Across the country, conservative legislatures are trying to exclude transgender athletes from girls sports. A few sentences in a K-12 budget proposal could have a similar impact in Michigan.
The Democratic package would not use standardized test scores this year to evaluate teachers or enforce Michigan’s third-grade reading law in recognition of the disruptions caused by the pandemic. It’s unclear if Republicans will give the bills a hearing.
Testing season begins Monday in the state’s K-12 schools, with changes in store thanks to the impact of the pandemic and evolving views on the role of standardized testing.
The House and Senate bills differ a bit, but they both reflect broad, bipartisan support for quickly getting more teachers in Michigan classrooms amid a critical teacher shortage.
More than $1 billion in federal COVID relief funds will be used for school COVID test kits and additional state lab capacity, less than a month after schools ran dangerously low on supplies.
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.
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.
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.
Michigan superintendents are worried about meeting the required 180 days and 1,098 hours of instruction required for their full allocations of state funding
A teacher shortage in the state’s public schools has grown worse during the pandemic. State Supt. Michael Rice wants to make it easier to certify teachers while providing financial incentives to get more young people into the profession.
The Michigan House dove into the national debate over critical race theory on Tuesday when the GOP forced through a bill sharply restricting school lessons that promote race or gender stereotyping.
Changing policies to report fewer outbreaks in Michigan schools won’t reduce infections among kids, but it will provide less information to worried parents.
Scores fall, in some cases alarmingly so. But educators caution against reading too much into results from a year in which students were in and out of classrooms.
