Talent & Education

COVID continues to disrupt the number of high school graduates enrolling in college, which has consequences for the state’s economy. School counselors are seeing the pandemic’s toll as the governor seeks to boost student success.

Under the governor’s budget proposal being announced Wednesday, Michigan students would reap huge benefits from billions of dollars in state surplus and federal COVID relief funds.

Big storms used to mean snowball fights, not school. But remote technology has made it easier for schools to keep teaching in the pandemic. Educators say there are still kinks to figure out before snow days vanish.

The proposal is similar to bills introduced in at least a dozen other states, and comes in the wake of concern by some parents and conservative politicians that schools are teaching divisive lessons on race and other issues.

Some districts used up all their allowed closure days for COVID, staff shortages and school shooting threats. Students will still get snow days, but they may have to attend classes longer in June.

A law already allows bus drivers to serve as substitute teachers. Now, lawmakers are considering allowing uncertified education majors to teach for a full year. ‘We need to do something,’ sponsor says.

Administrators around the state have been asking the Legislature for more flexibility but so far their efforts have gained less traction than a school bus on an icy hill.

For years, community colleges have sought legislative approval for four-year nursing programs to help staff hospitals short on workers. But the state’s four-year universities fiercely oppose the move, leading to the latest turf battle in Lansing.

The state’s school outbreak report data is even less reliable than in the past, as omicron overwhelms the reporting system and schools end contact tracing.

One health official called it a “COVID test supply crisis,” with the state “triaging” test kits and some schools saying they may run out of needed tests next week if new supplies don’t arrive soon.

The more school officials tested, the more COVID cases they found among mostly asymptomatic students at Norwood Elementary in the western Upper Peninsula, underscoring the challenges schools face keeping kids in class amid omicron.

Emails from the fired U-M president appear to show an improper relationship. They also document his love of Etsy, Hulu, ice cream and apparent aversion to big tips.

Emails released Saturday showed the U-M president engaged in what regents said was an improper and unreported relationship with an underling, a violation of university policy.

Remember the monotony of 9-to-5 worklife? Doesn’t seem so bad compared to the daily disruption of omicron, with changing school schedules, child quarantines and cross-city trips for test kits.

Keeping students in classrooms amid a volatile pandemic remains an all-consuming topic for school leaders. Children are suffering from years of disruption as districts weigh how to spend billions in additional federal dollars.

Parents in the Detroit Public Schools Community District have until Jan. 31 to turn in COVID testing consent forms if they want their children to learn in person.

A new analysis confirmed what had been feared: Online learning wasn’t as effective as in-person during the COVID-interrupted 2020-21 school year, and academic gaps between racial groups grew.

Scholarships for aspiring teachers and loan forgiveness for current educators won’t stop Michigan schools from closing now, but it could lessen the state’s teacher shortage long-term, says the state’s top school official

Michigan campuses had massive COVID outbreaks in the first year of the pandemic, which have been largely sidestepped this year. Officials are trying to be proactive amid the latest surge, with some going remote in January.

School mask mandates are declining across Michigan even as COVID cases rise to crazy levels. And with a surge in teachers and other staffers out sick, the state is taking a harder line on quarantines.