Education

About 72% of Michigan high school students are unready for college, the Michigan League for Public Policy says. Reasons include living in poverty, food insecurity, COVID pandemic online teaching and less-than-effective methods of teaching reading.

Violence by students against teachers and other school staff is on the rise. Data from the Center for Educational Performance and Information shows physical violence is a major component of expulsions statewide. The MEA has created a task force on the issue. We talk to teachers from Traverse City, Alpena and Menominee County.

Under state law, school board positions are explicitly nonpartisan. House Bill 4588, introduced by Rep. Jason Woolford, would tweak the law to require candidates for local school boards to declare a party affiliation.

“Anytime you’re down in enrollment, there is a budget impact,” said Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon. “Generally, international students ... would pay higher tuition as well. So, when you’re using one international student, the budget impact actually is higher than one domestic student.”

Michigan already faces a teacher shortage, including special education teachers, a problem that is worse in districts that can’t afford to pay teachers the same salaries as wealthier areas.

Suzanne McAtee has attended the classes offered through Munson Hospital's Fruit and Vegetables Prescription Program since they began five years ago.

Northwest Michigan is giving books to preschoolers in response to decreasing literacy rates. Declining donations and state funding uncertainty cast a shadow on the program. Other states fully fund the efforts.

Mid-Michigan school administrators are mulling over potential programming cuts, changes to the state's universal lunch program and staffing issues after the state legislature failed to meet its July 1 budget deadline.

Michigan’s State Board of Education is closer to filling the top education post after choosing Lisa Coons, Glenn Maleyko, and Judy Walton as finalists to be the next state superintendent.

Michigan K-12 students are supposed to get a minimum of 180 days of classroom instruction, but Superintendent Michael Rice says in reality, it's nowhere near that.