Currently, most college students studying to become teachers must work for free while student teaching, a burden that creates one more obstacle to pursuing a teaching career. The bill would pay them $90 a day, and also pay their classroom mentors.
About a third of teachers hired last year in Michigan were initially certified in other states. That could increase under a bill now being considered in Lansing.
Nearly 5,700 families have been notified that their children tested a year or more behind in reading, making them eligible to be held back a year. But few children actually repeat third grade due to generous loopholes in the law.
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.
