Michigan House Republicans announce education plan aimed at boosting student skills

Michigan State Rep. Jaime Greene (R-Richmond) speaks against clean energy expansion legislation on Thursday, November 2. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

Updated, 3:42 p.m., 9/9/24

Although Michigan is seeing record-high high school graduation rates , House Republicans say students are crossing the graduation stage unequipped for success after graduation and action is necessary.

Business owners all summer reviewed job applications from high school graduates around the state only to find that submissions were incoherent and students lacked the education necessary to be good candidates, state Rep. Jaime Greene (R-Richmond) said business owners told her.

$83B state budget heads to Whitmer’s desk after all-night session

“It breaks their hearts, because these are good kids that just don’t have the skill set,” Greene said Monday during a news conference in Lansing. “But yet they were given a state certified diploma, so clearly, our education system is failing, and the education policy we’ve seen in Lansing these last two years has really taken us in the wrong direction.”

Greene, who serves as minority vice chair of the House Education Committee, was joined Monday by Michigan House Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) and other House Republicans to discuss their plan for strengthening Michigan’s educational system. The group also slammed some of the education-related policies the Democratic-majority Legislature has passed in the last two years, particularly the state budget signed into law this summer for Fiscal Year 2025.

“We need a policy plan to fix education,” Hall said Monday, “something the Democrats haven’t done in these two years.”

But the proof of who’s invested in education is in the vote record, Amber McCann, spokeswoman for House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) told Michigan Advance . As the education budget was making its way through the Legislature this year, it passed largely along partisan lines , with Republicans vocally opposing it.

“House Republicans are not serious about funding schools.  When given the opportunity, House Republicans consistently voted against funding for schools, school safety and mental health support for students,” McCann said. “House Democrats are champions for school safety and mental health services.”

Michigan has endured historic low reading levels for young students, with less than half of third grade students in the last school year testing at “proficient” or “advanced” levels in English on the state’s standardized test , the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP). Third grade, under Michigan law , marks the age where student reading proficiency is closely evaluated, and last year’s M-STEP results reflect that about one-third of third grade students are not reading at grade-level .

Democrats have repealed a lot of policies in the last two years since securing the first majority in both the state House and Senate in about 40 years, Hall said, but Republicans are announcing now their plans to implement substantive policy to build into education.

The GOP plan includes expanding eligibility for dual enrollment to trade schools, altering M-STEP testing to be performed throughout the school year to give earlier notice to educators that students need extra help and calling on the state Department of Education to recommend common curricula that is vetted to be effective in improving student understanding across subjects.

In the 2022-23 school year, elementary teachers in Michigan used more than 400 different English language curriculum resources, according to research performed out of Michigan State University published in 2024.

And while teachers attempt to mold their curricula to the needs of the class, the volume of different resources can pose problems, the report says.

“… [T]he sheer number of different resources can lead to differences in the quality of literacy education students receive. While this variability allows for a certain level of customization in addressing local needs and preferences, it also raises questions about the equity of students’ access to high-quality literacy resources,” the report says.

While students grapple with learning loss from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been further disenfranchised under the newest state budget which offered no increase to annual per pupil funding and gutted funding for mental health resources, Rep. Nancy DeBoer (D-Holland) said.

The next school budget saw a $300 million cut in funding for school safety and mental health spending, going down to $26.5 million, in a move educational leaders say will hurt kids and cause mass layoffs for those who had been hired in recent years to support students.

Pandemic-era federal funding is tapering out and the state faces other financial needs, state Superintendent Michael Rice acknowledged after the state budget was finalized this summer, but the stark decrease in mental health funding is “disappointing.”

“While we appreciate the additional investments by the governor and legislature in categories that assist economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, English learners, and students in rural or isolated districts, I am concerned about a significant reduction in funding for student mental health and school safety,” Rice said. “This reduction will slow Michigan’s recent momentum in addressing student mental health challenges. A $300 million reduction in funding for children’s mental health services and school safety fails to recognize the physical and mental health needs of our students.”

DeBoer said Republicans are proposing to “fully restore” funding for school safety and mental health that was cut under Democrats’ “short-sighted plan.”

“Our local schools have been outraged by these cuts and we need to fix it as soon as possible before our children’s counselors and school resource officers are laid off,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think our students can wait another year to have these issues addressed…When government accepted the responsibility to educate children, we promised to help prepare them for life so that they could pursue happiness in Michigan. Promises made are promises kept. Michigan is worth it, and each child is worth it.”

Other propositions under Republicans’ plans include researching best practices for teacher-student ratios and easing the path for teacher to remain in the profession by eliminating fees for teaching certificate applications, renewals, and endorsements as well as making subject area endorsements simpler to achieve by allowing the Michigan test for teacher certification for a subject area to serve as the qualification for receiving an endorsement in that area.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX