Dozens of school districts will have to team up with the state to try and improve their students' academic performances and graduation rates, according to the Michigan Department of Education.
More Michigan schools are being flagged as low-achieving, the department's 2021-2022 school year report shows. More than 1 1/2 times the number of schools in the state were identified as needing CSI, or comprehensive support and improvement, since the last time the report came out after the 2016-2017 school year.
Fifty-four school districts will have to partner with the state in an agreement that aims to help the low-achieving schools get back on track.
“There’s no surprise at all," Thomas Morgan, spokesperson for the Michigan Education Association, said. "Students and educators and parents have had a two and half year period like none other. The load is so heavy.”
State Superintendent Michael Rice pointed to the underfunding of public schools, the teacher shortage that came with it, and the pandemic as reasons why he said more schools are struggling to keep up.
There was room for optimism though, Rice said, adding that the more than $22 billion funding, agreed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-led legislature this summer, should help start to solve those problems.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel," Morgan said. "It’s important that local school districts use this funding properly.”
It's hard to know when we'll start seeing results from the record per-pupil funding that the state has given to schools, Sen. Dayna Polehanki, who was a teacher for nearly two decades, said.
“If anyone says they know – I don’t think anyone knows,” Polehanki, D-Livonia, said.
School reports in the future should give an indication on where learning is improving, but Polehanki said one of the best ways to ensure Michigan schools get on track is more investments in teachers and more money towards education.
“I do not appreciate, you know, some of the campaign talk that I heard about, 'Isn’t throwing money at schools a terrible thing?' Well, no. It’s absolutely not,” she said, referring to the November midterm election.
As Democratic lawmakers take the majority in the Capitol next year, Polehanki said investing money in schools will be valued.
“If you want the things that people say they want – you want tutors, you want literacy coaches, you want smaller class sizes, you want great teachers, you want effective programs, all of that doesn’t come for free,” she said.
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