To fix Michigan schools, experts urge better reading skills, less politics

Education experts say the state’s literacy goals are directly tied to students’ futures
Panelists encourage people to volunteer with their local schools
The discussion is a culmination of several months of listening to readers about what issues matter most to them

DETROIT — If Michigan wants to improve its education system, it must double down on efforts to improve literacy, train more students for the workforce and encourage people to volunteer with their schools.

That’s according to four education experts who spoke Wednesday on a panel titled “The Talent Pipeline: Balancing Early Literacy with Postsecondary Goals” at Bridge Michigan’s inaugural Issues Summit at Marygrove Conservancy. Other panels at the summit focused on rising healthcare costs, housing challenges and the tension around data centers.

The summit was a result of Bridge Listens, a yearlong effort to hear from residents about the state’s top issues as the 2026 election season got underway. Bridge received more than 6,400 survey responses and education ranked fifth for readers’ most-important issue.

Bridge dug into the issue on readers’ behalf and found students in rural areas attend college at lower rates than other students while their schools face transportation and funding barriers. Journalists also reported on gubernatorial candidates’ education plans and hosted a virtual discussion during which the audience could hear directly from readers about their education concerns.

More than 375 people attended the Issues Summit in Detroit or virtually. Bridge also hosted a watch party at Alpena Community College where local residents spoke about how statewide issues affect northeast Michigan.

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Wednesday’s education discussion came at a time when the state is struggling on several metrics: More than a fourth of students are chronically absent, reading scores remain low and only a fourth of high school juniors are considered “college ready.”

Venessa Keesler, president and CEO of Launch Michigan, a group aiming to redo Michigan’s high school graduation standards and requirements, said at the Issues Summit that Michigan can fix its education system.

“We have to be really honest about the fact that Michigan starts and stops and starts and stops and starts and stops and we let politics come in,” she said. “We make policy competitive and not collaborative. And who pays for that is our kids.”

Michigan tried to improve reading scores before by making struggling third-graders repeat the grade. But many students got exemptions and lawmakers repealed the rule. The state briefly graded schools on an A-F scale before lawmakers dropped that, too.

Michigan will soon require elementary teachers to take mandatory “science of reading” training and require school districts to screen students for traits of dyslexia thanks to bipartisan legislation passed in recent years.

One of the options for training is called LETRS, a training that Ferndale Public Schools K-5 literacy coach Danielle Cover said changed the way she saw reading instruction.

“That learning is incredibly valuable and is the best training that I have received as an educator in my 20-year career,” Cover said. “However, it is long, it is intense, it is very detailed.”

Two people talk while seated on a stage — Danielle Cover, a K-5 literacy coach at Ferndale Public Schools, listens as Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of the Michigan College Access Network, speaks during the Bridge Michigan Issues Summit on Wednesday, Oct 21, 2026 in Detroit. (Brian Widdis for Bridge Michigan)

She said compensating teachers for their time taking the training is part of the way to get buy-in on Michigan’s new literacy mandates, later saying “phonics was not the finish line.”

In Harrison Community Schools in Clare County, middle and high schoolers have 30 minutes daily to read a book of their choice. Teachers also read during the time.

“There’s not a job I can think of that you don’t have to be able to read, right?” said Superintendent Judy Walton during the panel discussion at the summit. “And so we can’t just stop that at fifth grade. That’s got to be a preK-12 piece.”

In response to an audience question about how volunteers can help, Walton said people can volunteer to read with advanced readers so teachers have time to work with struggling students.

Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of the Michigan College Access Network, said during the panel that volunteering allows people to see “what a modern classroom looks like” and foster a sense of community. (Editor’s note: The Michigan College Access Network is a sponsor of Bridge’s Education Watch newsletter. The group had no role in the writing or editing of this article.)

Early literacy ties to the state’s goal of getting 60% of working-age adults with a college degree or skills certificate by 2030. Fewins-Bliss, a champion of the goal, said the state won’t meet that metric.

“We’re not preparing enough kids in K-12 — and I would argue adults, who are beyond K-12 — to go into college, providing them the opportunities to pay for it, without a lot of debt, providing them a pathway through college into the workforce,” he said. “And so that system is broken.”

He urged adults to share “better and science-based and fact-based advice to students” about the value of college and other workforce training options.

Fewins-Bliss urged the public to “stop demonizing education,” while Keesler urged people to vote for political candidates who “care about education and are also willing to work across the aisle.

“Education system change requires systems change, which means we need to stay the course, keep on the path, give up some of our own priorities and keep kids at the center,” Keesler said.

Watch the entire Issues Summit here:

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