Mike Flanagan was appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the State Board of Education on May 18, 2005.   He leads the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and helps direct the State Board of Education in advising the Governor and the state Legislature regarding public education in Michigan.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Flanagan served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators (MASA), which serves Michigan public school superintendents; and the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA), which serves the 57 intermediate school districts in the state.   These two statewide organizations develop leadership and unity within its memberships to achieve the continuous improvement of public education in Michigan.   He has been honored as Executive Director Emeritus by those organizations.

For the previous seven years, Mr. Flanagan served as the Superintendent of the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA).   Wayne RESA serves nearly 500,000 children in the more than three dozen diverse communities of Wayne County.   Nearly 180,000 of the county’s children live in poverty, which poses a great challenge to the education system.   He pushed RESA to address this challenge, as demonstrated by the agency’s mission of “Leading . . . Learning for All,” with primary focus on the word “all.”

Mr. Flanagan was Superintendent of the Farmington/Farmington Hills School District in Michigan for five years, prior to Wayne RESA.   He is past chairman of the Education Alliance of Michigan, a nonprofit coalition of leading parent, business, and education associations; past president of the National County Superintendents Association; and past member of the Michigan Commission on Asia in the Schools.   In addition, he served on former Michigan Gov. John Engler’s Reading Plan for Michigan Council; and was appointed Education Commissioner on the Detroit 300 Commission by former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer.

Mr. Flanagan currently serves on the boards of the North Central State Committee; the Michigan Virtual University; and the North Central Regional Educational Laboratories (NCREL).

He has received numerous awards, including the PTA-PTO Lifetime Achievement Award, the Crystal Apple Award from Michigan State University; the Notre Dame Scholar Award; the Michigan School Business Officials Distinguished Service Award; the Michigan Association for Bilingual Education Award; the 1999 Educator of the Year Award from the Michigan Association of State and Federal Program Specialists; and the Michigan Special Olympics Outstanding School District Award.

Mr. Flanagan has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Eastern Michigan University, and has continued further graduate studies at Michigan State University.   He is married to Anna and has three children, Mike, Brian, and Christa.