LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – After President Donald Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, Michigan lawmakers are assessing their own state’s quality of education.
Reading, writing, and political statements.
Shortly after Trump’s executive order to close the Department of Education, the Michigan Board of Education passed a resolution defending public education.
Chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) brought up the resolution at the committee’s meeting last week. According to DeBoyer, more time should be spent on teaching kids, and less time should be spent on drafting political statements.
“What’s the real solution to solving the problem of reading and math?” Deboyer asked.
President of the Michigan Board of Education Pamela Pugh testified at the meeting and said it was her idea to draft the resolution. She discussed the purpose of education.
“Safe spaces.”
“Education is about making sure that our kids have safe spaces where they can be supported to be able to learn,” Pugh said. “And that is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Pugh said “our policy” is what is failing children.
“We have to make sure when they [students] show up in a classroom, that they feel supported, that they have the supports that are needed, that we are basing our conversations — what we are calling for — on facts and data,” Pugh said.
Michigan lands near the bottom in new state rankings.
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In a recent report from the 2024 Kids Count Data Book, Michigan is ranked 41 out of 50 states in education.
“We have fewer than half of three and four-year-olds in preschool, just one in four fourth graders is proficient in reading, the same with eighth-grade math,” Anne Kuhnen, the Kids Count policy director, told the Michigan Advance. “I think one area that’s a concerning decline is when we look at the share of high school students who are not graduating on time. We’ve had improvements in this area for basically a decade, so it’s disappointing to see that worsen.”