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To prosper, Michigan must be a more educated place. Bridge will explore the challenges in education and identify policies and initiatives that address them.
The University of Michigan is seeing gains since offering free tuition to low-income families. But for many students, the class divide remains daunting once they step foot on one of the nation’s richest campuses.
How partisan are Michigan schools? Legislators say the parties don’t even use the same vocabulary on education. But an influx of educators just elected to the House and Senate wants to change that.
A group of students petitioned the Board of Regents to cut a $30 million investment from the school’s endowment fund to a firm whose work in Detroit has led to some housing evictions.
Bold or reckless? Confounding or strategic? Whitmer’s surprise recommendation to close Benton Harbor High School offers clues about her governing style.
Cara Lougheed, an English and history teacher from Rochester Hills, says she’s skeptical of school rating systems yet understands the desire among parents to evaluate schools in their community.
Friday was supposed to be the day Benton Harbor learned if its high school would remain open. Instead, the district and Michigan officials may still be seeking a resolution other than dissolving the district.
The governor is getting pushback from city activists. Meanwhile, it appears the administration may be able to dissolve the district without help from the Legislature if local officials balk at closing the high school.
With a few last tweaks (adding the Ten Commandments and a reference to sturgeon), Michigan’s controversial social studies standards are approved by a Democratic-leaning state education board
The anguish Benton Harbor is undergoing now was felt by Albion residents six years ago. Today, Albion students, attending a high school 13 miles away, are graduating at a higher clip.
Teachers blame administrators. Administrators blame the board. The board blames the state. Caught in the middle are students saddled with devastatingly low rates of achievement.
During the 2018 campaign for governor, Gretchen Whitmer supported a lawsuit to guarantee students’ right to literacy. Now that she’s in office, she is asking a federal appeals court to dismiss the case.
More than 5,000 students may be flagged to repeat third grade under a new law intended to ensure solid reading skills at a key age. That number sounds high, but it could have been far higher.
Students from less advantaged families are more likely to be held back under Florida’s third-grade reading law than white, more affluent kids with the same low reading scores. A similar Michigan law begins this fall.
Michiganders often express skepticism that state lottery money earmarked for schools actually goes to, you know, schools. Bridge offers insight to the most frequently asked lottery conspiracy theories.