and it’s making sure that every student eats.”

For his final idea, Mr. McGee wants to see more done to recognize and remove bad teachers from classrooms. “Focus on the teachers who probably shouldn’t be teachers,” says McGee, adding, “We need to find an alternative plan for those teachers.”

McGee says many teachers treat teaching like it’s just a job, and he’d like to see all teachers take an oath vowing to do everything in their power to help their students learn. Given Michigan’s tough economic situation, McGee thinks it’s more important than ever for the state to focus on improving education.

In addition to teachers and parents, Mr. McGee calls on young adults to pay more attention to what’s going on economically and politically in the state. He says, “If they do that, maybe in some way, shape, or form, in their community they can make a difference.”