Policymakers should consider additional investment and improvements in transitional kindergarten, given how successful these programs appear to be in Michigan.
Should $670 million in retiree health care savings go directly to schools, teachers or the state? A disagreement among Democrats has slowed a Michigan budget deal as lawmakers prepare for summer recess.
The spending proposals currently being considered provide mixed signals about the state’s priorities and backslide on the recent commitment to the educational needs of ‘at-risk’ students.
Michigan students who receive special education services could be in line for more COVID-19 make-up help after a federal investigation found the state failed to ensure they received an “appropriate” education.
Twenty-eight Michigan school districts received a combined $24 million in federal rebates to purchase electric buses. It’s the latest in a series of federal awards to eliminate aging diesel buses.
For Michigan to be successful in the coming decades, we must reinvent what happens in school for all students. We can't do any of this without addressing how our education system is governed.
Restoring pension and retiree health-care benefits will go a long way toward recruiting and retaining more teachers and the employees necessary to provide government services in Michigan.
The cuts follow pay raises and an enrollment drop, upsetting parents who wanted administrators to share the pain in order to save teachers, world language and music programs.
Immigrants are an important part of Michigan’s economy and business community. With the state losing talent and population, increasing funding for English learners is critical.
At the height of the water crisis, Flint children had lower lead levels than many others in Michigan. But low expectations, trauma and constant anxiety did more harm than lead. ‘Instead of scaring families, we should be reassuring them.’
Ten years after the beginning of the Flint water crisis, the city’s youth are scarred as much by low expectations as by the lead-tainted water. ‘People had already decided who we were. They had ideas about IQ and behavior.’
Ten years later, a growing body of research suggests fears of permanent brain damage are a ‘myth.’ That’s good news for children, but some say trauma from the crisis is now worse than lead.
