When Republicans lost control of the Michigan Legislature on Tuesday, they also lost the ability to enact voter ID and voucher-like scholarship petitions without a signature from the Democratic governor.
From the governor’s race to local school boards, the ‘parental rights’ movement has dominated debates on education policy this election year. But movement-backed candidates had limited success Tuesday in local school board elections.
Republicans framed the education debate in Michigan this year on culture war issues including transgender inclusion, diversity and critical race theory. But in statewide races, it was Democrats who emerged victorious.
We must ask the right questions to those running for offices this November, and those questions start with whether their priorities stand with our students or their own politics.
More than 10 percent of students opted out of at least one vaccine in five Michigan counties, leaving areas open to potentially deadly outbreaks. Said one ‘vaccine choice’ leader: Parents know what’s best for their children.
The latest national testing underscores the pandemic’s toll on math and reading scores. Michigan’s fourth-graders had the lowest reading scores in 30 years. Black and low-income students fell further behind white, more affluent students.
The Detroit school district’s poor performance on NAEP, better known as “the nation’s report card,” adds new urgency to its long-term reform efforts, which seek to bolster student achievement, test scores and attendance rates
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s first term was defined by COVID. A Bridge analysis finds the facts are clear: Her orders spared lives, but did so at a cost to the economy and K-12 learning.
As students and schools try to recover from the pandemic, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon have vastly different plans for how to improve Michigan schools and colleges.
MSU researchers found the negative effects of remote learning persisted even after students returned to classrooms last year, though these performance gaps shrunk once most classrooms reopened.
The Dearborn Public Schools board needed a larger auditorium to hold the hundreds of parents, residents and teachers who arrived Thursday to argue over whether six book titles should remain on school library shelves.
The Democratic governor cites unprecedented investments in public schools during her first term. But her aggressive COVID pandemic policies, including school closures, have fueled conservative attacks on her leadership.
The GOP nominee for governor leans strongly into culture-war issues that are now Republican mainstream, including restrictions on LGBTQ books and critical race theory. Parents, she said, are too often left out of school curriculum decisions.
At a time of statewide and national educator shortages, it is critical we find new ways to encourage our best educators to remain in the field and attract the brightest and best educators of tomorrow.
People with college degrees tend to make more money than those without them. Which is why the governor and legislature passed measures to cut tuition. Some schools are going further: eliminating book fees, financial red tape and other obstacles to graduation.