Chalkbeat

Voter guide: Meet the candidates running for the Detroit school board

2026-09-08T21:29:06+00:00

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Thirty-four people are vying for five open seats on the board for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, a pivotal race that could result in multiple new people overseeing the largest district in Michigan.

It’s the largest slate since 2016, the year DPSCD was created and more than 60 people ran to serve on the new district’s board.

This race could be consequential because only two incumbents — Steve Bland and Bessie Harris — are running for reelection. Both were appointed to their seats last year to fill out the remaining terms of members who resigned.

The board’s current leaders — Board President LaTrice McClendon and Board Vice President Corletta Vaughn — are not running for re-election. The fifth open seat belonged to Iris Taylor, who died in July.

Just 19 of the 34 candidates responded to a questionnaire Chalkbeat sent via email and text in July. They have a plethora of ideas of how to address some of the biggest challenges, including fighting high rates of chronic absenteeism, increasing enrollment, and dealing with the pending loss of the funding that allowed the district to hire academic interventionists.

In our voter guide below, you’ll read the candidate bios and their answers to our questions as they wrote them. Chalkbeat did not edit for grammar or punctuation. For more information on voting, go here.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

As Michigan reading scores fall again, state superintendent is clear: ‘We need to improve.’

2026-09-04T22:03:12+00:00

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Michigan third grade reading scores continued to slide in the state’s most recent standardized tests this year, even as schools began to implement reading reforms.

Just 38.2% of third grade students in Michigan are proficient in English Language Arts, down from 38.9% the previous year, according to results released Friday from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, commonly known as the M-STEP. Students took the tests in spring 2026.

It’s the lowest third graders have scored in the 12-year history of the exam. The news comes after leaders have tried a variety of efforts over the last decade to improve reading scores with literacy coaches, optional teacher training, and a short-lived law to retain struggling third graders.

Meanwhile, fourth through seventh grade reading scores are also down from the previous year. Just 44% of students grades 3-8 are proficient in reading, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of M-STEP and PSAT 8/9 tests.

“We need to improve the results of all these assessments for our students moving forward,” said State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko. “Michigan proficiency rates are not where we want them to be. We must increase proficiency rates in all subjects and areas, and in all grades. And we must do this over time, showing steady improvement in all areas.”

Use the tool to search your local district’s test results.

It’s the first M-STEP release since Maleyko took over the Michigan Department of Education last December. The tests measure if students are able to achieve skills outlined in state standards.

Only 35.5% of students grades 3-8 are proficient in math.

Many proficiency rates moved less than one percentage point, which MDE acknowledged in a news release.

“Most proficiency rates are essentially flat when compared to 2025 results on the tests, with the rates on all except four of 20 tests staying within 2 percentage points of the numbers in 2025 and most staying within a percentage point,” the department said.

Other takeaways include:

Math proficiency is up in third and sixth grades compared with last year, down in fifth grade and flat in fourth and seventh grades.
Fifth grade science and social studies proficiency is down.
Eighth graders improved their proficiency in social studies but results dropped in science.
In the 11th grade, science and social studies proficiency is up but performance is down in reading and math

Brian L. Love, state director of EdTrust-Midwest, praised the state’s recent boost in funding for at-risk students and literacy reforms but said more must be done, calling the results “extremely troubling.”

“Funding alone is not enough. The state should put in place fiscal accountability and transparency systems so that the dollars reach the students in their schools.”

Venessa Keesler, president and CEO of Launch Michigan, said Michigan has taken the right steps, including passing legislation that requires literacy training for K-5 educators.

“It is too bad the results aren’t better, but the results are just a symptom of a system that hasn’t been set up for success. But we’re making the right moves toward them.”

Socioeconomic gaps persist

The third grade reading proficiency rate for noneconomically disadvantaged students is more than twice the proficiency rate of economically disadvantaged students.

The gap is even wider for third grade math: 28.8% of students who are economically disadvantaged are proficient compared to 60.5% of students who are not economically disadvantaged.

What to know about key districts in the state:

Detroit Public Schools Community District, the state’s largest district, saw gains in reading and math. In third grade, 14.1% of students are proficient in reading, up from 12.9% the previous year. In math, 20.1% are proficient, up from 15.7%.
In Grand Rapids, third grade reading made a slight gain from 19.6% reading proficiency to 20.1%. Math increased from 19.6% to 23.5%.
Lansing School District saw gains in reading proficiency in third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades. But proficiency declined in seventh and eighth grades.

In Ypsilanti Community Schools, the results mirrored the state: Small declines in most areas, with exceptions in English language arts for fifth and seventh graders. The biggest gains in grades 3-8 were for eighth graders taking the PSAT, who went from 39.8% proficiency in English language arts to 46.8%. In math, the eighth graders went from 10.1% proficiency to 19.5%.

Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross told Chalkbeat that the district’s own assessments, given to students multiple times during the school year, tell a more encouraging story.

“We’re seeing that 80% of our scholars are growing, and that’s what’s really important because many of our scholars come to us behind,” she said.

The results are impacted by a number of factors, including attendance. Nearly half of the district’s students are considered chronically absent, meaning they’ve missed 18 or more days in a 180-day school year. Assistant Superintendent Carlos Lopez said students frequently missing school affects student performance on state and district assessments.

“Students who have great attendance that are not chronic perform significantly better,” Lopez said. “Attendance matters.”

Zachary-Ross and Lopez said strong partnerships with parents and in the community are key to efforts to improve student achievement. So has been adopting strong curriculum, such as the HMH Into Reading, which is among those the state has approved. The district has also put emphasis on training, intervention, tutoring, and other efforts.

“We’re leveraging everything we can,” Lopez said.

Test scores are important and help shine a light on data that informs decisions, said Kevin Polston, superintendent for Kentwood Public Schools. But he said it’s just one piece of information.

“It’s important for us to take time to digest the data, look at the other sources of data for the things that matter for us, and keep designing plans for each of our individual students to thrive in Michigan,” said Polston, whom Whitmer this week named chair of the newly-formed Every Child Reads Champions Council, which will advise and strengthen Michigan’s statewide literacy plan.

His district had some gains and declines in English language arts, while there was mostly growth in math. The gains in math come as the district just started its third year using a new math curriculum.

The new HMH Into Reading curriculum launched this school year, replacing a district-created curriculum that had been in place for 20 years. The district’s previous curriculum was good, but required a lot of time and resources to keep it current and teachers trained, Polston said.

MDE also shared information on what it is doing to improve student proficiency.

It plans to release the “Michigan Mathematics Framework” this fall that will include “a shared vision for mathematics learning; evidence-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and coordinated systems for mathematics,” according to a news release. MDE is also creating a committee focused on science, technology, engineering, and math, commonly known as STEM.

State is focused on literacy, but results are down

These are the last state test scores that will come out before term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer leaves office. She has said literacy is her number one priority in her final year.

Voters will decide whether Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson or Republican U.S. Rep. John James will be the next governor.

Both candidates blamed the other party in their response to the scores and touted their education platforms.

“These test scores are not just numbers, they represent real Michigan children who are being left behind by a system that has failed them for far too long,” James said in a statement.

“Jocelyn Benson and Lansing Democrats have failed our students, failed our teachers and failed Michigan families at every turn. This is the civil rights issue of our time.”

Meanwhile, Benson said: “These scores are deeply troubling, and Michigan families deserve better. We are here after decades of Republicans defunding Michigan schools at a higher rate than any other state instead of doing what’s necessary to help every student succeed.”

Both candidates called the school system “broken.”

Maleyko emphasized that laws aimed at improving literacy are not fully in effect yet. He said the Legislature, governor, State Board of Education, and educators needed to work together to improve outcomes.

Among those changes is a requirement that school districts use evidence-based reading instruction and screen students for characteristics of dyslexia by the 2027-2028 school year.

Under a new law signed this summer, elementary teachers will be required to complete science of reading training by the 2031-2032 school year. Some school districts will receive state help as they work to fully train their teachers. Michigan also has funding for literacy coaches, vetted curriculum, and teacher training.

If a district uses a literacy curriculum not from a state-vetted list and fails to inform parents, the district loses its state funding. But MDE does not have a mechanism where districts report what curriculum they use because state law doesn’t allow the department to “require a new report to be submitted unless state or federal law requires or authorizes the report,” said MDE spokesman Bob Wheaton.

The law requiring the parent notification kicked in during the 2025-26 school year, and Wheaton said thus far, no districts have lost funding because they didn’t comply.

While department officials emphasize the need to improve literacy, they caution that state test scores are only one way to measure student achievement.

Delsa Chapman, a deputy superintendent at MDE, told Bridge that “if a student is not proficient or partially proficient, that does not mean that the student cannot read.

“On that one test in time, their demonstration of mastering the standards is determined through a proficiency rating. But that absolutely, again, does not state or say that the student cannot read or cannot do mathematics.”

Who gets tested in Michigan

Third through seventh graders in public schools throughout the state take the English language arts and math test.

Fifth grade students also take a science and social studies test. Eighth grade students take the PSAT 8/9 test for English language arts and math and the M-STEP for science and social studies.

Ninth graders take the PSAT 8/9 while 10th graders take the PSAT 10.

In 11th grade, students take the SAT, WIN Readiness Assessment, and science and social studies M-STEP.

Some students with disabilities take the MI-Access tests instead of the other tests.

Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Chalkbeat Data Reporter Kae Petrin contributed to this report.

56% of Michigan teachers are thinking about leaving in five years, poll says

2026-08-25T22:43:58+00:00

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Most Michigan teachers feel deeply dedicated to their profession, but a quarter of them are considering leaving the profession within a year, and 56% might leave within five years.

Those are the results of a new poll released Tuesday. It was commissioned by Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative, an organization focused on addressing the state’s teacher pipeline challenges.

If the poll results bear out, they could destabilize the profession and worsen the teacher shortages that already affect many districts, particularly in hard-to-staff areas such as special education.

The results come as teachers face increasing pressure. Students are performing poorly on state and national exams as Michigan continues to slide lower in national academic rankings. Lawmakers are enacting new mandates for teacher training in methods that use the science of reading.

Respondents cited inadequate compensation, not enough training for new teachers, and barriers to classroom innovation as reasons they are considering leaving.

“If we want our state to move out of this perpetual threat of losing half of our teacher workforce over the next five years, we should listen to our teachers,” Jack Elsey, CEO and founder of the Workforce Initiative, said during a media roundtable Tuesday. “They’re telling us what they need.”

The poll was conducted from May 29 to June 30, surveyed a representative sample of 300 teachers, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points. It was conducted by Impact Research, with help from UpONE Insights, another polling company.

“The data confirms what we see in classrooms every day, as teachers are pouring their hearts into this work, but love for the job does not alleviate the challenging workload and financial pressures we face,” CJ Walker, a teacher at Concord Community Schools, said in a news release about the poll results. “If we want to reverse this retention crisis, we must value our teachers both via compensation and support.”

Michigan has an aging educator workforce, but teachers of all ages are considering exiting the profession according to Brian Stryker, managing partner at Impact Research.

“That is also true of newer teachers, teachers in the middle of their career. You also see it across elementary, middle, and high school,” Stryker said.

Compensation was one of the biggest factors. The problem is more acute among newer teachers, because the longer someone has been teaching, the more fairly compensated they feel, Stryker said. Fixing it is challenging, as decisions about pay are decided at the local level.

“We think the poll tells a powerful story that we have made progress over the last few years in improving the workforce’s experience, but they’re also telling us that we have a ways to go,” Elsey said.

Here are some additional findings:

46% of the teachers strongly agreed with the statement that “I frequently feel I am expected to be ‘all things to all people at all times’ in my current role.
54% strongly agreed with the statement that “my school is a great place to be a teacher.”
48% strongly agreed with the statement that “Michigan is a great place to be a teacher.”
32% strongly agreed with the statement that “I feel fairly compensated for my work as a teacher.”
39% strongly agreed with the statement that “I have access to rigorous, standards-aligned curriculum and instructional materials for the subject areas and grades I teach.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Back to school in Michigan: New cellphone rules, a fitness test, and more

2026-08-21T17:32:58+00:00

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Michigan students may be planning to head back to school with their cell phones in tow, but parents should know that new rules will restrict how much they can use those devices.

The 2026-27 school year begins Monday in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and many others across Michigan. Other districts begin Aug. 31, while the bulk of districts will begin Sept. 8.

The new academic year will mean new beginnings, new programs, new everything. It also means new state rules. One of them requires school districts to adopt policies that restrict the use of wireless devices — such as cellphones, smart watches, and smart glasses — during instruction.

How the law plays out locally will vary between school districts.

For more on that, and four other things parents, students, and teachers and others should know heading into the new school year, read below.

School leaders see positive results from cellphone restrictions

Michigan’s new law gives schools a fair amount of leeway regarding cellphone restrictions, and most have established different restrictions for different grade levels.

District policies provide exemptions for things such as medically necessary devices, district-owned devices including laptops and tablets, and devices used by schools for instructional purposes.

In Westwood Community Schools in Wayne County, if elementary students bring wireless devices to school, they must leave them in the main office lock box, or in a secured classroom locker, for the entire school day, Superintendent Stiles Simmons said.

In a practice that has been in place for several years, middle school students in Stiles’ district drop their devices off in the morning in the office, where they’ll be locked away, and pick them up at the end of the day. High school students can keep their devices with them, but they must be locked in Yondr pouches once they enter the school. The fabric pouches can only be unlocked at the end of the day.

Stiles said the district went with a more restrictive policy because the experiment at the middle school had positive results.

“Far fewer distractions, less drama, more social interaction, healthy social interaction,” Stiles said. “We want to replicate that across the district.”

Some districts enacted cellphone restrictions last year, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for them in her 2025 State of the State address.

In Ferndale Public Schools, for example, high school students can bring wireless devices, but they can only use them before and after school, and in the cafeteria during lunch. During classes, phones must be locked away in a box that holds devices for all students in the class.

Ferndale Superintendent Camille Hibbler was skeptical about whether students would freely place their phones in a box. While some students have been caught placing an old phone in the box, while keeping the phone they use with them, most have followed the rules.

“It’s a part of their routine now,” Hibbler said.

Time for Michigan kids to get fit

Parents of a certain age may remember slogging their way through push-ups, sit-ups, and running as part of the Presidential Fitness Test. The program ended during the Obama administration, but last year President Donald Trump brought it back. This year, he established awards students can earn by excelling on the test.

And the state budget lawmakers approved July 3 requires all public school students enrolled in physical education classes to take the fitness test.

Michigan lawmaker approved a new rule that kicks in for the 2026-27 school year that requires students take the Presidential Fitness Test.

Students who have an individualized education plan aren’t required to participate, unless their plan requires it. And it would only be required in schools that offer P.E. classes.

The presidential test requires varying fitness feats, depending on the age and gender of the student. The target for a 13-year-old boy: 53 curl-ups in one minute, run one mile in six minutes and 30 seconds, and 39 right-angle push-ups. To win the fitness test award, a student must meet all of the targets.

One fewer essay for high school students

Here’s something high school juniors in Michigan will appreciate: They’ll no longer have to write an SAT essay as part of the Michigan Merit Exam. But they’ll have to wait until the state assessment season begins next spring to benefit.

Whitmer in May signed legislation into law that eliminates that essay from the exam. It also eliminates a requirement that students’ scores on the state exam be placed on their transcripts.

Advocates said the latter requirement was unfair because many colleges have made testing optional, and because Michigan students are competing for college admissions against students whose state test scores don’t appear on their transcripts.

More team teaching on tap in Michigan schools

Team teaching — when two or more teachers share the same students and work as a team, often by dividing up which subjects they’ll teach — is growing in popularity in Michigan.

The Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative, an effort aimed at strengthening educator pipelines in the state, first started taking Michigan educators on trips to Arizona, where Arizona State University researchers have done extensive research on team teaching, a few years ago. Last year, 15 Michigan schools were experimenting with the concept. For the 2026-27 school year, 16 more schools will join.

Teachers have been team teaching for years. But many of the districts that have joined the team teaching program do so because they have teachers already trying team teaching but need help.

“What we do is bring in the structures, the process, the data, the tools, that help those teachers,” said Jack Elsey, the founding partner and CEO of the workforce initiative.

The upside? Effective team teaching can improve student achievement and teacher retention, Elsey said.

Public can track progress of teachers’ literacy training

New rules this school year require school districts to report how many of their K-5 educators have received mandatory training in literacy.

The reporting requirement is part of newly enacted legislation that makes this literacy training a mandate for all K-5 educators who teach reading or language arts, as well as anyone who provides, supports, or oversees such instruction in K-5. However, current educators will have until the 2031-32 school year to complete the training.

School districts will also have to report how many and what percentage of their K-5 educators have received the training to the state, which will publish the data. That will allow the public to track districts’ progress.

This data is part of a broader effort in Michigan to improve literacy instruction. Test scores show a majority of students are struggling with reading.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Need free school supplies? Here’s how Detroit parents can get back-to-school gear for their kids.

2026-08-07T16:30:14+00:00

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One thing we know about Detroit: During back-to-school season, people go all out to make sure the city’s youth can return to the classroom with the supplies they need and, in some cases, a fresh hairstyle and cut.

Organizations across the city are offering free backpacks and school supplies at events throughout August. Below, we’ve compiled a list of as many as we could find to make the school shopping experience easier for families.

Nearly all of these events offer free school supplies. Many also offer other free resources such as haircuts, hairstyling, wellness checkups, dental cleanings, eye screenings, and uniforms. And don’t forget the fun activities, from bounce houses and crafts to face painting and books. Most events also provide free food.

If you plan to go, here are a few things parents should remember:

Go early. Some of these events have a limited number of backpacks and supplies, so if you go later in the day, you may miss out.
Click the links to see whether registration is required. You don’t want to get to an event and find out you need to sign up in advance.
Some events require your children to be present. So make sure you bring the kiddos; there are plenty of fun activities at these events.
Events are in Detroit unless otherwise noted.

These events rely on donations of money and school supplies from the public to serve more students. If you click the links for each listing, you may find contact information showing how you can still donate.

Monday, Aug. 24, is the first day of school for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Michigan’s first official day of school is Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Below are some upcoming events. Know of others that aren’t on our list? Email us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Sunday, Aug. 2

LAMA Detroit Backpack Giveaway

Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Clark Park, 4301 W. Vernor Highway, at Clark and Vernor

Wednesday, Aug. 5

Back-to-School Rally

Time: 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Where: Racquet Up Detroit, 6530 Outer Drive West

What: The event includes free school supplies, including backpacks, as well as family activities, a bounce house, raffles, and free Kona Ice. Organized by Racquet Up Detroit.

Tuesday, Aug. 11

Back-to-School Supplies Giveaway

Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: 4733 Conner St.

What: The event includes free backpacks, school supplies, and healthy snacks, as well as resources for families. Organized by Wayne County MDHHS.

Friday, Aug. 14

Back-to-School Market

Time: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: 22735 Fenkell St.

What: There will be bike giveaways for youth who live in the Brightmoor neighborhood, as well as free wellness checkups provided by Michigan State University nursing students. Local artisan and cottage food vendors will be on hand, along with community resource organizations. Organized by the Brightmoor Artisans Collective.

Back-to-School Bash

Time: Noon to 4 p.m.

Where: Kemeny Recreation Center, 2260 S. Fort St.

What: The event will feature free backpacks and school supplies. Children must be present to receive them. There will also be bounce houses, music, lunch, and crafts.

Saturday, Aug. 15

Peace Over Pistols Back2School Event

Time: Noon to 4 p.m.

Where: 10700 W. Seven Mile Road

What: The event includes free backpacks and food. Organized by Chanira Roundtree and Busy Bee Here to Help.

Reading in Ramsay Park + Back-to-School Supplies and Backpack Giveaway

Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Ramsay Park, 14800 Longacre St., between Grand River Avenue and Ray Monnier Street

What: The event features free books, backpacks, and school supplies. Organized by the Grandmont Community Association Youth and Education Committee.

Tuesday, Aug. 18

Back-to-School Drop-In Party at the Library

Time: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: Detroit Public Library Chase Branch, 17731 W. Seven Mile Road

What: Free school supplies and backpacks will be available, in addition to video game competitions, crafts, games, and snacks.

Thursday, Aug. 20

Back-to-School Resource Party

Time: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center, 8431 Rosa Parks Blvd.

What: The event includes free backpacks and school supplies, bounce houses, video gaming trucks, hygiene kits, face painting, community resources, diapers, and food. There will also be free haircuts and hairstyling, but advanced registration is required.

Saturday, Aug. 22

Impact Detroit Youth Community Hub’s Back-to-School Event

Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: SAY Detroit Play Center, 19320 Van Dyke Ave.

What: The event features free backpacks and school supplies, food and refreshments, a petting zoo, bounce houses, fun activities for youth, and community resources. Organized by Impact Detroit Youth Community Hub.

Backpack Giveaway at the Co-op

Time: Noon to 6 p.m.

Where: Detroit People’s Food Co-op, 8324 Woodward Ave.

What: The event will feature free school supplies, including backpacks, folders, notebooks, pencils, and loose-leaf paper, as well as free school uniforms and wellness and hygiene products. The Detroit People’s Food Co-op, the organizer, is still seeking donations so it can serve 150 students.

Back-to-School Bash

Time: Noon to 4 p.m.

Where: Made with Love Donuts, 9837 Reeck Rd, Allen Park

What: The event features free backpacks and school supplies, health screenings and physicals by Monarch Urgent Care, face painting, balloons, and donut decorating. Children must be present. Organized by Made With Love Donuts.

Sunday, Aug. 23

Back-to-School Community Resource Fair

Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 4454 Woodward Ave.

What: The event features free backpacks and school supplies, a children’s clothing swap, free books, a hands-on craft table, community resources, and local organizations that support youth and families. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit with partners Birdie’s Bookmobile, Brilliant Detroit, MFWAR House, and MSUFCU.

Tuesday, Aug. 25

Back-to-School Supplies Giveaway

Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Hamtramck Woody Plaza, 12140 Joseph Campau St., Hamtramck

What: The event includes free backpacks, school supplies, and healthy snacks, as well as resources for families. Organized by Wayne County MDHHS.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit voters OK crucial tax levy that supports the city school district

2026-08-05T14:17:41+00:00

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A measure that will allow the Detroit school district to collect the revenue it needs to operate had an easy victory, with voters overwhelmingly saying yes.

About $120 million in operating funds – which may be used for items such as classroom programming, supplies, and staff salaries – was at stake.

Of the 97,205 people who voted, 81% of them OK’d the proposal, according to updated results Wayne County posted Wednesday morning.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat Wednesday that the passage of the millage is a “major accomplishment” for the district.

“It has been difficult to explain three millage proposals over six years due to state decisions and the complexities of managing and transitioning from DPS to DPSCD,” Vitti said. “The vote’s overwhelming support inspires all of us to continue the hard but rewarding work of constantly improving the district for the children we all deeply believe in.”

LaTrice McClendon, chair of the district’s board, said voters’ support was an investment in students’ futures.

“As a parent, I want the same things every family wants — that our children learn in safe schools, are inspired by great teachers, have opportunities in the arts, athletics, technology, and career programs, and graduate prepared to pursue whatever dreams they choose,” McClendon told Chalkbeat.

City residents have approved previous operating millages — which is what this tax is — for Detroit Public Schools, the entity that used to run schools but exists now solely to collect tax revenue to pay off old debt. A court decision earlier this year said DPS must cease collecting an operating millage, because the debt will be fully paid off in September. That meant the Detroit Public Schools Community District needed to ask voters to approve its own millage.

DPSCD was created in 2016 as part of a legislative initiative to address mounting debt in DPS. The new district had a debt-free start to handle day-to-day school administration, with the state covering its operating costs, while DPS stayed intact to pay off operating and capital debt.

The $120 million the millage will collect is a fraction of the district’s overall $1.1 billion budget. But, the revenue is critical to the school system. Vitti said during a community engagement meeting Monday that the estimated revenue generated by the tax levy would constitute $2,400 of the $10,300 per-pupil the district receives from the state.

Among those casting a yes vote for the millage Tuesday morning was Shawn Womack, 54, a semitruck driver.

“I just think that every one of the schools needs help,” Womack said.

Christine Crawford, a clinical social worker, voted yes for similar reasons.

“If we don’t have our schools running right and the kids getting what they need as far as extra support, we’re just going to be digging our hole deeper,” Crawford said. “We can’t do it just by having billionaires handing out things.”

Some people voted based on misconceptions. A couple of voters said they voted no because they believed the operating millage would increase their taxes. It won’t. Another said they thought the district’s request for the proposal is an indication of misspending. It isn’t. Another voter said he voted no because he didn’t understand the millage.

Brian Jourdan, 68, a retired auto mechanic, voted against the millage.

“I’m a victim of Detroit Public Schools, and I didn’t get a very good education,” he said. “For my 12th grade, my family moved to the Arlington County, Virginia, school district. I wasn’t prepared. I really had to work to get my high school diploma.”

The district needed to pass an operating millage by July 2027. If Tuesday’s proposal failed the district likely would have come back to voters in November.

While anyone who is registered to vote could have voted on the tax, it only applies to commercial property, rental property, and vacation property. It won’t affect primary homeowners.

BridgeDetroit’s Bryce Huffman and Micah Walker contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Education will be a key topic as Benson and James face off in Michigan governor’s race

2026-08-05T03:55:12+00:00

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Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James will face off in the Nov. 3 general election to become Michigan’s next governor.

Multiple news organizations, including the Associated Press, called the race, declaring Benson the winner with more than 80% of the Democratic vote and James the winner with 50% of the Republican vote. They beat Democrat Chris Swanson and Republican Perry Johnson.

Education has been a hot issue in the race, with Benson and James agreeing on the need to address Michigan’s low literacy rates among K-12 students but taking largely partisan stances on other key issues.

James wants to expand school choice and said that on day one if elected, he will opt Michigan into the federal tax credit scholarship program, which allows people to receive tax credits for donations they make to organizations that provide scholarships for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

He also wants to keep transgender girls from playing on sports teams and using girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.

Benson plans to make sure Michigan schools have fair and equitable funding, while also looking out for teachers by investing in recruiting and retaining educators. The latter is critical because districts have struggled to recruit teachers in some specialties, especially educators who work with students with disabilities.

One of Benson’s plans requires starting salaries for teachers to be $60,000 a year minimum. Some districts are close to that amount. The Detroit Public Schools Community District set a starting salary of $57,400 in the recently approved contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers. The average starting salary statewide is about $41,000.

Benson, as she has done throughout the campaign, mentioned being the daughter of public school teachers in her acceptance speech. She said she wants a state “where child care is affordable for all, where homes are easily built so teachers and nurses and farmers can afford to live in the communities where they work,” and where public education prepares students for jobs.

She said she would work for teachers “who dedicate their lives to preparing our children for the future and who deserve pay and more respect.”

James, in his acceptance speech, said the night marks the beginning of Michigan’s comeback. In his acceptance speech he said that Michigan’s children are falling behind in education and that too many young people leave the state in search of opportunities.

He said Michiganders want schools that will teach their children to read and noted that his administration will prove that phonics work.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

From literacy to school choice: How Michigan’s governor candidates compare on education

2026-07-23T15:19:50+00:00

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Michigan’s gubernatorial candidates, who face off Aug.4 in Democratic and Republican primaries, have only a few similar priorities in addressing the state’s biggest education crises.

Improve literacy rates among elementary students? Check.

Ensure students leave high school well prepared for careers or college? Check.

Support teachers? Check.

After that, the education plans veer off into divergent paths, with Republican candidates focused on issues such as school choice while Democratic candidates push for equitable funding for students. The plans include a lot of broad ideas, with few specifics on how they will accomplish them. Some of their ideas replicate things already in place or soon to be underway in Michigan.

They all agree that Michigan’s schools are troubled, given state test results that show students are struggling with reading and math. On the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, nearly 38.9% of third graders last year were considered proficient, the lowest percentage in the 11-year history of the exam. Students similarly struggled in math. Performance on the rigorous National Assessment of Educational Progress is also troubling.

Candidates include Democrats Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s current secretary of state, and Chris Swanson, current Genesee County sheriff; and Republicans John James, current U.S. representative, and Perry Johnson, a businessman. Republican Mike Cox, former Michigan attorney general, dropped out of the race July 17, citing President Trump’s June endorsement of James.

Chalkbeat read through the candidates’ education plans and listened to what they said in recent debates and interviews to give readers a clearer picture of how schools could be affected by whoever becomes Michigan’s next governor.

Here’s what you need to know.

Benson: “Everyday we don’t fix this … is a day lost.”

Benson’s plan is built around five “pillars,” each of which has a number of steps she would take to improve education. They include creating a world-class education for every Michigan child; recruiting, paying, and keeping educators; focusing on children from birth to prekindergarten; funding school fairly, equitably, efficiently, and transparently; and making the system work together.

“I’m a mom, and I know that every day we don’t fix this for our kids and our teachers, is a day lost that we won’t get back, for these kids, for their childhood,” Benson said during a WDIV interview.

Her plans to improve education include tackling student chronic absenteeism by creating a statewide strategy, ensuring students are reading by the third grade, expanding after-school programs, and working with families and advocates to improve education for students with disabilities.

Benson is advocating for requiring starting salaries for teachers to be set at $60,000 a year minimum, ensuring competitive pay for childcare workers, and expanding the state’s PreK for All program, which provides funding so students can enroll in the state’s preschool program for free, regardless of income.

In the WDIV interview, Benson acknowledged that schools have received increased funding, but she said it’s not enough. She advocates for a weighted funding system (that Michigan has experimented with for several years) that provides additional funding for students with the greatest needs, such as students from low-income families and students learning English.

James: “There’s no accountability.”

James described education as a “basic civil right,” and said that his plan prioritizes transforming Michigan from a state that ranked near the bottom in fourth-grade reading on a rigorous national exam to one at the top.

One of his first actions if elected would be to opt Michigan into the Trump administration’s federal tax-credit scholarship program, which allows people to receive tax credits for donations they make to organizations that provide scholarships for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

He also would reinstate a retention policy that requires schools to hold back third graders who don’t meet reading standards.

His education plan also includes working with parents and teachers to address student absenteeism and protecting girls’ sports, locker rooms, and restrooms. James opposes allowing transgender girls to compete on girl’s sports teams, saying on Facebook last month, “It’s INSANITY that Michigan is going to continue to allow biological boys to play girls sports. That ends in 6 months when I’m Governor.”

Accountability is key, James said in a WDIV interview.

“I’m going to make sure we have fiscal accountability, make sure that as we are losing school age populations we are not overspending on overhead and waste in our school systems,” he said.

Johnson: “My administration will focus on results.”

Johnson’s plan revolves around a handful of topics: returning to academic fundamentals, maintaining and expanding school choice, preparing students for postsecondary life, supporting teachers, and accountability for schools.

“Too many students are leaving school without strong reading, writing, and math skills despite record levels of education spending,” Johnson says on his website. “My administration will focus on results, restore accountability, and ensure that education dollars are reaching students and classrooms.”

His plan isn’t as detailed as some of the other candidates. He says he will “promote proven instructional methods, including phonics-based reading instruction and early intervention for struggling readers.” He’ll also focus on reducing the amount of bureaucracy teachers deal with, so they can prioritize teaching.

“My administration will work to restore classroom discipline, reduce administrative burdens, and allow educators to focus on teaching instead of paperwork,” Johnson said on his site.

In an interview with WDIV, Johnson said schools need more accountability.

“In my companies, we always reward on the basis of performance and I think we’ve lost sight of the fact that we have to have something like that. If we incentivize teachers for actually achieving certain levels of performance, we’ll change the focus.”

Chris Swanson: “We’re on the right track.”

Swanson has a seven-point plan that prioritizes a state initiative that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless of income; expands access to preschool; and ensures the state School Aid Fund is used for K-12 schools, rather than directing some of it to higher education.

He would also place emphasis on early career exploration, attracting and retaining educators, expanding GED diploma and high school completion programs, and ensuring public money goes toward public schools, not private schools.

During a forum for gubernatorial candidates hosted by the Michigan Education Association earlier this year, Swanson pushed back against candidates who say Michigan should replicate what Mississippi has done to improve its standing on a rigorous national exam. He said then that, “I’m not interested in the Mississippi model. I’m interested in the Michigan model.”

He expanded on that during a WDIV interview. He said he believes Michigan students are doing better academically than what the national test data shows, and he said the results in Michigan can’t be compared to Mississippi.

Swanson believes Michigan schools “are on the right track,” and are getting a “bad rap.” But he said one of the first things he would do if elected is an assessment of the state’s education system.

“We’re going to figure out where are we, really.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Here are the 35 people running for the Detroit school board

2026-07-22T14:18:17+00:00

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Three incumbents, multiple former school board members, and several people who have run before are among a crowded field of 35 people running for five open seats on the Detroit school board.

It’s the largest number of candidates to run for the board since 2016, the year the Detroit Public Schools Community District was created and more than 60 people vied for seats on the new board.

Incumbent board members Steve Bland, Jr., Bessie Lee Harris, and Iris Taylor are running to reclaim their seats on the seven member board in the Nov. 3 election. Two other incumbents, board chair LaTrice McClendon and vice chair Corletta Vaughn, were disqualified from the ballot. McClendon had already decided not to run for reelection, while Vaughn chose not to run on Tuesday.

Two incumbents, Bland and Harris, were appointed to seats in 2025 to fill out the terms of board members who stepped down.

With five open seats and 35 candidates, the November election has the potential to change the direction of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, something Superintendent Nikolai Vitti acknowledged in a statement to Chalkbeat Wednesday.

“We all know that the November 2026 election would be a watershed for the District. We will either move forward with greater progress and momentum or backwards,” Vitti said.

“Our progress has been built by a strong majority-led School Board that believes and implements the difficult but proven standard that the School Board governs the District and holds a Superintendent accountable to manage and lead the District day to day,” Vitti said. “School Board challenges in DPS are well documented prior to the establishment of DPSCD. The District cannot afford to go backwards.”

There are a number of other familiar names on the ballot. Georgia Lemmons and LaMar Lemmons, who are married, previously served on the DPSCD board. LaMar Lemmons also served on the board for Detroit Public Schools. Other former board members include Tawanna Simpson.

Also on the ballot are candidates who have previously run unsuccessfully for the board, including Nicole Conaway, Tabrian Joe, and Aliya Moore.

Here’s a full list of candidates, provided by the Detroit clerk’s office:

Natalie La’Vonne Bien-Aime
Steve Bland, Jr.
Michelle Rene’ Broughton
Katrina Lanise Brown
Cidney Julia-Angela Calloway
Bobby Lee Christian
Nicole Marie Conaway
Vilma Valeria Escamilla-Durán
Daniel Franklin Ferguson, III
Duane Larry Grisby, Jr.
Bessie Lee Harris
David Dwayne Harris, II
Henrietta Ivey
Christopher Allen Hubbard
Ijazz Johnnay Jackson
Tabrian Chas Joe
Shinese DeCarol Johnson
Theodore Rhett Jones
Georgia Mae Lemmons
LaMar Demetri Lemmons
Clement Ogden Lett
Phillip E. Lloyd, II
Aliya Rebekah Moore
Darious Lamar Morris
Liana Stern Mulholland
Tyshea Elaine Pope
Danetta Lynese Simpson
Tawanna Simpson
Jameel Montgomery Smith
Calesther J. Smith-Arnold
Iris Alice Taylor
Shawn Vaughn
Terry Eugene Whitfield
Elizabeth Ann Williams
Theresa Arleen Williams

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

July 28, 2026: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Vilma Valeria Escamilla-Durán and Natalie La’Vonne Bien-Aime, whose names were misspelled in a list of candidates provided by the city.

What Detroiters should know about the proposed school operating millage on the Aug. 4 ballot

2026-07-13T10:00:00+00:00

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If you’re a Detroiter heading to the polls for the Aug. 4 primary, or someone voting early, you’re likely asking yourself one big question: Why are we voting on another school operating millage?

The answer is a bit complicated. Yes, in 2024, Detroiters easily approved an operating millage renewal — the technical term for a tax levy on some real estate — for Detroit Public Schools. That’s the entity that used to educate students in the city, but since 2016 has only existed to collect tax revenue and pay off old debt.

But a lot has changed in the last two years. The Detroit Public Schools Community District must now seek its own operating millage for two key reasons:

The DPS millage will be done paying off old operating debt in September and must cease collecting operating tax revenue.
The operating revenue the state has been providing to DPSCD since state lawmakers created the district in 2016 will be eliminated, per the budget lawmakers approved July 3.

That means DPSCD must collect its own operating revenue, through a millage every Michigan district is required to levy.

There’s a lot at stake if voters reject the millage — more than $100 million in annual operating revenue for Detroit’s schools.

Below, we answer some important questions about the millage,. Have a question you don’t see answered? Reach out to us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

What is this millage for?

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is seeking an 18-mill operating millage, which equates to an $18 tax for every $1,000 of taxable value, for 20 years that will provide revenue for general operating expenses that can range from classroom programming and supplies to staff salaries. It can’t be used for capital projects.

Who’s affected by this millage?

Anyone can vote on the proposal, as long as they’re registered. But the operating millage is levied on commercial property, rental property, and vacation property. It doesn’t affect primary homeowners. So, if you own and live in your own home, this vote doesn’t affect you.

So what’s the difference between Detroit Public Schools and the Detroit Public Schools Community District? And why is there a change in which of them will collect operating revenue?

DPS was the district that for years educated students and operated schools. But DPS debt had grown over time, and most of it accumulated when the state controlled the district. That cut into the amount of money for classrooms.

To avoid what many thought was looming bankruptcy, lawmakers created DPSCD in 2016 as a separate district. Lawmakers transferred control of schools from DPS to DPSCD, and the new district benefitted from a fresh, debt-free start. DPS remained intact solely to collect revenue from millages. That revenue goes toward paying off the lingering DPS operating debt. (A separate debt millage is paying off capital debt and debt to the state’s revolving loan program.)

Meanwhile, because operating revenue was going to pay off debt, the state beginning in 2016 provided what DPSCD would have received from a millage.

But the state budget approved Friday eliminates $124 million for operating costs the state would have provided to DPSCD next year. It assumes the district will receive those funds from a millage.

Lawmakers made that move because rising Detroit property values mean the debt will be paid off much earlier than planned. DPSCD officials wanted to keep the DPS operating millage revenue flowing to help pay off the rest of the old debt. But the Michigan Department of Treasury said that’s prohibited by state law, and a lawsuit brought by the district ended with the courts siding with the state.

How much money would be generated by this millage?

The millage would generate about $112 million during the 2026-27 school year. DPSCD’s total budget for the coming school year is around $1.1 billion. State and federal funding provides the rest.

Are operating millages required?

Yes, traditional school districts are required to levy an $18 tax for every $1,000 of taxable value to generate operating revenue. DPSCD was an exception during its first 10 years.

Charter schools do not have millages and do not receive millage revenue, except in the case of a countywide school millage.

Why is this vote being held now?

The Aug. 4 primary is the first opportunity for DPSCD to put the proposal on the ballot since the district lost its battle with Michigan Treasury officials in court. If it doesn’t pass next month, the district can revive it during subsequent elections, with the first opportunity being the Nov. 3 general election.

The district could also opt to hold a special election, but that would be costly.

What happens if voters reject the proposal?

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that if voters don’t approve the tax levy by July 1, 2027, the district would face a deficit of $111 million for the 2027-28 school year.

What is unclear is whether the state’s elimination of the operating revenue for the district for the 2026-27 school year will also lead to a shortfall. Vitti said the only way for the district to get its full $10,300 in per-student funding allotted to it by the state “would be to force the tax collections from DPS to DPSCD.” There is no other source of funding the district could tap to fill that gap, he said.

What if tax collections fall below 100%?

Approving the measure is one thing. Taxpayers still must pay their tax bills for the district to collect the projected revenue.

The state has provided DPSCD with 100% of what a millage would have generated. That may not be the case when the district has to rely on actual millage revenue. If property owners don’t pay their bills, less revenue will be generated. The ballot language says revenue generated would be $112 million; Vitti said that assumes a 92% collection rate.

Vitti said he has raised this issue with legislators. It is something that could affect every school district in the state.

“This makes no sense to me from an operating point of view, that you would put a school district in jeopardy of not having as much revenue as they should because of local property tax collection,” Vitti said during a May school board committee meeting. “This is 2026; we shouldn’t be funding school districts like this.”

How will tax incentives affect how much money the district receives for operating purposes?

Vitti said city incentives designed to boost economic development but which reduce tax revenue wouldn’t affect how much operating revenue the district receives, as long as the collection rate is 100%, because the state reimburses the abatements on the operating millage.

In a 2021 Detroit News opinion piece, the authors noted that communities “can offload the cost of their economic development deals onto taxpayers and schoolkids statewide. As a result, these deals receive less public scrutiny, because the state will make up most of the difference anyway.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan lawmakers OK increased student funding and investments in literacy

2026-07-03T18:09:44+00:00

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Michigan schools would receive a 2.5% increase in per-pupil funding in a $22.9 billion state education budget lawmakers pulled an all-nighter to finally approve Friday morning.

The increase means the minimum amount a school would receive is $10,300 per student. That’s up from $10,050 schools got during the school year that just ended.

The budget was approved two days after the July 1 deadline. In 2025, the budget wasn’t approved until early October.

In a news release Friday morning, Whitmer applauded the budget, saying that for education in particular, the budget is strengthening literacy and “setting our students up for success.” It still needs her signature.

The budget includes a significant investment in efforts to improve literacy in order to reverse Michigan students’ years-long struggle in reading, with more money going toward teacher training in science of reading methods, hiring literacy coaches, and tutoring. The budget also continues an investment into a weighted funding formula that provides additional funding for at-risk students and English language learners.

It also includes money that would allow some districts to increase educator compensation, increases funding for students with disabilities and career and technical education students, and increases funding for after-school programs and early childhood education.

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said in a statement that students stand to benefit from the literacy investment. He also highlighted the budget’s continued investment in free school meals for all students, regardless of income.

“The budget also includes important investments in our ongoing efforts to address the teacher shortage so students are taught by highly qualified, certified educators,” Maleyko said. “It increases support for students with the greatest needs, including children who are economically disadvantaged, English learners, and students with disabilities. It also provides additional investments in Career and Technical Education, rural and isolated school districts, student transportation, and dual enrollment opportunities that expand college access.”

The increase in funding for students from low-income homes and English learners means that on top of the $250 per student increase, districts will get even more for such students, acknowledging that those with greater needs require more money to educate. Lawmakers first approved a shift toward a weighted system in 2023. This year’s investment represents a substantial step forward and establishes the system into law.

“Today’s school budget is a big win for all Michigan students, especially students with the greatest needs,” Brian L. Love, state director for EdTrust-Midwest, said in a statement from the education research and advocacy organization.

“For Michigan to become a top ten state for education, we have to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed,” Love said. “While there’s more work to do to ensure schools and educators have the support they need to improve outcomes for all students, this budget continues to put Michigan on the right path.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

How should Michigan’s next governor improve education? We want to hear from you.

2026-06-23T13:21:31+00:00

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Education has become a critical issue in the race for Michigan’s next governor, an election that will determine who has the power to shape policies that improve learning for the state’s 1.3 million public school students.

But how should the winner do it? That’s a question we have for Michigan residents.

Chalkbeat Detroit and the Detroit Free Press are collaborating this election season to cover education issues that are key in the gubernatorial contest. To help shape our coverage, we’re asking you to take a few minutes to fill out the survey below. Your feedback is critical to ensuring we understand what issues are important.

This is a difficult time for education in Michigan. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders who took the exam were considered proficient in reading, compared to 30% nationally.

Meanwhile, in 2025, just 38.9% of Michigan’s third graders were proficient in English language arts on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress.

Math performance has been just as troubling.

Gubernatorial candidates have their own ideas about what it will take to improve Michigan schools, ranging from paying teachers more to replicating what other, more successful, states like Mississippi have done.

What do you think Michigan should do?

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Feds open new investigations into transgender athletes in three Michigan school districts

2026-06-19T14:43:17+00:00

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The U.S. Department of Education says Title IX investigations have been opened into three additional Michigan school districts, this time over allegations the districts are allowing students to compete on athletic teams and use locker rooms based on their gender identities.

The districts include Ann Arbor Public Schools, Monroe Public Schools, and Chippewa Valley Schools. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which will soon move to the U.S. Department of Justice, will conduct the investigations.

A press release from the Education Department alleges the Ann Arbor district allowed a transgender student to compete on the girls volleyball team, the Monroe district required the girls volleyball team to compete against a team with a transgender student and share locker rooms with the student, and the Chippewa Valley district permitted a female student athlete to use the male-only locker room.

“The convoluted practice of allowing students to participate on sex-segregated athletic teams and make use of locker rooms based on ‘gender identity’ is not only known to be unsafe for students, but is a direct violation of federal law,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the press release.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. The Trump administration has used it to target transgender student protections.

A statement sent Friday by Monroe Superintendent Andrew Shaw said there has been a “prior, thorough review of this matter by an independent investigator” who determined that Title IX violation allegations were unsubstantiated.

The statement said the district is dedicated to “fostering a secure and nurturing educational setting for every student,” and complies with all state and federal rules.

“We welcome the opportunity to coordinate with federal officials and are working in full cooperation with the Office for Civil Rights,” the statement read.

A spokesperson for the Chippewa Valley district said in a statement Thursday to Bridge Michigan that it had yet to receive a copy of the complaint and learned about the investigation from the media.

“As a matter of practice, the district cooperates fully with any review conducted by the Office for Civil Rights,” Diane Blain, the spokesperson, said in the statement. “Chippewa Valley Schools remains committed to providing a safe, supportive, and respectful learning environment for all students and to complying with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations. We will continue to work cooperatively with the Office for Civil Rights throughout its review process.”

A spokesperson for the Ann Arbor district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department earlier this year opened Title IX investigations into the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the Lansing School District, and Godfrey-Lee Public Schools.

The department at the time said it is investigating whether the districts have included “sexual orientation or gender ideology content” in any classroom and if parents were notified of their rights to opt their children out of such instruction. It will also determine if transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

The status of those investigations is unclear.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan bills aimed at improving student literacy clear House committee

2026-06-10T19:03:28+00:00

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A Michigan House committee approved several bills Wednesday that are aimed at improving literacy in Michigan schools, including one that would require specialized training for all K-5 teachers.

The full House will now have to weigh the legislation.

Literacy has been a top education priority in the Michigan Legislature and for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as state and national exams show significant challenges for students in reading. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders who took the exam were considered proficient in reading, compared to 30% nationally.

Meanwhile, in 2025, just 38.9% of Michigan’s third graders were proficient in English language arts on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress.

Rep. Nancy DeBoer, a Republican from Holland who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the bills’ advancement is a significant step for the state.

DeBoer said she is excited that the people who attended the hearing “care about the students in the state of Michigan — that they can learn to read, that we can diagnose them if they have issues with dyslexia, that our colleges can train them to be prepared with the phonetic method of reading.”

Here are the three literacy bills the committee passed Wednesday.

House Bill 5646, sponsored by Rep. Tim Kelly, a Republican from Saginaw Township, would require that beginning Sept. 30, 2027, people seeking a teaching certificate in Michigan — whether through a traditional higher education program or an alternative pathway — must have completed a teacher preparation program that included training in the science of reading. The bill also has some specific literacy requirements teacher prep programs would need to meet.
House Bill 5697, sponsored by DeBoer, would require that all Michigan K-5 teachers as well as certified staff who provide, support, or oversee instruction in K-5 receive literacy training in high-quality reading instruction methods.
House Bill 5081, sponsored by Kathy Schmalz, a Republican from Jackson, would require at least one teacher in each school to work with students with dyslexia and be trained in Orton-Gillingham approach principles.” Orton-Gillingham is a highly structured multisensory literacy program.

The committee previously heard testimony on the teacher preparation and mandated training for K-5 teachers legislation. No testimony was heard on those bills Wednesday, but lawmakers did hear testimony on the dyslexia legislation.

Schmalz noted that Michigan has a law that requires schools to test students for dyslexia, but doesn’t have a law mandating teachers be trained to teach kids with dyslexia.

“I’ve seen too many young people with dyslexia pass through school not getting the help they need,” Schmalz said.

Rebecca Hutchinson, superintendent of the Concord Community Schools, said the district integrated Orton-Gillingham with a reading intervention this school year. She said some of the most struggling readers showed dramatic improvement as a result.

Hutchinson also spoke from the perspective of a mother whose son has dyslexia. She said staff at his school had not received training in Orton-Gillingham, so his teacher had significant concerns about his literacy skills, but he is now excelling at reading.

“My son is very, very lucky that we have the resources to do that. If a school district doesn’t have or offer a program like Orton-Gillingham, then these children lose that advantage in being able to access all learning through reading,” Hutchinson said. “The power of this is clear, not only to reach those kids that are struggling to read, really all readers, but also to lift them up to reach their fullest potential and remove a barrier for our families who don’t have the ability to seek this outside literacy support.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Are you a Detroit parent looking for a new school? Read these tips on how to make the best choice.

2026-06-05T14:00:59+00:00

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For a parent, choosing a school for their child can be difficult no matter where they live. But in Detroit, the city’s dizzying array of options can leave parents struggling to figure out the best one.

This year, more parents are looking for schools than usual, with the closure of four schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the uncertain future of the Barack Obama Leadership Academy, which could shut down if it doesn’t find a new charter authorizer.

Some parents will send their children to the closest neighborhood school assigned by the district. Others told reporters at Chalkbeat and BridgeDetroit that they are still weighing their options.

Those parents won’t be the only ones searching for new schools, however. Detroit has constant churn as parents new to the district look for the best options, and existing parents consider new schools because they’re either dissatisfied with where they are, or they just want a school that is a better fit for their children. Just last week alone, multiple parents who are moving into the city posted in a Facebook group for DPSCD parents seeking feedback from others.

Searching for schools in Detroit can be complicated. There is no centralized source of information on both DPSCD and charter schools, said Maria Montoya, a Detroit parent and consultant who has worked with students, families, and administrators in Michigan and nationally on education issues, including enrollment.

The Detroit district has a school locator, as well as a guide to each school in the district, information about district services and programming, and a school-by-school listing that includes QR codes to take readers directly to school websites. The Community Education Commission guide to Detroit schools has a link to a school locator, but it takes viewers to the DPSCD website and has no information about the city’s many charter schools.

“There isn’t a place that you can go that says, ‘okay, here’s all the preschools, here’s all the elementary schools, here’s all the middle schools, no matter who runs them,’ and so … you become an expert on your own, and it’s like you have to figure them out, you know, you’re just kind of going word of mouth, you’re going with, you know, whatever research you can find,” Montoya said.

To help parents navigate this process now and anytime during the year, Chalkbeat Detroit pored over what’s available from various sources, compiling the best tips for parents. The tips below come from interviews with experts, current and past guides produced by the Community Education Commission, the DPSCD guide for picking the perfect school, a guide for parents in Kent County who are exploring enrolling their children in a district outside their boundaries, and other sources.

Step 1: Interview yourself to understand your education priorities for your child

Before parents even begin a school search, they need to ask themselves some key questions so they can determine what their priorities are in a school, Montoya said. Answers to the questions can help a parent decide where to begin their search.

Before beginning a school search, parents should ask themselves questions to determine what their priorities are in a new school.

Some of those questions include:

What does my child need in a new school?
What are their interests?
What specific academic needs need to be considered when choosing a school?
Does the school location need to be near my home or work? Does it need to be near a relative’s home?
Is there a specific type of staff or curriculum I’m looking for? For instance, do I want a school that is focused on the arts, or language, or something else?
For students entering high school, do I want a school that will give my child access to advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes?

Step 2: Finding schools

The first thing to know is the landscape in which you’re searching. Detroit has a little over 100 schools run by DPSCD and about 80 charter school districts.

DPSCD has a number of schools that require either an application to enroll or an exam. Parents interested in these schools, some of which are highly sought after, should become familiar with application deadlines and testing dates. You can learn more here.

There may be no centralized way to find information about all public schools in the city, but there are some options.

On this DPSCD School Locator, you can type in your address and find what schools are nearby. You can also type in an intersection near where you live, or in an area of the city you’d prefer to find a school.

On this Michigan Department of Education map of public school academies (the formal name for charter schools), you can search for all charter schools in Detroit and they’ll show up on a map. Or, as with the DPSCD locator, you can type in an address or intersection and find which charter schools are nearby.

Step 3: Time to research schools

Once you have a list of schools you’re interested in, you will want to explore such metrics as how students perform academically, attendance rates, and staffing.

Researching schools is an important part of the school selection process.

MI School Data is Michigan’s official portal for education data. It’s easy to get lost in all of the information, but there is one spot designed especially for parents: the Parent Dashboard for School Transparency. Parents can search for schools and, when they find what they’re looking for, they’ll find a host of information, including data showing how well students perform academically compared to the rest of the state and similar districts, as well as how much improvement students have demonstrated.

Some other things you’ll want to be aware of: Not all schools follow the same schedule for opening up enrollment. Call the school office or check their websites to know the best time to enroll.

Step 4: Diving deep on possible schools

These 10 questions come courtesy of the Kent Intermediate School District in West Michigan. It’s designed for parents considering enrolling their children in districts outside their boundaries through Michigan’s Schools of Choice law:

Does the school and the community match your expectations? Are buildings presentable? Are teachers and students friendly?
What special services does the school offer? Does it offer the special needs or gifted and talented programming your child might require? Do the extracurricular and athletic offerings match your child’s interests?
Does the curriculum meet state and national standards? Does the curriculum help prepare children for the realities of the working world and the diverse people they will meet? Does the district offer special programming focused in areas of interest to your child?
How does the school integrate technology into the classroom? Is technology integrated into the curriculum? Does the school have a well-equipped media center?
How does the school communicate with families? Do the opportunities for parent involvement meet your needs and desires? Are parents involved in their children’s education?
What is the student-teacher ratio? Will your child get the attention he or she needs to succeed? Are students actively engaged in their education? Is there a sufficient mix of teaching and self-guided instruction to engage your child?
Will school or self-provided transportation meet your child’s needs? Will transportation capabilities allow your child to participate in the before- or after-school activities that meet his or her needs and interests?
Will there be consistency in the curriculum, the staff, and in your child’s friends from year to year?
How does the school handle disciplinary matters? What is the parent’s involvement in disciplinary matters?
What is the school doing to meet demands for improved student achievement? Are parents, teachers, and administrators actively involved in efforts to ensure curriculum and technology are current and appropriate for student needs?

Step 5: Visiting a school, talking to the principal

The following tips on visiting schools come from the Community Education Commission, and provide guidance on what to look for as you’re touring a school, and what questions to ask. Visiting a school is ideal, but it isn’t always possible.

A key part of the school selection process is talking to the principal and school employees to get a sense of whether it's a good fit for your child.

What to look for:

Does the school feel welcoming?
Is the building neat and clean? Do things appear to be in good working order?
Do you feel comfortable with the security measures in place? Does the location seem safe?
How are adults interacting with students?
What are students doing? Do they look interested and engaged?
What technology is available in libraries or classrooms?

Here are questions you should ask:

How are you working to make sure every child is learning and making progress?
How does the school support students who have academic, behavioral/emotional, or social difficulties? How will the school support my student’s needs?
What activities are available to students beyond the classroom?
How experienced are the teachers? How often do teachers get training?
How are parents involved in making decisions at the school?
What kind of homework will my student have?
How does this school keep students safe? What are the school’s discipline policies?
How would you describe the school culture?
How does the school communicate with parents? How often can I expect to hear from the school?
How does this school prepare students for college? For careers? (for high schools)
How does your counselor help students choose classes and make decisions about college, careers, and life after high school? (for high schools)

Step 6: Knowing what documents you need to enroll

Every school and district may have a different set of requirements. But here’s what kind of documents DPSCD requires for parents to enroll.

Parent/Guardian photo ID
Student’s birth certificate or birth record
Student’s immunization record or waiver
Student’s most recent transcript or report cards
Two forms of proof of address

This DPSCD flyer has more details about what’s required, as well as what counts as proof of address.

Step 7: Not a step, just more recommendations

Here are some additional tips from Montoya:

Some schools may already be full and offer only waitlists, but many are still looking to fill seats until Michigan’s school count day on Oct. 7. Families shouldn’t fear that being on a waitlist means their student will not get offered a seat because some students are waitlisted at multiple schools.
Some parents don’t need to see a school in action to feel comfortable enrolling their child. But others find seeing a building and classrooms critical. Most schools host summer enrollment events where families can explore classrooms, meet staff and connect with others to ask questions.
If there’s a school you have a particular interest in, give them a call and ask about upcoming events, any newsletters you might sign up to receive, or start to follow them on social media to receive any news about events they might have in the works or ways to connect with their team over the summer.
While events, lawn signs, and billboards in Detroit aim to attract families, word of mouth remains the main influence on where families choose to send their children. This approach is second only to a school’s reputation within the community. However, families need to understand the school’s current reality, as staff, academics, and culture can change. While seeking advice from your network is helpful, also ensure you have a clear picture of your child’s potential experience at the school.
If a parent finds that the school isn’t working well for their child or family, they should not feel stuck. Start by talking to the school staff to see if issues can be resolved. If nothing works, remember you don’t have to stay at a school that isn’t the right fit. However, Montoya advises families to avoid pulling their child out without having a new placement lined up, as this can cause them to miss important academic milestones.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Proposed Detroit district budget prioritizes pay boosts, but Vitti warns of uncertainty ahead

2026-05-22T10:00:00+00:00

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The Detroit school board is on track to approve a budget for the next school year that increases pay for all employees, expands initiatives aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism, hires more counselors, and increases funding for teacher supplies so families aren’t expected to contribute.

Detroit Public Schools Community District board members got a preview of what is proposed in the $1.1 billion budget for the 2026-27 school year. The board will vote on it next month.

The budget anticipates a 1% enrollment increase. Currently there are 49,134 students. The budget was built conservatively with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget proposal, plus proposals from the Michigan House and the Michigan Senate, in mind.

“Everything is funded as it was last year,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “There’s not going to be any major changes.”

Vitti warned of uncertainty beyond the next school year, citing the district’s rising costs and inequitable funding from the state. The $94 million the district received from the settlement of a literacy lawsuit ends after the next fiscal year, leaving questions about how DPSCD can maintain the initiatives that money funded. Also a concern is the district must soon revert to a traditional funding model that relies on operating millage revenue to cover its operating costs. If collection rates falter, that would affect how much money the district receives.

Here are some of the key highlights of the budget proposal. Dollar amounts weren’t included in the budget materials.

While the district is in the middle of negotiations with all of its employee unions, Vitti said the budget will fund salary increases and onetime bonuses for staff.
The district will expand a pilot program that provided yellow school bus transportation beginning this school year for some students at Henry Ford High School and East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney. Pershing High School and Cody High School will join the program, which seeks to improve attendance, for the 2026-27 school year.
The district would hire seven additional high school counselors, which would mean the district would have a ratio of one counselor for every 250 students. That is the ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association. Michigan schools had one counselor for every 565 students during the 2024-25 school year.
Middle school students would be included in an attendance incentive program that this year paid high school students $100 a week for each week they had perfect attendance. The middle school students would earn $50 for each perfect attendance week during the program. The program ran from January to March this school year.
The district would increase funding for teacher supplies and materials and establish a minimum supply needed for all schools. The intent is to fully fund supplies and materials. Vitti said the board has made it clear “that families should not be required to give extra supplies to individual teachers or classrooms.”

Board President LaTrice McClendon asked Vitti what it would take to follow the city of Detroit’s lead and establish a minimum wage of $21.45 an hour in the district. Vitti replied that the district had done an analysis and would share the amount with the board, but he noted that it “exceeded what we thought we could afford in the next two years.”

The enrollment projection prompted discussion among board members. McClendon said she’d like to see the district shoot for an enrollment increase of 3% to 4%. Vitti said the 1% goal is consistent with how enrollment is trending statewide.

“We need to think bigger, because we have kids who want to come back, and I don’t think folks realize all that we offer,” McClendon said. “I mean, we’re doing a lot of amazing things. We have work to do. I’m not saying we don’t, but we are making strides.”

Board member Bessie Harris urged the district to promote neighborhood schools.

“We see the Cass and the Renaissance and the Kings and the Southeastern and the Palmer Park, but we don’t see the Thirkells, we don’t see the Spains. We need to brag about our neighborhood schools, not just the application and test-in schools, but get down to the nitty gritty, because in every school is something they can highlight.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Lawmakers push bills that would waive key state rules to give schools freedom to innovate

2026-05-20T22:38:16+00:00

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Michigan school districts would be able to bypass some state requirements to launch innovative programs that would otherwise be impossible to create, under legislation discussed Wednesday in Lansing.

The legislation, House Bill 5983 and House Bill 5984, would allow districts to waive seat-time rules that establish how much time students must spend in school to receive state funding, as well as some graduation requirements.

Such rules can stifle innovation, speakers told lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday of the House Education & Workforce Committee.

“Some of the innovations that we want to try are at risk of going against existing state rules and regulations that can jeopardize our state aid, and none of us can afford to do that,” said Alena Zachery-Ross, superintendent of the Ypsilanti Community Schools. Zachery-Ross is among nearly 90 school district leaders who are part of the Future Learning Council, which meets monthly to discuss innovation.

The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Nancy DeBoer, who chairs the committee and is a Republican from Holland, and Rep. Jimmie Wilson, a Democrat from Ypsilanti who is a vice chair of the committee.

DeBoer said examples of the type of programming the legislation would encourage include career and technical education, work-based learning programs, internships, apprenticeships, job shadows, and competency-based education.

“The legislation would create an incubator type environment for developing and incrementally improving instructional options that are needed for our students’ future and our state’s economy,” she said.

“Our educators want to do this work,” said Dan Behm, executive director of Education Advocates of West Michigan, an organization that represents dozens of school districts in Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties. “They want to innovate, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

But schools are dealing with a student engagement problem, Behm said. Students are excited to learn as young children, but the joy is diminished by the time they reach high school, he said. His organization randomly asked 28 students attending 28 different high schools in Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties to describe high school in one word. Without hearing each other’s answers, he said, 22 of them responded: “Boring.”

To make school less boring and more relevant, schools need to provide the prerequisite knowledge students need and teach skills that will serve students after graduation, he said.

“Schools should be about providing a safe place to learn and practice what it is that adults actually do, and when we provide those opportunities in school, students are highly engaged,” Behm said. “We see this in the fine arts. Why? Because students are actually practicing with the tools that adults use. They’re practicing with the scores and the playbooks and everything that adults use.”

Former Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, testified in support of the legislation, and DeBoer said former Gov. John Engler, also a Republican, attended the hearing and supported the legislation. In addition to Zachery-Ross, lawmakers heard support from several other superintendents, all of whom discussed their current efforts to innovate to try to meet students’ changing learning needs.

Supporters pointed out that the legislation would provide flexibility to traditional school districts, intermediate school districts, and charter schools that volunteer to implement innovative ideas. Wilson said one of the features that was important to him was that innovation plans would need to be approved by both the local teachers union and school board.

Two Democrats on the committee said that while they support the idea of innovation, they are concerned about equity and whether less-resourced districts, those who struggle to pass bond proposals, and those with heavy turnover of staff would be able to innovate in the same ways as their more well-resourced peers.

“How can that challenge be met when a school district has to deal with those challenges versus a school district that’s on more stable ground?” asked Rep. Matt Koleszar, a Democrat from Plymouth.

The goals are laudable, Koleszar said. But, “I want to make sure we are not accidentally or inadvertently creating groups of haves and have nots.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Report: Michigan’s neediest students lack access to advanced coursework.

2026-05-19T03:59:00+00:00

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Michigan has vast inequities in access to advanced coursework, according to a new report that says students of color, students with disabilities, students from low income homes, and students in rural and urban communities are missing out the most.

The report, released Monday by the Education Trust-Midwest, urges lawmakers and school officials to do more to address the lack of access to Advanced Placement, dual enrollment in college-level courses, and career and technical education classes.

The inequities exist despite evidence that access benefits students, Charlotte Pierce, senior policy analyst at the Royal Oak-based policy and research organization, told Chalkbeat in a recent interview about the report.

“When students are given access to rigorous coursework that leads to increased engagement, fewer absences and suspensions, and higher graduation rates. But we know for too many Michigan students, access is out of reach,” Pierce said.

The research organization’s analysis of available data found that Michigan’s wealthier school districts have, on average, over seven times more AP course options than the highest poverty districts, and that students with the greatest needs also enroll in AP coursework at lower rates than their peers.

“This disparity is troubling, and it comes with consequences: fewer AP opportunities means less competitive college applications and college credit-earning opportunities,” Pierce wrote in the report.

Other findings:

Far fewer Michigan students are enrolled in dual enrollment classes compared to national rates. Also, students of color made up 22% of students enrolled in dual enrollment courses, but they comprised 34% of Michigan’s high school enrollment during the 2021-22 school year, the most recent year data was available for the analysis.
Students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities pass Algebra 1 at lower rates than the state average.

An example of the Algebra 1 finding: Just 64% of Black students passed Algebra 1 by the 10th grade during the 2021-22 school year. The statewide average was 74%.

The Algebra 1 statistic is important because the class is usually taken during the ninth grade “as a gateway to future opportunities” and is directly linked to success in advanced math, Pierce said.

The report offers a number of recommendations for addressing the inequities. One of them suggests schools automatically enroll qualified students in advanced classes, requiring the students to opt out if they want.

“Using an ‘opt-out’ policy rather than ‘opt-in’ process reduces the risk of gatekeeping practices that can inhibit qualified students from enrolling in courses they would succeed in,” Pierce wrote.

Here are a few of the other recommendations:

The state should automatically waive fees for students to take AP, International Baccalaureate, and College-Level Examination Program exams for students enrolled in the highest-poverty school districts in Michigan.
The state should invest resources in expanding dual enrollment capacity in Michigan high schools, especially in districts with the highest concentrations of poverty.
The state should make completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a graduation requirement.

The organization also calls for the state to increase the school counselor pipeline so districts can hire more of them. Currently, Michigan counselors have caseloads well above the national average.

“The role that school counselors play is vital in shaping post secondary pathways, especially for students with the greatest needs and first generation college-going students. But Michigan schools lack the counseling capacity to adequately serve their students.”

“If we are serious about expanding access to rigorous coursework, we have to start by

investing in the educators and counselors who make that access possible,” Curtis L. Lewis, founder/president of Boldly Moving Education Ahead, an advocacy group that pushes for equitable education. “When teachers are supported and students have consistent guidance, we see stronger engagement, higher achievement, and more young people prepared for what comes next.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan education board opposes Trump’s tax credit scholarship program

2026-05-12T22:46:58+00:00

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Michigan’s State Board of Education voted Tuesday to oppose the federal tax credit scholarship program that allows people to receive tax credits for donations they make to organizations that provide private school scholarships.

Congress approved the program last year as part of the federal budget bill. It provides up to $1,700 in annual tax credits for people who donate money to eligible scholarship-granting organizations that give students money for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

The State Board resolution urges Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to not opt into the federal program.

The eight-member board, which is controlled by Democrats, voted 6-2 to oppose the scholarships, with the two Republicans on the board voting not to oppose. The resolution is only an advisory. Whitmer has the power to opt Michigan into the program.

Around 30 governors, most of them Republicans, have done so already. While several Democratic governors have opted in or said they plan to, Democratic support has been slow. A spokesperson for Whitmer didn’t respond to a question about whether or when she will decide on the program.

Critics of the scholarships have said they are no different than giving parents publicly funded vouchers to send their kids to private school.

“It has been made clear that Michigan voters have already decided this in two votes,” said Pamela Pugh, the board president, referring to statewide votes in 1970 and 2000 that were clear in prohibiting public funds from going toward non-public schools. Michigan’s Constitution includes the prohibition.

“Public resources should strengthen public schools,” Pugh, a Democrat from Saginaw, said Tuesday.

The resolution says that public resources should serve schools “that are open to all children and accountable to the people of Michigan, not toward subsidizing private education systems that are not subject to the same public governance, transparency, admissions obligations, and civil rights protections.”

Supporters including board member Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, countered the argument about Michigan’s Constitution prohibitions, saying there are “zero constitutional concerns.”

“We’re not talking about tax dollars,” McMillin said, who called support for the tax-credit scholarships “a no-brainer.”

Here’s what the Michigan Constitution says:

“No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school.”

It goes on to say that “no payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students.”

Timothy Schmig, executive director of the Michigan Association of Christian Schools, noted that Indiana and Ohio have signed on to the program. If Michigan doesn’t, he said, there is concern that Michigan would “lose students and tax base moving to states that are tax friendly.”

Schmig was one of several people who urged board members to oppose the resolution. The board also heard from Susan Campbell from the Michigan Education Justice Coalition, which is urging Whitmer not to opt in to the program.The coalition is an education advocacy group made up of dozens of organizations across the state.

“Michigan has a long history of folks fighting to protect public education because strong public schools strengthen communities and give everyone, every child, the opportunity to succeed,” Campbell said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Special education teacher is the new Michigan Teacher of the Year

2026-05-06T19:34:22+00:00

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A Lake Orion teacher is Michigan’s newest top classroom leader.

Erik Meerschaert, a special education teacher at Lake Orion High School in Oakland County, was surprised Wednesday by state education officials with the announcement that he is the Michigan Teacher of the Year for 2026-27.

Lake Orion High School special education teacher Erik Meerschaert is the 2026-27 Michigan Teacher of the Year.

“I am really without words,” said Meerschaert, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Education. “I am lucky enough to teach here at Lake Orion ... and be a part of this community where we can have impact that has been truly incredible.”

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko and several members of the State Board of Education were on hand to make the announcement.

Meerschaert will go on to be Michigan’s candidate for the National Teacher of the Year award for 2027.

“Teachers like Erik Meerschaert care about the foundation of our education system and the heart of our schools,” Maleyko said in a statement. “He ignites curiosity, builds confidence and opens doors of opportunity for every child. His influence goes far beyond the classroom — he helps shape the students to become innovators and leaders who define our future.”

Michigan each year recognizes a top teacher who then goes on to become an advocate for teachers across the state. Meerschaert will do that in part by participating in regular meetings of the State Board of Education, sharing a report each time on issues that are of concern to teachers. He will join the governor’s Educator Advisory Council, a group that advises Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and provides recommendations on education legislation, the MDE news release says.

Ten finalists were selected for the state honor earlier this year. Here are the nine finalists, who represent different regions of the state, according to a February press release.

Sarah Juday, an elementary teacher at Superior Hills Elementary School in Marquette Area Public Schools.
Krista Loeffler, an elementary teacher at Clara B. Bolen Elementary School in Tawas Area Schools.
Erica Gorzen, a visual arts teacher at Portland High School in Portland Public Schools.
Luke Kanine, a Spanish and physical education teacher at E.F. Rittmueller Middle School in Frankenmuth School District.
Angela Jackson, an elementary teacher at Woodland Developmental Center in the St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency.
Amanda Bush, an elementary teacher at Dansville Elementary in Dansville Schools.
Julie Herwick, an English teacher at Cassopolis High School in Cassopolis Public Schools.
Carrie Barden, a math and science teacher at Tecumseh Middle School in Tecumseh Public Schools.
Brandis Bean, an elementary teacher at University Preparatory Academy in Detroit.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Lawsuit filed on behalf of DPSCD students seeks equitable funding for the district

2026-05-05T21:57:32+00:00

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A new lawsuit makes some familiar and some new claims that the state of Michigan has shortchanged students in the Detroit school district.

The lawsuit, filed in April in state court, seeks to require the state to increase funding to the Detroit Public Schools Community District and to eliminate debt incurred by the city’s school system while it was under state control.

Troy attorney Gerard Mantese filed the lawsuit on behalf of a parent of two DPSCD students and other “similarly situated students.” The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, names as defendants Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko, and members of the State Board of Education.

The State Board met in closed session Tuesday morning to receive legal guidance about the lawsuit. When members returned to open session, the board voted to direct Pamela Pugh, the board chair, to seek guidance and advice from the Michigan Attorney General’s office.

Some of the claims in the lawsuit are similar to a “right to read” lawsuit filed against the state in 2016 that alleged the state denied Detroit district students an education because of poor building conditions, poor academic conditions, lack of materials, and use of uncertified teachers. The lawsuit was settled with the state in 2020, and the district eventually received $94.4 million from the state to support literacy efforts.

The new lawsuit makes similar claims about building and academic conditions in the district. But it also makes newer arguments that funding for DPSCD is inequitable compared to other districts in the state.

“The State holds out public education as the great equalizer, a mandatory contract between the government and its youngest citizens: attend, and you will be given the tools to succeed,” the lawsuit says. “Yet, for DPSCD students, this is a broken promise. They are forced to rely on a system that the State itself helped to break, that it supervised during the running up of a huge debt, and that it now maintains as a source of ongoing constitutional injury.”

The Detroit district receives $10,050 per student from the state as its base amount of pupil funding. A majority of school districts, as well as charter schools, also receive that amount. But some districts — many of them in wealthier communities — receive more. When the current funding system was created in the mid-1990s those districts were allowed to continue spending at a higher level, with voter approval.

DPSCD’s total revenues do increase substantially with federal funding, but those dollars have less flexibility in how they can be spent.

“DPSCD needs more funding to even have a chance at providing an equal education to students in Detroit public schools,” the lawsuit says.

The state has been targeted in the lawsuits because it had some form of control over Detroit Public Schools — which was the district that educated students until 2016 — from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2006 through 2016. In 2016, because of crushing debt in DPS, a legislative initiative led to the creation of DPSCD to educate students. DPS remains to collect tax revenue to pay off legacy debt.

Mantese’s legal specialty is corporate law, but he has handled civil rights cases. He told Chalkbeat Tuesday that over the years, while providing volunteer legal work in Detroit, he’s heard from many parents who’ve complained about poor school building conditions.

“There’s unacceptably hot conditions, sometimes freezing temperatures, mold issues, bathrooms that don’t work — a whole host of facility issues that just makes it very difficult to have an environment that provides for a good education,” Mantese said.

DPSCD has invested heavily in its facilities in the last decade, dedicating about $700 million of its federal pandemic relief funding as part of its facility master plan. But that only addresses a fraction of the district’s $2.1 billion infrastructure needs.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has for years pushed for equitable funding and made similar arguments as those cited in the current lawsuit. A spokesperson said Vitti “does support the underlying argument made in the lawsuit.”

“Michigan’s K-12 funding formula continues to fund students unequally,” Chrystal Wilson, spokesperson for the district, said in a statement. “Governor Whitmer and recent legislatures have narrowed the gap over the years to address the inequality, but it still exists. At the same time, little has been done to support lower income districts to address facility issues. This is not fair to our students or staff.”

The lawsuit includes an affidavit from Jeremy Vidito, DPSCD’s chief financial officer, in which he says the inequities in funding “have a direct and substantial impact on the ability of DPSCD to provide safe, modern, and equitable learning environments for its students.”

“They also create long-term structural disadvantages that impair the District’s operational capacity and financial stability,” he wrote.

School districts are barred in state law from using state funding to sue the state. Mantese said district officials played no role in the crafting of the lawsuit, and he reached out to Vitti when a draft of the lawsuit was done. He is not being paid by anyone for his legal services.

LaMar Lemmons, who served on the boards for Detroit Public Schools and DPSCD, has long pushed for the district itself to sue the state. He had not read the lawsuit but described it as “not only necessary but long overdue.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

As Michigan lawmakers push their ideas for funding schools, district leaders urge inflationary increases

2026-04-28T21:45:41+00:00

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Michigan superintendents say they’re not asking for much from lawmakers in this year’s state budget.

They would like to see school districts get funding increases that account for inflation. They want lawmakers to stop the years-long practice of diverting money from the state School Aid Fund and using it to fund higher education. And they want lawmakers to approve a state budget by the July 1 deadline to avoid what happened last year when lawmakers weren’t able to compromise on a final budget until October.

“We’re not asking for the moon,” said Steven Tunnicliff, superintendent for the Genesee Intermediate School District.

He and nine other superintendents from intermediate school districts — agencies that provide varied services to local schools within their borders — spoke last week during a virtual media roundtable. Earlier that week, the Michigan House passed its version of the state budget, including how schools would be funded. The Michigan Senate unveiled its K-12 school budget proposal, which cleared an appropriations subcommittee before being moved to the full Senate.

In recent years, lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have touted record increases in funding for schools, because the amount allocated has consistently increased. But Angie McArthur, superintendent for the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District, said funding increases in the last two years have fallen below the rate of inflation.

“That means that while the number on paper gets a little bigger, the real purchasing power or what schools can actually provide with that money goes down,” she said. “Energy costs have risen, health insurance premiums have gone up, transportation costs have gone up, and supplies cost more. The funding increase doesn’t cover any of that.”

The superintendents argued the School Aid Fund was created to fund K-12 schools. But for years, lawmakers have paid for higher education with money from the fund. They cited a recent poll commissioned by the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, an advocacy group for public schools, that showed a large majority of residents who were polled oppose diverting the money. (The K-12 Alliance hosted Thursday’s media roundtable.)

The budget proposals show lawmakers are far apart on critical issues such as whether districts should receive more funding for some of the most vulnerable students in the state. The Michigan House is controlled by Republicans, while the Michigan Senate is controlled by Democrats.

Below are some highlights of the proposals.

There is agreement on per-pupil funding

Michigan schools would receive a minimum grant of $10,300 per pupil. That’s up from $10,050 for the current fiscal year. The grant is the lowest amount a school district or charter school can receive.

A big debate this budget session: whether to expand weighted funding

Michigan has been moving toward a weighted funding system through a formula called the opportunity index. The index has allowed the state to provide additional funding for school districts for students from low-income families and students who speak little or no English.

The Senate’s proposal would establish that system into law for the next 15 years, giving school districts stability and ensuring there would be annual increases in funding for students from low-income homes and English language learners over that 15-year period. This is how it would work: For the coming school year, a district with the highest proportion of students from low-income families would receive a base amount of $10,300 for all students. For each student identified as economically disadvantaged, a district would receive nearly 27% above that base amount for the 2026-27 school year and 47% above it for the 2040-41 school year.

Whitmer had a similar recommendation in her budget proposal. But the House budget would maintain the current system.

School meals would be available to all again

Both the House and Senate have continued funding to provide free meals for students, regardless of income. Both versions would extend the program to include private schools. Last year, nonpublic schools were included as a one-time expenditure.

The House budget goes further, banning the sale of soda or candy in schools that participate in the universal meals program. It also bans schools from serving food that includes such chemical additives as brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, and multiple food dyes.

Additional money for tutoring, literacy proposed

Both budget proposals include money for tutoring providers to apply for and receive state grants to provide high-impact tutoring for students.

The House budget also includes a new program that would reimburse parents of at-risk students for the costs of private tutoring.

Both budgets invest more in efforts to improve literacy, given the poor academic performance of Michigan students on state and national exams. The House budget also provides $100 million to improve math performance, another area of concern for Michigan students.

School safety and mental health

Lawmakers would increase funding for school safety and mental health. What’s interesting here is that the Senate version strikes some of the controversial language that prompted dozens of school districts to sue the state last year. This happened after the budget approved in October included a new requirement that in order to get the money, district and school leaders had to agree to waive privilege to disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected if a school shooting or other mass casualty event occurs. They also had to agree to allow a comprehensive state investigation of such incidents. Both the Michigan Court of Claims and the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled the language did not violate the state Constitution.

The Senate proposal would only require districts to agree to be subject to a comprehensive investigation after a mass casualty event. It removes mention of waiving privilege.

The House version keeps most of the language intact, but it adds wording that says “the waiver of any privilege by a recipient of funds under this section does not waive any privilege or rights held by any individual, including employees of the recipient.”

Meanwhile, the Senate proposal provides funding for community violence intervention programs that prevent youth violence.

House proposal would penalize districts for DEI, curriculum featuring race and gender stereotyping

The House budget seeks to impose financial penalties if a district uses state money to fund diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs; if a district’s curriculum includes race or gender stereotyping, and if a district allows transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports or provides multistall unisex bathrooms for students. Finally, the proposal would require districts to notify parents or legal guardians if a child requests to use a different name or pronoun in school.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

How this Detroit teacher uses an outdoor garden to turn students on to healthy eating

2026-04-14T18:36:35+00:00

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“I don’t eat that,” are the famous last words teacher Shirley Brezzell hears from her fifth graders when she introduces food the kids think they won’t like, such as pickled beets, pickled onions, eggplant, and oatmeal burgers.

Brezzell teaches science and social studies at Detroit’s Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. But she’s particularly passionate about exposing students to fruits and vegetables through an outdoor school garden she created and manages, and teaching them about healthy eating. She incorporates the work in the garden into her lessons, showing students during a lesson on matter how food changes while being cooked. Consequently, she’s able to turn those “I don’t eat that” comments into appreciation.

“When they see the process from seed to a piece of fruit that they can actually eat, it is mind-blowing. They are in awe,” Brezzell said. “Oh, and then when you taste it, and when it comes off of the vine, and it is all organic, it’s a whole other experience.”

If you walk into the outdoor garden, you’ll see plenty of garden beds where fruits and vegetables grow. You’ll also see Walmart recyclable bags that students use to grow everything from greens and cabbage to tomatoes and potatoes. Parents will create their own bags during an event this month.

Shirley J. Brezzell, the 2026 Elementary School Science Teacher of the year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association, is a science and social studies teacher at Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School.

Brezzell was recently named the 2026 Elementary School Science Teacher of the year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association. The Detroit native, who graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1975, spent much of her career in the banking industry during a 22-year stretch that took her from working as a teller to an operations manager for a bank. When that bank closed, she began homeschooling her children. Soon after, she began substitute teaching in the Detroit district and by 2011, she had become a certified teacher. Brezzell hasn’t for one moment regretted her decision to become a teacher.

“My regret is that I didn’t do it 100 years ago. Absolutely, this is my calling,” Brezzell said.

Her career will likely end soon, as Brezzell considers retirement. But that won’t happen until after this summer, because her garden supplies plants for her students’ families to grow and provides fresh fruits and vegetables to the wider school community during the summer,

“I have to bring the harvest,” Brezzell said.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite unit to teach is on matter, as it utilizes food as the medium to show the various stages of matter. I love taking the students out to our school’s garden to pick fresh fruits and veggies and then bringing them back inside to cook them together. It’s a perfect hands-on way to show how matter changes — how food transforms with cooking — and it also gives me the opportunity to introduce them to new flavors they might not have tried before. Altogether, it’s a really engaging and memorable way to connect science to everyday life.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom (or your school)?

Mackenzie is in a neighborhood of Detroit that’s considered a food desert. While I officially teach fifth grade science and social studies, I also manage our school garden. Alongside 10 stationary garden beds, I created the “Garden in a Bag” project where students plant and maintain portable gardens, in a Walmart recyclable bag. This way, they can potentially have fresh produce all summer, even if they move. Plus, the veggies from our on-site beds go straight to Mackenzie families, helping everyone enjoy fresh veggies and a healthier lifestyle.

How do you get your students engaged with science?

In my classroom, I set high expectations and we dive into science from every angle. We follow the curriculum, do hands-on projects, work in the garden, and even use those vegetables in cooking as a way to show how matter changes. And through that, I introduce them to fresh fruits and vegetables they might not usually try. That’s truly my passion — giving them a glimpse of a healthier lifestyle while they learn. At the heart of my teaching, I’m passionate about connecting what we learn in class to real-life choices. I want my students to feel empowered not only to understand science concepts, but also to see how these lessons influence a healthier lifestyle. It’s all about giving them the tools to make good decisions about what they eat and how they care for themselves.

Tell us how you came to create an outdoor oasis for your students.

Four years ago, I joined a group of researchers from Michigan State University in a project called Teaching Science Outdoors: The Urban Project, or TSOUP. With encouragement from them and through American Forests, we planted a total of 65 trees over two plantings. Then, a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation helped us refurbish the garden with garden beds and a hoop house, and with a series of mini-grants from TSOUP, we were able to expand even more.

In the past year, the district has added a new shelter and this spring, will finish the cement work under it. They’re also adding eight picnic tables to create a third outdoor classroom on the patio near the middle school side of the building, and the original outdoor classroom is being moved elsewhere on the property for its own cement work.

And finally, we received another grant from the Whole Kids Foundation that allowed us to build an irrigation station, solving our watering problem with a 450-gallon water capacity. This station will also have cement work and create a comfortable place for students and teachers to sit, cool off, and relax.

How do you approach news events in your classroom? Please provide an example.

I tell them the truth. For instance, we really dove into the pause in governmental food benefits. That was a genuine challenge many families faced, and having those real, honest conversations allowed us to lay a foundation where we can have meaningful discussions about the news and how it impacts their daily lives. This pause also gave me another opportunity to talk about eating healthfully even on a budget, whether that was making oatmeal burgers or finding creative ways to put together a whole meal from basic kitchen staples.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I’m a product of Detroit Public Schools, graduating from Cass Tech in January of 1975. My parents and teachers instilled in me the importance of education and how it could afford me many opportunities. To that end, I work tirelessly to help my students see the importance of their education and their potential to become whatever they want to be. To that end, I am a demanding teacher. I have high expectations for my kids and most rise to the occasion. My goal is to make sure that when my students, after a year with me, move to the next grade, they are better than when I first met them. They will be tired, but they will KNOW the material.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

Lol! What a notion! Like all of us, I wear many hats. Wife, mom, sister, aunt, church member, and the list goes on. This year I am learning to at least try to put Shirley first. What does this look like? I have a bedtime. I am taking my vitamins regularly. I am promising myself to exercise daily. I am drinking WATER and have mostly eliminated sugar from my diet. But above all, I am learning to take time for just me.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit students to be able to ride city buses for free starting Wednesday

2026-04-08T15:30:36+00:00

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Students across Detroit will be able to ride city buses for free in a new program the city council approved Tuesday.

The Ride to Rise program is being launched Wednesday in part to address high rates of chronic absenteeism of Detroit students attending schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and charter schools.

In her proposal to the council last week, Mayor Mary Sheffield said the free bus passes will also expand access to safe and reliable transportation, extracurricular activities, employment opportunities, and supportive services.

Sheffield, during her State of the City address Tuesday night, described the program as a “show your ID, ride for free” program.

It’s unclear how much it will cost.

“This is an opportunity for us, under Mayor Sheffield’s leadership, to learn more about how transit and DDOT in particular can work more effectively for students and their families,” Detroit Department of Transportation Director Robert Cramer said during the council meeting on Tuesday. Cramer said DDOT will also seek feedback about bus routes, schedules, bus stop changes, and amenities.

Cramer said they’ll present the feedback to the council and possibly submit an ordinance amendment to change the fare system and create a longer-term program in September or October when students return to school.

DPSCD doesn’t provide yellow school bus transportation for high school students, though exceptions are made, including for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. The district does pay for bus passes for high school students who want them.

The district won’t have to pay for the city bus passes during the pilot. DPSCD “is working on plans to reinvest that funding in strategies that expand our work in improving student attendance and enrollment,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.

Sheffield was more specific during her Tuesday evening speech, saying the city “reached an agreement in principle with the board and the superintendent so that the money currently spent on bus fare for students will now go towards much-needed after-school programs.”

Vitti said in an emailed statement that the district supports the city’s effort “to empower youth to use citywide transportation without cost or barriers.”

“This investment by the City will create greater awareness and access to citywide transportation,” Vitti said. “We believe this will support the District’s efforts in promoting stronger student attendance citywide.”

Transportation has long been a challenge for Detroiters, and it’s particularly so for families trying to navigate a range of options: yellow school buses, city buses, ride share services, their own transportation, or relying on others to get their children to school. Those challenges have made it difficult for many children to get to school regularly.

About one-third of families in Detroit don’t own a car, and 30% don’t have a reliable way to get their children to school every day, according to a report on transportation from Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, or Detroit PEER, at Wayne State University. Researchers there have done extensive research on chronic absenteeism and its causes.

Half of the school-age children in Detroit attend DPSCD schools. The rest attend charter schools or suburban schools. While many of the city charter schools provide some form of transportation, parents often have to get their kids to a preset location for them to hop on a bus.

“Transportation is one of, if not the most important issue for student attendance in Detroit,” said Jeremy Singer, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Michigan-Flint and research affiliate at Detroit PEER.

Singer said the mayor’s initiative is an admirable way to tackle a challenge that schools can’t solve. He hopes the city goes further by addressing safety issues on city buses and at bus stops, as well as the frequency and reliability of bus service.

In a survey Detroit PEER completed in 2022, 40% of parents said free DDOT rides would be at least somewhat helpful. High school parents were more likely to say it would be helpful.

Among the transportation recommendations Detroit PEER made in its report last year:

The city should work with Detroit schools to coordinate public transit schedules and stops with public school schedules and locations.
DDOT should collect better data on public school students who ride public transportation to better understand their schedules and needs.
The city should work with local schools to increase safety, lighting, and complete sidewalks so more children can walk or bike to school when they live close enough.

Few students now are taking DDOT buses daily to get to school, Singer said.

Results from the 2022 survey showed that just 10% of parents said their children rode DDOT to get to and from school. Broken down by grade level, 18% of parents of high school-aged children said their kids sometimes took DDOT, compared to 6% for parents of K-8 children, Singer said.

For parents of high school-aged students, 8% said their children rode DDOT daily, 4% said they rode DDOT weekly or monthly, and 6% said they rode DDOT infrequently, Singer said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Editor’s note, April 8, 2026: This story was updated to reflect a slight change in the name of the program since the city council approved it last week.

Michigan lawmakers take aim at fixing the state’s K-12 school literacy crisis

2026-03-18T21:11:48+00:00

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Lawmakers in Lansing are moving aggressively to address Michigan’s K-12 literacy crisis with multiple pieces of legislation that target training for teachers, retention for struggling third graders, and consequences for teacher preparation programs.

The legislative action comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made addressing literacy a priority for 2026, her last year in office. During her State of the State address last month, Whitmer detailed steps already underway to improve literacy and recommendations in her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year. Among them is additional money she wants to invest in high-impact literacy tutoring, high-quality curriculum, literacy training for teachers, and hiring of literacy coaches.

“This is a serious problem,” Whitmer said in the address. “Our kids deserve better.”

Just 38.9% of third graders were proficient on the English language arts portion of the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress last year. It was the lowest performance of third graders in the exam’s 11-year history, Chalkbeat and Bridge Michigan reported.

On the national front, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders were proficient in 2024 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, an exam known as the “nation’s report card.” That compares to 30% being proficient nationally. Michigan students’ performance has been stagnant and declining even as other states that have invested heavily in early literacy have improved. Michigan now ranks 44th in the nation for fourth-grade reading on the NAEP.

This isn’t the first time Michigan lawmakers have taken aim at the state’s challenges with literacy. In 2016, fueled by similarly troubling test results in reading, lawmakers passed a Read by Grade 3 law that required early intervention, the hiring of literacy coaches, and the retention of third graders struggling to reade. The retention rule has since been rescinded. Ten years since that broad effort, Michigan’s student literacy problem continues.

Here are the literacy initiatives being considered in Michigan

House Bill 5697 would require that by the 2031-32 school year, all K-5 educators who provide, support, or oversee instruction, including in literacy, must have been trained in the science of reading, which refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge. The bill doesn’t specify a specific training program, but a legislative analysis by the House Fiscal Agency says the current training being encouraged for Michigan teachers — Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS — meets the requirements of the legislation.

House Bill 5646 would require that, beginning Sept. 30, 2027, an individual seeking a teaching certificate in Michigan must have completed a teacher preparation program that included training in the science of reading.

House Bill 5520 would bring back the third-grade retention policy Michigan previously had in place. The bill would require struggling third graders, who would be identified based on their state test scores, repeat the grade. There would be some “good cause” exemptions, such as for students with disabilities whose educational plan team leader exempts them from the requirement. Michigan’s previous third-grade retention law, which went into effect during the 2020-21 school year, was rescinded in 2023 when Democrats controlled the legislature and the governor’s office. They argued the law was punitive and wasn’t working.

During a Wednesday hearing of the House Education and Workforce committee, Rep. Nancy DeBoer, a Republican from Holland who chairs the committee, said reading gives children the independence to pick up a book and go anywhere.

“Unless you’re in the state of Michigan and you’re three-quarters of the students in eighth grade who can’t read or do math in a competent manner,” she said. “That is a tragedy we are responsible for.”

DeBoer introduced the bipartisan bill that would make training in the science of reading a requirement for K-5 teachers.

The state has funded LETRS training, but thus far hasn’t made it a requirement. In September, the State Board of Education urged that it become a mandate for all K-5 teachers, saying the lack of one “has led to inconsistent participation of Michigan educators and inconsistent access to instruction based on the science of reading for Michigan’s students.”

The science of reading also figures prominently in a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Tim Kelly, a Republican from Saginaw Township. He described the bill as “a long overdue rescue mission for the next generation of Michigan’s workers, citizens, and leaders.”

Kelly said Wednesday that teacher preparation programs that don’t equip teachers with the tools needed to teach children to read have forfeited their right to operate in Michigan.

“We must stop subsidizing failure,” Kelly said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Republican effort to stop school lessons around gender identity rejected by state education board

2026-03-10T21:48:39+00:00

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Democrats on Michigan’s State Board of Education rejected a GOP effort Tuesday that was aimed at ending the teaching of gender identity in schools.

Nikki Snyder, a Republican from Goodrich, proposed adding an agenda item for the board’s monthly meeting that would have members vote on a resolution she said would not only end the teaching of gender identity but also end gender “transitioning in Michigan schools.”

The effort failed when the Democratic majority on the board voted against placing the proposal on the agenda. It was the latest attempt by the Republicans on the board to push back against the updated sex and health education standards.

Citing recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Snyder and Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, alleged that the Michigan Department of Education is violating federal laws with updated sex and health education guidance the State Board approved in November, a claim another board member said was misleading and incorrect. The elected State Board oversees the Michigan Department of Education. Democrats control the eight-member State Board with six seats.

They also cited controversial training materials that came to light in 2022 in which a trainer suggested that teachers can talk with parents about a student expressing suicidal thoughts without having to reveal that gender identity or sexual orientation is a cause of their distress.

During debates in 2016 over State Board guidance to schools on addressing the needs of LGBTQ students, advocates argued that in a small number of cases, revealing to parents that their child is transitioning could put the student in danger. Several Democratic board members argued Tuesday that the language in the 2022 video was acknowledging that reality and wasn’t intended as a blanket suggestion that teachers withhold information from parents.

The attempt comes amid intense national debate about whether schools should teach about gender identity, parents’ rights to opt their children out of such lessons, and parents’ right to know about the gender identity their child uses at school.

In November, the State Board faced backlash for voting to approve updated standards for sex and health education that recommend students be taught to define gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. In Michigan, local school districts aren’t required to align their curriculum to the state standards, though for subjects that are tested on annual exams, most do. Sex and health education are not tested. State law requires that parents be allowed to opt their children out of sex education lessons.

Last week, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Michigan House passed a bill inspired by the debate over the updated standards that would require legislative approval of standards adopted by the State Board. The legislation isn’t expected to succeed in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

In February, the U.S. Justice Department announced it was investigating three Michigan school districts — Detroit Public Schools Community District, Lansing School District, and Godfrey-Lee Public Schools — to determine whether they had included “sexual orientation or gender ideology content” in any classroom and if parents were notified of their rights to opt their children out of such instruction.

Letters sent to the districts cited the November vote to update sex and health education standards, with the DOJ saying those updates may violate Title IX rules. Snyder said during Tuesday’s meeting that she wrote a letter to the DOJ asking the department to investigate Michigan but didn’t mention specific schools.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week in a California case that parents have a right to know about their child’s gender identity at school. The ruling in the Mirabelli v. Bonta case overturns a California law that required teachers to use students’ preferred names and pronouns at school and barred them from disclosing students’ gender identity to parents without the students’ consent.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in the Mahmoud v. Taylor case in Maryland that parents have the right to opt their children out of lessons that violate their religious beliefs.

McMillin urged the board to take up the proposed resolution in part because local districts should know that they “could be obstructing justice” if they withhold gender identity information from parents.

Ellen Cogen Lipton, a Democrat from Huntington Woods, noted that the Mirabelli v. Bonta ruling was an emergency ruling on the so-called shadow docket. Lipton, an attorney, said the shadow docket is for cases that are not intended to make broad-based policy decisions.

Lipton said that to describe the ruling in the Mirabelli v. Bonta as making policies or recommendations in other states as unconstitutional “is legally incorrect.”

“But it’s coming,” Snyder responded.

GOP and Democrat members accuse each other of politicizing education

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said he sought guidance on the California ruling from the Michigan attorney general’s office. He said there are differences between the California law and Michigan’s recommendations, including the fact that Michigan allows districts to choose whether to adopt the recommendations and for parents to opt their children out of lessons they object to.

“We don’t have a policy or protocol that mandates the implementation of those training materials or standards,” Maleyko said.

The resolution Snyder proposed called on the State Board to remove the health education guidelines adopted in November and notify all districts of that removal. The proposed resolution also noted that it would be “the first step in notifying the Michigan Department of Education that the continuous effort to politicize public education in our state will end and to receive this declaration as the repeated call to return to a model of education that teaches children how to think and not what to think.”

Board President Pamela Pugh said the resolution is an example of politicizing education that spreads confusion and misinformation.

“Our responsibility is to provide safe supportive respectful learning environments for all children,” Pugh said. “This resolution really is another attempt to rehash what the board has debated.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

New city roles point to Sheffield’s focus on youth and education in Detroit

2026-02-12T22:16:42+00:00

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Years ago, when Chanel Hampton was leading a group of educators, they began each day with a question: “How are the children doing?”

It became a North Star, she said, guiding the team in its efforts to see all students succeed. They wanted to be able to say that all the children were doing well.

Hampton, whose background is in education, government, and organizational leadership, is bringing that same direction to a first-of-its-kind dual role in the Detroit city administration as the senior director of youth and the education liaison. Mayor Mary Sheffield formally announced Hampton’s appointment Thursday during a press conference, though she’s been in the role for about two weeks.

Hampton’s job, as well as the hiring of JerJuan Howard as the director of the new Office of Youth Affairs, reflects a new direction for Detroit, which is putting youth and education in the forefront as major priorities in the new administration.

“Today is really a step forward in how we show up for our young people in the city of Detroit,” Sheffield said Thursday. “If we want Detroit to rise higher, which we all do, we know that the next step is how we really invest in our young people and how we continue to improve education in our city.”

During the mayoral campaign, Sheffield often spoke of her desire to play a role in education in the city with a focus on working with the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the city’s many charter schools, and city agencies to reduce chronic absenteeism, improve transit coordination so students can reliably get to school, and expand after-school programs and enrichment opportunities at city recreation centers.

While the mayor has no control over city schools, Sheffield’s interest in addressing the societal problems that make it difficult for students to succeed is coming at a critical time. While schools have seen improvement in academic performance and chronic absenteeism, far too many children aren’t performing well and many are missing too much school.

Hampton will serve as a liaison between the mayor’s office and DPSCD, charter schools, out-of-school-time partners, and community organizations “to address some of the most persistent needs of students and their families,” according to a news release from the city. She will also lead the city’s work supporting people from 0 to 26 years old.

“Our young people will know that they are a focal priority in our city, and they will know they have a key role in leadership and ownership in our city, inside of school, outside of school,” Hampton said. “We will be able to say all the children in Detroit are well.”

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti echoed other speakers when he said Detroit children are talented, but lack opportunities. Gaps in opportunities can only be addressed by working together, being collaborative, problem solving, and sharing resources.

“And that’s why today is so special, because we have a mayor that understands that,” Vitti said. “It takes … putting egos aside and focusing on what’s best for children, regardless of what organization or institution or resources are coming from.”

He and Ralph Bland, the CEO of the Detroit charter school network New Paradigm for Education, agreed that this kind of coordination means setting aside egos and working on common goals, even if they are competitors.

“We need to move from isolated to coordinated to intent to implement, said Ralph Bland, CEO of the Detroit charter school network New Paradigm for Education. “This is serious.”

Sheffield said JerJuan Howard, the director of the new Office of Youth Affairs, will oversee an effort to “ensure that youth voices are not an afterthought, but a part of how we develop our policy, allocate our resources, and measure success across city government.”

Howard, a youth leader and founder of the Umoja Debate League, said the new position is timely and necessary.

“It’s important for youth to come with us and for changes not to happen to our youth, but to happen with our youth. They should become the engineers of their own reality and what their city looks like moving forward. They must have a seat at the table, and this appointment reflects that commitment by the mayor.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer’s budget plan for schools sets $10,300 in per-pupil funding

2026-02-11T22:29:50+00:00

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In her $21.4 billion school aid fund budget, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is proposing at least $10,300 in state funding per student and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for literacy tutoring, curriculum, and training for teachers.

The total budget of $88 billion also includes a new initiative that will likely please parents and teachers who shell out money during the back-to-school season. Whitmer is proposing a sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping, exempting clothing and supplies purchased during a weekend in August.

The $10,300 increase in the base per-pupil amount, which is the lowest amount a school district or charter school can receive, represents a 2.5% increase in funding over the current budget. The governor’s office said the per-pupil grant, under this proposal, will have increased 31% since Whitmer took office nearly eight years ago. The budget proposal released Wednesday is her last as governor. A November governor’s race will decide the next state leader.

State Budget Office officials presented the budget to lawmakers Wednesday during a joint hearing of the House and Senate appropriations committee.

Jen Flood, the state budget office director, told lawmakers that federal revenue declines, rising health care costs, high tariffs, and changing national policy made development of the overall state budget challenging. It’s why the budget includes some tax increases that might be tough sells to some lawmakers. For instance, the budget calls for increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $2 to $3. Whitmer also proposes a new tax on vaping products, while also increasing the internet tax rate on casinos.

As she previewed early this week, Whitmer’s education budget is focused on early literacy to address how much Michigan students are struggling with literacy, especially in the early grades.

“Strong literacy skills are one of those clearest predictors of long term success in school, in the workforce and in life. That’s why this budget keeps a clear focus on helping students read proficiently by the end of third grade and stay on track from there,” Kyle Guerrant, the deputy director of the State Budget Office, told lawmakers during the Wednesday hearing.

Here are some of the specifics related to literacy, according to state budget documents:

$100 million for a new high-impact tutoring program over two years. The funding will be awarded on a competitive basis to tutoring partners with a track record in Michigan.
$100 million in funding over two years for grants that help districts purchase and implement a high quality literacy curriculum.
$50 million to continue Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS, training over a five-year period. LETRS is a professional development program based on the science of reading. The science of reading refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge.
A $10.5 million increase in funding for additional literacy coaches at intermediate districts. Coaches help teachers develop and implement instructional strategies for pupils in grades pre-K to 5. The increase brings total funding for literacy coaches to $52.5 million.

“Widespread support for efforts to improve early literacy are needed more than ever as Michigan’s students continue to lag the nation in reading,” Jennifer Mrozowski, spokesperson for the Education Trust-Midwest, an education research organization based in Royal Oak, said in a statement. “Investments in research-backed practices based in the science of reading are particularly important in districts that serve high concentrations of poverty, students of color, English learners and students with disabilities.”

At the hearing on Wednesday, the state officials were called out by one lawmaker who objected to cyber charter schools receiving 20% less in per pupil funding than brick-and-mortar traditional public schools and charter schools.

“Who does that help?” asked Rep. Tim Kelly, a Republican from Saginaw Township..

Flood replied that cyber schools don’t have the same costs as brick-and-mortar-schools.

““It reflects the cost of educating a child,” Flood said.

Kelly accused the state of lowering funding for cyber schools because their teachers aren’t unionized, a claim state officials said was false. In reality, most brick-and-mortar charter schools are not unionized.

Here are some other features of the education budget proposal:

The third weekend in August would be a sales tax holiday for people shopping for school supplies. Purchases that would be exempt from the state’s 6% sales tax include clothing under $100 per item, school supplies under $20 per item, and computers for personal use under $1,000 an item. Sixteen states already have such sales tax holidays for the back-to-school season.
A 6%, or $128 million, increase to the state’s weighted funding formula that provides additional money for some groups of students, including academically at-risk students, students who are English language learners, career and technical education students, those enrolled in rural and isolated districts, students with developmental delays, and intermediate school districts.
A continuation of a $200 million program that provides free breakfasts and lunches for all students, regardless of income.
An expansion of the state’s PreK for All program, which provides free preschool to Michigan four-year-olds, regardless of income. The budget would include a 6% increase in the per-child allocation for the state’s Great State Readiness Program, from $10,650 to $11,290.

The state budget process now turns to the Michigan legislature, which has until July 1 to deliver a budget back to Whitmer for a signature. The legislature blew through that deadline last year, and didn’t approve a budget until Oct. 3.

Democratic Sen. Sarah Anthony of Lansing, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday she doesn’t want a repeat of what happened last year.

“We left school districts, we left nonprofits and the business community with uncertainty, with chaos, with unprofessionalism,” Anthony said.

She urged her colleagues in the legislature to “work with each other, regardless of political party, to get things done for the people of Michigan.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer aims to boost literacy as Michigan students struggle with reading

2026-02-10T10:00:00+00:00

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in her final budget proposal this week, is set to unveil a budget proposal for funding schools that invests $625 million in programs aimed at addressing the state’s K-12 literacy crisis.

The literacy investment would come at a time of increased focus on the troubling performance of Michigan students in literacy in the early grades. Just 38.9% of third graders were proficient on the English language arts portion of the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress last year. It was the lowest performance of third graders in the exam’s 11-year history, Chalkbeat and Bridge Michigan reported last year.

On the national front, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders were proficient in 2024 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam known as the “nation’s report card.” That compares to 30% being proficient nationally. More concerning is that Michigan student performance has been stagnant and declining as other states that have invested heavily in early literacy have improved.

Whitmer, during her State of the State address last year, called for urgency in addressing the low performance, noting that Michigan spends more than most states.

“It’s not acceptable,” Whitmer said. “For our kids, let’s do better. Let’s face our literacy crisis with fierce urgency.”

“When every child reads, Michigan wins,” Whitmer said in a statement provided by the governor’s office. “As we face a nationwide literacy crisis, my education budget proposal includes big investments to build on the work we’ve done to help kids read.”

For the budget proposal she will deliver to the Michigan Legislature Wednesday, Whitmer’s Every Child Reads plan notes that investing in preschool and wraparound programs is just as important as improving curriculum and ensuring teachers are trained.

Here are some specifics of the plan the governor’s office shared with Chalkbeat this week:

Part of the $625 million investment includes expansion of the state’s PreK for All initiative, which aims to provide free preschool to children regardless of income. “It starts with high-quality early learning, because the sooner kids start learning to read, the better they become,” the governor’s office said in a media advisory.
The budget would also invest more in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (or LETRS) training. LETRS is a professional development program based on the science of reading. The science of reading refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge.
The budget will include funding that helps districts implement new science of reading-aligned curriculum. The Michigan Department of Education recently published a list of curriculums aligned with the science of reading. School districts aren’t required to adopt from the list. However, the current state budget has language requiring schools to send letters home to parents if they are using a curriculum that is not on the list or risk losing a small percentage of their state funding.
The budget proposes additional funding to expand summer, before-school, and after-school programming.

Additional details, such as information on how the additional funding would help districts implement curriculum aligned to the science of reading, weren’t available.

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko, in a statement included in the governor’s advisory, said Whitmer’s focus on literacy is one shared by the Michigan Department of Education, which he oversees, and the State Board of Education, the elected board that hired him last year.

“Nothing is more important to our students and our state than improving literacy,” Maleyko said. “Reading and writing are the foundation for long-term success, and I look forward to working with the Legislature through strong teamwork and shared responsibility to advance these priorities and continue improving student outcomes statewide.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan governor candidates talk ICE and ways to stop the state’s academic slide

2026-02-06T21:38:26+00:00

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Four Michigan gubernatorial candidates tried Friday to convince a group of educators from across Michigan that their plans for increasing accountability for schools, improving curriculum with teacher input, investing in educators, and reversing the state’s academic slide were the best options.

The candidates gathered at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center for an education forum hosted by the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. The event was moderated by Zoe Clark, political director at Michigan Public, and the candidates answered questions submitted by MEA members.

Participating were Democrat Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state; Republican Mike Cox, former state attorney general; Independent Mike Duggan, former Detroit mayor; and Democrat Chris Swanson, Genesee County sheriff. The MEA invited all the major party candidates in December.

The forum gave the educators an opportunity to gauge how those who want to be the next governor would put a stamp on education and potentially affect their jobs. They heartily applauded as Benson, a former teacher whose parents were also teachers, was introduced. Cox faced laughter during his remarks when he suggested that the average teacher with 20 years of experience is likely making $90,000, with benefits bringing their total compensation to $150,000.

His comment was a response to a question about how each candidate plans to increase starting pay for teachers and retain quality educators.

Benson replied that she would push to ensure the average starting salary is at least $60,000, about $20,000 more than the average starting salary in the state. She said it’s a sign of respect for the important work educators do daily.

“You will have a voice … and I will reflect my commitment to that by ensuring that your compensation reflects the respect, the professional respect, that you all have earned. To me, that is a critical component of attracting and retaining talented people,” Benson said.

Cox, who said that as a Republican, he doesn’t expect the union’s endorsement, took a different approach, saying that when Michigan fourth graders near the bottom in the nation in reading proficiency,”it’s hard to tell the people of Michigan that you need more money.

“You may not want to hear it, but that’s the truth. Accountability brings results. Results bring more money for teachers.”

Michigan Education Association members from across the state heard from four of the candidates for governor during an education forum Friday, Feb. 6 at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center.

Candidates were asked what they would do as governor to ensure the safety and stability of students in the midst of stepped up federal immigration actions.

Duggan said the pain of having ICE in your community is “very real, and I dealt with it for 12 years as mayor of Detroit.”

He encouraged people to look at how the city has approached immigration enforcement, noting that the Detroit Police Department has not signed agreements with ICE that he said would make the local department an arm of the federal agency. However, he said, if ICE learns that someone the department has arrested is wanted by the federal agency, that person will be turned over to ICE. The alternative, Duggan said, is “ICE goes into the neighborhood and creates more distress.”

Swanson, a 33-year law enforcement officer, was emphatic in his response, saying “schools are off limits” and criticizing ICE for the way it is carrying out immigration actions.

“ICE is doing it wrong. I’ve worked with the FBI, Secret Service, ATF, DEA for 33 years. We work with the most dangerous of cases. We don’t have people protesting us. We don’t have people scared,” Swanson said.

The candidates had varied responses when asked how they would improve education in Michigan.

Cox said he would opt into the federal tax credit program that was part of the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which would fund scholarships for parents to send their children to private school. He said he would be focused on accountability for schools and would adopt the policies in place in Mississippi that have helped improve student achievement.

Among Benson’s priorities: Ensuring equitable funding for schools, ensuring educators have the “compensation and wraparound services and support needed to do their job, and investing in postsecondary support.

Duggan said he would stop the practice that’s been in place for years of lawmakers dipping into the School Aid Fund that was meant to provide funding for K-12 schools to use it for higher education. He said he wants educators to be chiefly involved in deciding curriculum issues, rather than lawmakers. “Do you want the legislators deciding whether algebra II or art should be in the school?” he asked the educators.

Swanson, replying to Cox’s remarks about Mississippi, said, “I’m not interested in the Mississippi model. I’m interested in the Michigan model.”

He said Michigan needs to focus on fixing its problems. Programs like free school meals for all and free preschool for all (both regardless of income) are “the baseline to get them set up for an algorithm of success.” He talked about the importance of setting students up for postsecondary success whether they’re going to college or not.

“I’m not interested in making a decision as a governor for the next election. I’m interested in making decisions for education that have generational impact,” Swanson said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Timeline: How 2016 was a critical year for the future of Detroit schools

2026-01-30T19:50:16+00:00

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The year 2016 was a pivotal one for the Detroit school district, beginning when teachers staged sick-outs to draw attention to what they repeatedly described as deplorable school building conditions. It ended with the launch of a new district to educate city students, part of a legislative initiative that kept the old Detroit Public Schools intact to collect tax revenue and pay off the crushing debt that almost led to bankruptcy.

Here’s a quick timeline of what happened 10 years ago that had lasting implications in Detroit:

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

10 years ago, Detroit teachers protested building conditions. What’s changed since?

2026-01-30T19:46:39+00:00

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Ten years ago, a big crowd of Detroit teachers and their supporters marched down Jefferson Avenue toward Cobo Hall, where the annual auto show was being held, to draw national attention to the substandard conditions inside city schools.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers timed another rally later that afternoon outside Cobo (now Huntington Place) to coincide with the arrival of President Barack Obama at the auto show, whose appearance drew journalists from across the country.

The protests on Jan. 20, 2016, which closed most schools that Friday, produced stunning headlines that explained why teachers in Detroit Public Schools had called in sick en masse multiple times in that month.

“Rats, roaches, mold – poor conditions lead to teacher sick-out, closure of most Detroit schools,” a Washington Post headline said. “These Photos Will Make You Understand Detroit’s Education Crisis,” a HuffPost headline read. “How Detroit’s teacher ‘sickout’ cast a spotlight on unsafe school conditions,” was a Guardian headline.

The local and national coverage of the crisis proved instrumental, prompting the mayor to order school inspections and the district to begin repairs. After years of emergency management by the state, the new administration and school board that took over in 2017 ordered an audit of conditions in every building. More than $700 million in federal funds went into renovating and rebuilding schools, helping address needs officials say were created in part by a lack of equitable state funding. A decade later, the district is still constructing new schools to replace a handful of buildings that were in the worst condition, as well as addressing the biggest needs in other buildings.

But the scale of the challenges — both financially and physically — mean many students still attend school in buildings with significant problems.

“I am proud of the investments we have made and the improvement we are seeing in our infrastructure, but I am not satisfied with it,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wrote in an email to Chalkbeat. “Our students and staff deserve EXACTLY and even MORE than suburban districts have.”

The $700 million investment, made during the pandemic with federal COVID relief dollars, addresses a fraction of the $2.1 billion infrastructure needs, according to the district.

“Many buildings still require major modernization, and some remain in deficient or failing condition based on industry standards,” Vitti said. “Aging systems continue to drive future costs, and without sustained investment, deferred needs will grow.”

Teachers push for change in building conditions, higher pay

The protests happened in the midst of turmoil and division within the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

The union’s fiery leader, Steve Conn, had been ousted by the union board in August 2015, after a two-day trial that ended with him being convicted of five misconduct charges, the Detroit Free Press reported.

As part of its attempts to stabilize the union, the American Federation of Teachers, its umbrella organization, asked members to identify the biggest problems facing the district. Building conditions were at the top of the list.

Stories and pictures collected from union members became the basis for the campaign to raise awareness of student and teacher learning and working conditions, said Ivy Bailey, interim president of the DFT at the time. Photos showed ceilings that were caved in and missing tile, vermin infestations, mold, and other troubling conditions.

Teachers and supporters rallied during a protest held Jan. 11, 2016 outside the Fisher Building, which houses headquarters for the Detroit Public Schools.

Contributing to the problems, according to teachers and union officials, were the state-appointed emergency managers who had control of the district. The school board existed but had little power during the years of emergency management, which stretched from 2009 to the end of 2016. Teachers said their complaints about building conditions were often ignored. The emergency managers were tasked with whittling down the district’s debt, but it rose substantially while they were in control.

Nina Chacker, who organized sick-outs as a union representative at Schulze Academy, said areas of some schools would be closed because of water-logged ceilings, forcing students to cram into classrooms that were usable.

Instead of listening to teachers’ pleas to make buildings safe for kids, Chacker said emergency managers sent people into schools “telling us how to teach.”

“We knew things weren’t going to get better as long as they were left in the state’s hands to address,” she said. “We wanted a school board with power. We wanted the democratic process returned to the district.”

Carrie Russell, now a math teacher at King High School, taught at Cody High School before the sick-outs began. An old boiler made it difficult to maintain temperatures in the building. She remembers a teacher who wore hard hats in her classroom at Cody because she feared falling ceiling tiles. (Russell left to teach in the Oak Park school district before the sick-outs and returned to the Detroit district in 2018.)

Teaching in a building with such problems, Russell said, was “demoralizing on so many levels.”

Building conditions were hardly the only issue teachers were concerned about, however. Class sizes were high – one teacher at a rally held a sign saying her class had 39 first graders. Teachers had not received pay raises in years, and many schools struggled with teacher shortages. Many teachers wanted to see an end to the years of state oversight and more attention from state lawmakers in Lansing.

“Everybody deserves a clean and safe environment to work in,” said Bailey, who retired as a teacher in 2018 but remained as union president until 2019. “They shouldn’t have to be worried about if they’re going to get cancer or if it’s going to affect their lungs. I mean, that should not have been an issue.”

The sick-outs started out small in November 2015, but by Jan. 20 they had increased in size, with nearly every building being closed that day. Most were organized by Detroit Strikes to Win, a group of teachers led by Conn.

Conn, who taught math at Western International High School for many years until he retired in 2023, said images of the roofs caving in, mold, and vermin infestations were the best way to demonstrate the inequities in Detroit schools to the public.

By bringing national attention to Detroit schools, he said the movement sparked a larger conversation around inequities in U.S. education.

“It was time to fight for justice, and we did that and set an example,” he said. “I think it was a high point in the struggle. But the struggle goes on for equity in Detroit schools and America’s schools.”

Vitti calls for more equitable state funding to keep improving buildings

When Vitti interviewed for the superintendent job in 2017, he said he was shocked by the conditions he saw while touring schools in the district.

“To actually walk the buildings and see the state of our infrastructure shook me, and in fact enraged me to see that our children have to go to schools where there are holes in the wall, tiles that are not replaced. It’s unconscionable and it’s a clear indication of the injustice our children face here,” he said.

The district during emergency management had “no vision and no resources consistently invested in infrastructure,” Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email.

A large crowd gathered to protest conditions in Detroit Public Schools during a rally on Jan. 11, 2016, in Detroit.

Since he took the helm, Vitti has focused on tackling the widespread problem — and some teachers say they have seen the changes.

Russell, the math teacher at King High School, has seen improvements since she returned to the district in 2018. While she used to be met with silence when trying to get problems in her classroom resolved, the current administration is more responsive, she said.

“They do a better job of trying to maintain issues,” she said.

She’s happy that the district recently broke ground on a new building for Cody High, where she worked a year before the sick-outs began.

Chacker, who now teaches at Bunche Preparatory Academy, is excited to have enough books for her class now, but the lack of air conditioning in her building is still a hindrance.

“The problem is that we started in such an egregious place,” said Chacker. “There’s a lot of improvement needed and still so far to go as far as getting to the standard our peers in the suburbs are enjoying.”

Funding continues to be an obstacle, Vitti said, because the state funding model doesn’t earmark dollars for school infrastructure, which “indirectly requires districts to either take funding from the general fund” or apply additional local taxes. Federal funds received by the district cannot be used for that purpose. (The COVID relief dollars used for the $700 million plan were one-time funds.)

Vitti said he wants to see more equitable state funding to help close the gap.

“DPSCD receives $10,050 per pupil as the minimum, other districts have as high as over $13,000 per student,” he said of state funding. “This difference results in gaps as large as $168 [million] annually.”

Last week, Vitti presented a new proposal to use $79.4 million in surplus funding to demolish 11 buildings, board up 11 properties, build an athletic complex at the former Cooley High School, re-pave parking lots at 36 schools, improve fencing at 28 schools, and replace the roof at Charles Wright Academy, among other items.

Vitti said the district will continue to recommend shifting unspent funds to one-time building improvements.

“When we have extra surplus funding, we know exactly where to invest whether it is in roofs, windows. HVAC, masonry, fences, paving, or football fields,” he said.

Chacker said the protests were an important moment in the history of the district because teachers shared a unified message that the status quo was no longer tenable.

“It set standards for how students should be treated,” she said. “Before that, we got a blatant no when it came to money even if schools weren’t safe.”

Detroit teachers: We want to know more about the state of your classrooms and schools. Reach out to us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org and tell us your stories.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Hundreds of Michigan districts and schools reject safety and mental health funding

2026-01-21T23:09:46+00:00

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Hundreds of Michigan school districts rejected school safety and mental health funding from the state after agreeing to new conditions for receiving the money.

In early December, 974 district and school leaders signed agreements saying they would waive privilege and agree to state investigations if a mass casualty event, like a school shooting, occurs. There previously had not been conditions for districts to receive the funding.

The funding is distributed to traditional school districts, intermediate school districts, charter schools, private schools, and the Michigan School for the Deaf. Public schools will receive funding in the amount of $374 per pupil, while private schools will receive $236 per student.

Data from the Michigan Department of Education shows that by the end of 2025, nearly half — or 462 that previously signed off — had rescinded those agreements. About 70% of the traditional school districts that agreed to the conditions, and 39% of the charter schools, changed their minds.

Many district leaders who signed the agreements did so reluctantly, in part because they said there was a lack of clarity in the wording. Some were even part of a lawsuit, involving dozens of school districts and officials, that sought to have the language struck from the budget. The plaintiff’s attorney, during a December court hearing, said the language is “exceedingly vague” and overly broad, and he said the budget doesn’t define what it means to waive any privilege.

The state budget Michigan lawmakers approved in October requires school districts to agree that if there is a mass casualty event in their schools, they will disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected in deadly emergencies. Districts must also agree to comprehensive state investigations.

A mass casualty event is defined in the state budget, in part, as an incident “resulting in significant injuries to not fewer than 3 individuals” or an incident resulting in fatalities.

The agreements were required this year in order to share in $321 million in funding that school districts can use for various functions, including hiring mental health professionals, training school staff on threat assessment and crisis communication, and purchasing safety infrastructure, such as cameras, door blocks, hardened vestibules, and window screening.

Michigan Judge Sima Patel upheld the language in the budget in a December ruling. The plaintiffs have since appealed, and the lawsuit is before the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The Woodhaven-Brownstown School District in Wayne County is one of the districts that rescinded the agreement.

“The reasons for this are consistent with the concerns presented in the lawsuit: the requirements … were overly vague, not clearly defined, and presented legal uncertainty that we didn’t feel we could responsibly accept,” Superintendent Mark Greathead wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

“We look forward to the outcome in the Court of Appeals,” Greathead said. “In the meantime, we continue to provide a comprehensive approach to school safety and student mental health.”

Now, 512 districts and schools will share in the school safety and mental health funding. Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the MDE, told Chalkbeat Wednesday that the funding will be included in February state aid payments to schools.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said the district had not rescinded the agreement the board approved in November.

“The district needs that funding for our student mental health support and additional security strategies,” Vitti said in an emailed response.

That sentiment was echoed in Dearborn Public Schools, which stuck with the original agreement.

“For Dearborn the funds were over $3 million and that supports not only safety and security but also social and emotional well being and school culture and climate,” said district spokesperson David Mustonen.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

These are the Michigan education issues we’re watching in 2026

2026-01-06T22:18:23+00:00

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2026 could be a pivotal year for education in Michigan.

The state’s education system has produced lackluster academic results on state and national exams for years, raising questions about whether the system is properly preparing students for success after high school. That’s critical since many other states are showing academic improvement while Michigan has been stagnant.

With a wide open governor’s race in 2026, we expect to hear plenty of ideas about what it will take to get Michigan’s kids on track. Already, candidates have floated ideas ranging from strengthening accountability for schools to expansion of school choice so parents can more easily send their children to the public or private school that best meets their needs.

Meanwhile, in the city of Detroit, a new mayor could bring energy to efforts to help city students succeed against a number of societal odds, including high poverty rates.

Below, we highlight some of the key education issues we’ll be watching in 2026.

What’s missing? Email us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org with your ideas about what you want to see take center stage and why.

Governor’s race could drive conversation about schools

During the 2024-25 school year, test results for Michigan students raised alarms because they showed that not only have students continued to lose ground compared to their peers in other states, but that recovery from the pandemic has been slow.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, just 24% of fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2024. In math, just 37% of fourth graders were proficient. The rigorous national exam is given to a representative sample of students in every state in the U.S.

Closer to home, on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Performance, students didn’t do much better, with third graders recording their lowest performance in English language arts in the 11-year history of the exam.

The results will almost surely be used by gubernatorial candidates to suggest a range of reforms, as well as to attack the record of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose second term ends this year. But it’s important to note that Michigan students began losing ground long before Whitmer took office.

Michigan lawmakers have tried and abandoned a number of reforms – some of which were required by federal law – including grading schools, holding back third graders who struggle on the state reading exam, holding teachers accountable for student test scores, and potentially closing failing schools.

There are a number of people running for governor. Some have been vocal about what Michigan must do to improve schools. Mike Duggan, who just wrapped a dozen years as Detroit mayor, has proposed getting tougher on school accountability, with a plan that could lead to the firings of principals and superintendents if struggling schools continue to fail. He is running as an independent. Meanwhile, Mike Cox, a Republican candidate for governor, has proposed a universal school choice program that allows parents to “select the schooling option that best fits their child’s needs.”

Will Detroit Mayor Sheffield deliver on her education promises?

Detroit’s mayor doesn’t have any control of the public school systems in the city. But the mayor does have a role to play in addressing societal issues that make it difficult for students to learn. Newly elected Mayor Mary Sheffield, who was sworn in last week, has said she will do just that.

What did Sheffield promise? In her election night acceptance speech, she said she would address transportation issues that make it difficult for students to get to and from school and invest in after-school programs and wraparound services. It’s an ambitious plan, given the city has dozens of education governance structures between the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the many charter schools that educate students.

The big question will be whether Sheffield can deliver on her promises. There’s much at stake, given low academic performance across the city and high rates of chronic absenteeism – issues that are fueled by difficult to solve problems like high rates of poverty, housing instability, and transportation woes.

Detroit school board race could result in dramatic shift

With five of the seven seats on the ballot this November, the race for seats on the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s school board could be a defining one for the district.

With so many seats open, new faces on the board can bring new priorities and affect Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s reform efforts.

Board members LaTrice McClendon, Iris Taylor, and Corletta Vaughn are up for reelection. In addition, seats currently filled by board members Bessie Harris and Steve Bland – who were recently appointed to fill seats left open due to resignations – would also be up for reelection.

Will legislative initiatives improve reading, parent transparency?

The state budget lawmakers approved in October included new rules for Michigan that require parents be informed about reading curriculum and how at-risk funding is spent. Districts receive at-risk funding for students identified for one of 10 factors, including being from low-income homes, being English language learners, or being a victim of child abuse.

One provision, aimed at putting the focus on low literacy rates in the state, requires school districts this school year to notify parents if their schools use a K-5 reading curriculum that isn’t on the state’s list of evidence-based curriculum, or that isn’t aligned with state standards.

An evidence-based curriculum is one that research has shown to be effective. As part of that notification, schools must tell parents that the curriculum they’re using “could negatively impact student academic outcomes.”

Another parent transparency effort: Schools also provide parents with a report showing how much state at-risk funding they receive, how the money was distributed, and what evidence-based interventions were used with the funding. Districts must also provide parents with a method for providing feedback on how the at-risk money is used.

School districts continue fight against school safety funding conditions

Another budget provision placed conditions on districts receiving school safety and mental health funding.

In order to receive that funding from the state, districts must agree to waive privilege, which means they must disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected if there is a mass casualty event. Districts had to agree to a comprehensive investigation of such an event.

Dozens of school districts and school officials filed a lawsuit challenging the language, saying it violates the Michigan Constitution. A state judge rejected their argument in a December ruling. But plaintiffs are appealing the ruling.

The big issues to watch here are: How many districts agreed to the conditions to receive the funding and if a mass casualty event occurs in a district that agreed to the conditions, how will a state investigation play out?

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school districts appeal judge’s ruling in dispute over safety, mental health funding

2025-12-23T18:03:01+00:00

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Dozens of Michigan school districts and officials are appealing a judge’s ruling that upholds state budget language putting conditions on the distribution of funding for school safety and mental health.

The lawsuit stemmed from a new rule in the budget stating that in order to receive that funding from the state, districts must agree to waive privilege, which means they must disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected if there is a mass casualty event. Districts must also agree to a comprehensive investigation of such an event.

Judge Sima Patel granted the state’s motion for a summary disposition, essentially ending the case in the Michigan Court of Claims. But the plaintiffs are appealing Patel’s ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Patel, who listened to oral arguments during a hearing earlier this month, issued her ruling Dec. 17 rejecting the plaintiffs’ arguments. Here is what she had to say about two of the key claims in the school districts’ lawsuit.

Districts claimed budget language violates Michigan Constitution

The budget says that to receive the $321 million in safety and mental health funds, districts “must agree to be subject to a comprehensive investigation, must affirmatively agree to waive any privilege that may otherwise protect information from disclosure in the event of a mass casualty event, and must agree to comply with a comprehensive investigation.”

A mass casualty event is defined in the state budget in part as an incident “resulting in significant injuries to not fewer than 3 individuals” or an incident resulting in fatalities.

But the plaintiffs’ attorney, Scott Eldridge, argued in court that some of the budget language violates the Michigan Constitution because it is “exceedingly vague.” Specifically, Eldridge said the “waive any privilege” language is overly broad. He also said the definitions of a mass casualty event are too broad and vague.

“Vagueness means it’s limitless and unbound because it gives zero guideposts or direction as to what’s legal versus what’s illegal conduct,” Eldridge said.

Eldridge urged Patel to “use a scalpel instead of a machete” and declare those phrases unconstitutional.

But Patel noted in her ruling that the plaintiffs faced an “extremely steep hurdle” in proving those claims.

The “waive any privilege,” language, she said, “is clear and not vague,” and means what it says.

“Any and all privileges that may otherwise protect information from disclosure by the district are included,” Patel said in the ruling. “The breadth of the phrase does not render it ambiguous.”

At the hearing earlier this month, Eldridge questioned whether incidents like a bus accident on the way to school, concussions on a football field, a fight in the stands of an athletic event, food poisoning in the cafeteria, or a gas leak would be considered a mass casualty event.

“A significant injury is one that is severe enough to be noticed and have an effect on the injured person,” Patel responded in her ruling. She also said that the budget’s definition of a mass casualty event “may be broad, but it is understandable.”

Districts had until Dec. 4 to agree to waive their privilege. They have until Dec. 30 to rescind that agreement. The plaintiffs sought to extend that deadline to rescind even longer, asking Patel that if she rules against them in the lawsuit, that she set that deadline to 30 days after the appeals process is resolved. Patel said no in her ruling.

“There is no way for this Court or the interested parties to know how long the appellate process will take,” Patel said. “The distribution of funds cannot be delayed that long.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Oral arguments begin in school safety and mental health mandate case

2025-12-12T20:01:12+00:00

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A lawyer for dozens of Michigan school districts that have sued the state asked a judge Thursday to use a “scalpel as opposed to a machete” to remove language in the state budget he says violates the Michigan constitution.

The budget stipulates that in order to receive school safety and mental health funding from the state, districts must agree to disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected if there is a mass casualty event. Districts must also agree to a comprehensive investigation.

Districts had until Dec. 4 to agree to waive their privilege. They have until Dec. 30 to rescind that agreement.

The case is before the Michigan Court of Claims, and Judge Sima Patel held a hearing Thursday to hear oral arguments from lawyers in the case.

The lawsuit comes a little over four years after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School that prompted a wave of legislation and investigations to address school safety and student mental health. One independent investigation found multiple failures by some school officials, and some did not cooperate with the investigation.

Scott Eldridge, the attorney representing the school districts, argued that the “waive any privilege” language as well as the definition of a mass casualty event is “eye-poppingly bad language.”

“This was rushed legislation, and rushed legislation often results in bad legislation,” Eldridge told Patel.

Eldridge said the language regarding both is “exceedingly vague” and broad. The budget doesn’t define what it means by waiving any privilege. But it does define a mass casualty event in part as an incident “resulting in significant injuries to not fewer than 3 individuals” or an incident with fatalities.

Adam de Bear, an assistant attorney general defending the state in the lawsuit, said the overall purpose of the budget provision is to support student safety and get to the bottom of any mass casualty event.

“The only way for students to be able to grow in school is if they’re in a safe environment,” de Bear said.

The provision prevents school districts from denying document requests by citing attorney-client privilege or refusing to answer questions if they’re being interviewed or deposed.

“It assures that the state gets more information, because in past experiences, investigations haven’t gone as well as they could have,” de Bear said.

Vague language leaves school officials confused, attorney says

Eldridge told Patel that the lawsuit doesn’t challenge the entire provision in the budget, just the language requiring districts to waive any privilege and the definitions of a mass casualty event. That’s why he asked her “just take that provision, declare it unconstitutional, leaving the rest to operate as it perhaps was intended.”

The privilege provision requires district administrators to “waive any privilege in any limitless number of contexts,” Eldridge said.

“And they’re not really knowing what they’re getting themselves into if they agree to opt in under these conditions and receive this money.”

Patel asked Eldridge to respond to the state’s written argument that “the privilege waiver isn’t vague as much as it is broad.”

“Something is broad means it could encompass a lot of things, but it has limits,” Eldridge responded. “Vagueness means it’s limitless and unbound because it gives zero guideposts or direction as to what’s legal versus what’s illegal conduct.”

He noted it is unclear whether the language refers only to waiving a district’s privilege or whether it also includes the individual privilege of school officials.

The definitions of a mass casualty event are vague, Eldridge said, including one that defines it as one that involves significant injuries at a school or a school-sponsored event. It’s unclear how “significant” or “injuries” would be defined, he said.

“We could be here all day coming up with ideas of what could trigger this language,” Eldridge said, questioning whether incidents like a bus accident on the way to school, concussions on a football field, a fight in the stands of an athletic event, food poisoning in the cafeteria, or a gas leak would apply.

De Bear responded in his oral arguments that all of the examples of potential circumstances “are all things that probably warrant investigations for school safety purposes. How are students at a cafeteria all being subjected to food poisoning? It makes sense to … for the betterment of school safety to get to the bottom of it,”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Sheffield wants to hire a strong education leader to advise her. Are you the person for the job?

2025-12-04T22:02:29+00:00

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A job posting for Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield’s administration provides insight into the kind of person she’s looking for to advise her on Detroit education issues.

Sheffield, who won the Detroit mayor’s race by a large margin last month, said throughout the campaign that she intended to play a role in education in the city. On election night, she said that would include creating coordinated transportation and investing in after-school programs and wraparound services. Her main goal, she said that night, is ensuring every child in the city can succeed.

There’s been a growing realization among education advocates in Detroit that the mayor, while having no control of district or charter schools in the city, still must address some of the societal issues that have led to low academic achievement and high rates of chronic absenteeism, both of which are heavily influenced by poverty.

The job posting for an education liaison is one of many posted on Sheffield’s transition website.

Here is the kind of person Sheffield is searching for:

She wants someone who can take on an ambitious set of responsibilities

Detroit’s education system is fragmented, with dozens of governing bodies overseeing 185 schools. That includes the Detroit Public Schools Community District and charter schools that are independently operated.

But it’s not just the city’s K-12 system that the mayor’s education liaison will be responsible for advising her on. Sheffield wants this person to also be the primary liaison between her office and early childhood education organizations and on youth development issues.

A key responsibility: “Identify challenges facing Detroit students and families and develop solutions in partnership with schools and City departments.”

The person will also be responsible for coordinating city services that support schools. That includes public safety, public health, recreation, neighborhood improvements, environmental safety, and transportation resources.

That’s crucial given the power the city has to address issues schools can’t control but that affect students nonetheless. For instance, many high school students take the city’s public transportation to get to and from school, but they have long reported that service is spotty, with buses arriving late or passing them by. They’ve also reported safety concerns waiting for buses. Sheffield has promised to address wait times and other concerns.

Sheffield wants someone experienced in education policy

There is no shortage of education advocates in Detroit. But Sheffield is looking for someone with at least a bachelor’s degree — though an advanced degree is preferred — in public policy, education, public administration, or social work.

They also need at least five years of experience “in education policy, school-district administration, charter-school management, youth development, government, or related roles.”

The qualifications go beyond education and experience. Sheffield wants someone who has a “deep understanding” of Detroit’s education ecosystem, someone who is a proven collaborator, someone with strong research skills, and someone who is committed to equity and improving outcomes for Detroit students.

The job can pay in the six figures

There is a wide salary range for the position, with potential pay ranging from $80,000 to $120,000 annually.

Of course, whatever salary the education liaison receives will be based on their qualifications and experience.

There are few details about benefits in the posting, aside from a link to a city web page that provides more details, but it does note that “our goal is to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce by providing generous healthcare and other benefits to eligible employees.”

Interested in the job? Here’s a link to where you can apply.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan districts have more time to agree to controversial waiver to get safety funding

2025-12-01T21:42:44+00:00

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A court order gives Michigan school districts until the end of the day Thursday to decide whether to accept conditions attached to millions in state school safety and mental health funding.

The state budget Michigan lawmakers approved in October requires school districts to agree that if there is a mass casualty event in their schools, they will disclose information that would otherwise be legally protected in deadly emergencies such as school shootings. Districts must also agree to comprehensive state investigations.

A mass casualty event is defined in the state budget in part as an incident “resulting in significant injuries to not fewer than 3 individuals” or an incident resulting in fatalities.

Such agreements are required this year in order to share in the $321 million in funding that school districts can use for functions including the hiring of mental health professionals, training for school staff on threat assessment and crisis communication, and the purchase of safety infrastructure such as cameras, door blocks, hardened vestibules, and window screening.

While some school boards, including in Detroit, Dearborn, and Rochester, agreed to the conditions despite reservations, dozens of other districts and school officials filed a lawsuit against the state last month saying that while they believe in transparency, the wording in the budget is vague and potentially illegal.

“We’re not about resisting accountability or transparency, but at the same time, the vague waiving of privilege puts not only our school district but individuals’ and professionals’ rights at risk,” said Mark Greathead, superintendent of the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District in Wayne County. Both the district and Greathead are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is now before the Michigan Court of Claims. Judge Sima Patel issued an order last week that extended the deadline for districts to agree to the condition and receive the funding from Nov. 30 to 11:59 p.m. Dec. 4.

Patel’s order allows districts that have already agreed to the condition the ability to rescind that agreement by 11:59 p.m. Dec. 30. For any school or district that rescinds their agreement, the Michigan Department of Education can recoup all funds paid, from the school safety and mental health fund “by deducting the amount from future state school aid payments,” Patel said in the order.

The waiver comes after parents of Oxford High School students killed in 2021 pushed for a state investigation of the district’s alleged failure to prevent the shootings. Though an independent investigation found multiple failures by school officials, many employees did not participate in the review.

Michigan’s government immunity laws shield educational institutions from liability in lawsuits unless a high threshold of gross negligence can be proven. The laws can also protect institutions’ employees. Without immunity, school employees could be held legally and financially liable for failing to prevent deaths.

Dearborn Public Schools would receive $3.2 million in safety/mental health funding. David Mustonen, spokesman for the district, said most of it will go toward mental health, social emotional learning, and school culture and climate.

The Dearborn school board has already approved accepting the condition to receive the money.

“Like most districts, we too are waiting to hear how this will all play out in the courts,” Mustonen said in an email response to Chalkbeat. “Again, like many others, the concern is about the precedent this type of legislation may have on future funding and the concern with districts losing the attorney/client privilege during the investigation of a mass casualty incident.”

The Woodhaven-Brownstown district’s board last week approved a resolution agreeing to the condition but will carefully weigh whether to rescind the agreement before the Dec. 30 deadline, Greathead said.

His district would receive an estimated $800,000 to $900,000, Greathead said. The money could be used to cover positions such as social workers, counselors, and resource officers, as well as programs for mental health that are currently funded via the district’s general fund budget.

“We will certainly put the money to good use if we are able to receive it,” Greathead said. “Heaven forbid we have the need for an investigation in the school district. But we also have to make sure we have clarity and are not putting ourselves at a disadvantage by waiving rights.”

Oral arguments in the court case are scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 11.

Reporter Hannah Dellinger contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit teens detained by ICE should be released, advocates say

2025-11-26T01:05:30+00:00

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Valerie Brown doesn’t personally know her two classmates at Western International High School who were detained Thursday morning by federal immigration officials and sent to Texas, but that didn’t stop her from helping organize a press conference that became a rally for bringing the students home.

“I have friends who have told me they are afraid to go to school. You shouldn’t be afraid to come to school,” Brown told Chalkbeat after speaking during the press conference, saying the fear is magnified by rumors of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents taking kids “whether they have papers or not.”

“They’re scared to be outside, to be with their friends. They’re kids.”

The press conference was organized to support the two 16-year-old students, who are cousins and attend Western International High School in Southwest Detroit. Outlier Media and Chalkbeat reported Monday that students were born in Venezuela and arrived in the U.S. in 2023. They were taken into custody along with two of their parents when agents raided their home on the Eastide in search of a different migrant.

Brown and others spoke in front of a backdrop at Detroit’s Clark Park. Dozens of people were there, some of them holding signs and shouting “for shame” whenever a speaker brought up something they thought was particularly egregious. All of them called for the release of the teens and the parents.

Some of the speakers, including Valerie, called on school, city, and state officials to be more involved in ensuring the safety of students who fear moving throughout the community because of immigration actions. Some called on the Detroit school district to have an immigration attorney on retainer to assist students who’ve been detained and to ensure students know their rights.

“Instead of the (students) chilling with their friends, they got to be stuck in a detention center with ICE,” Brown said during her speech. “We don’t even know where they’re going. We don’t even know if they’re going to a country that’s theirs or is even safe for them or even if they have family anymore.”

Teens and adults from across the city came out to Clark Park Tuesday to call for the release of two Detroit high school students who were detained by federal immigration officials.

One of the speakers, attorney George Washington, said ICE agents entered the home while the occupants were sleeping. “Suddenly, ICE appears at the door, busts into the place, and tells them that they’re all being arrested.”

All four who were detained had pending asylum petitions, Washington said.

“We have a tremendous immigration lawyer from Detroit who did everything he could,” to assist the four while they remained in Michigan. But, Washington said, they were sent to Texas “too quick.”

“He’s going to continue representing them and we’re going to get them out,” Washington said.

After the event, Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Democrat from Detroit, issued a statement about the detentions:

“I am standing with Detroit teachers, friends, family and community members of these two students in urging their immediate return home to Michigan,” Chang said. “I understand that they have been following the asylum process and have upcoming immigration court dates. ICE should release them and allow them to proceed with the asylum process.”

Many of the youth attending the event were from Western International, located across the street from Clark Park. Others came from schools such as Southeastern, Cass Technical, and Detroit International Academy for Young Women.

Theo Edwards, a student at Western International High School, attended the press conference and rally on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, to show support for his classmates who were detained.

Kenneth Russell, who attends Southeastern, was among the speakers.

“It’s better for us to all be connected than apart,” Russell said.

“It’s awful what’s happening,” said Theo Edwards, who’s attended Western for nearly a month. He was holding a sign that said “People are not illegal,” with the “not” underlined. “It’s scary, especially for those who are Hispanic.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach Lori at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan reports record enrollment in the state’s free preschool program, but openings are aplenty

2025-11-18T21:22:34+00:00

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A record number of children are enrolled in Michigan’s free preschool program this year, the second in which the state has invested in making it available for all children regardless of income.

But programs across the state still have plenty of openings, a sign that many families don’t know the program is available.

During a press conference Tuesday morning, officials from the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education Advancement and Potential announced that 51,000 children are enrolled in the Great Start Readiness Program. That’s an increase of 8,900 over last year.

During the 2023-24 school year, the last before the state launched its PreK for All initiative, 36,466 children were enrolled. A bipartisan effort in the Michigan legislature has invested additional money in the state budget to fund the expansion, which began with the 2024-25 school year.

The PreK for All initiative has been aimed at removing income and other restrictions on the Great Start Readiness Program, essentially allowing any child to enroll whether they are from a low-income home or not. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in her 2023 proposal to gradually expand to a universal preschool program in Michigan, said it would “ensure children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn.”

The expansion comes as Michigan’s K-12 system has faced criticism because students have struggled on state and national exams at a time when many other states are showing more impressive gains.

The Great Start Readiness Program is one of four preschool programs in which the state is expanding access by eliminating income restrictions. The others include the federal Head Start program, developmental kindergarten, and early childhood special education.

Beverly Walker-Griffea, director of MiLEAP, said families who enroll their children in PreK for All programs save an estimated $14,000 each year. That’s crucial, she said, “at a time like this, when the cost of just about everything is going up.”

Blake Kish is a parent of six children under the age of 8. Two have been enrolled in the Great Start Readiness Program at St. George School in Flint Township.

“The PreK For All has been a blessing, of course, for the household, but mostly for the kids,” Kish said.

“I recommend any parent that has a child that is 4 years old, get your child in this program. Get your kid in the classroom, give them that head start, give them the winning edge,” Kish said. “We are shaping the future of Michigan.”

Emily Laidlaw, deputy director for early education at MiLEAP, noted that “children who attend a high quality pre-K program are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college or career training and start their career strong.”

“Pre-K teaches critical social skills, including how to share, work and play together, and get along with others,” Laidlaw said.

Laidlaw said the state will continue to get the word out about the program to families across the state who have not yet enrolled.

Parents can visit Michigan’s PreK for All website to find out more information about enrolling their children.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Election 2025: Voters OK additional funding for CTE programs in Washtenaw County

2025-11-05T17:55:59+00:00

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Career and technical education programs in Washtenaw County will get a big boost after voters approved a tax increase to add a new funding stream for the programs.

The passage of the special tax proposal may be a good sign across Michigan, given that 41% of schools have limited CTE opportunities for students. The Michigan Department of Education describes these areas as CTE deserts, because data show participation in career tech programs is lower than expected. Tax measures like the one that passed Tuesday in Washtenaw County mean the career programs will have a steady stream of funding.

The proposal passed with 35,947 votes in favor and 29,676 opposed.The tax measure will last 10 years, at which voters would have to approve renewing it.

“This investment by our community will help shape a generation of hope,” said Ryan Rowe, the career and technical education director for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.

“Our goal is for every student to cross the stage at graduation with an informed and inspired plan for what comes next, whether it’s college, an apprenticeship, the military, or a high-skill career,” Rowe said. “This funding allows us to build stronger pathways, connect learning to the real world, and help students see their future within reach.”

The outcome wasn’t as good for school districts that are part of the Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle intermediate school district in northern Michigan. A similar career and technical education tax proposal failed, according to the Cheboygan Tribune. It would have allowed for the expansion of CTE programs and for funding to allow students to travel to and from school districts in the three counties to take CTE classes.

CTE is particularly limited in Washtenaw County. A report from the University of Michigan’s Youth Policy Lab said access in the county is inequitable, and that students from low-income homes and Black and Hispanic students “have less overall access to CTE programming compared” to more affluent and white students.

At Ypsilanti Community High School, Principal Chelsea Harris-Hugan told Chalkbeat last month that the school would add more CTE programs based on student interest if the measure passes.

“The millage is incredibly important to our students and to our community,” she said. “It provides a bigger pathway and a better opportunity for our students.”

Officials from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, which will oversee the funding from the tax measure, told Chalkbeat recently that the additional money will allow the ISD to sustain current programs across the county, expand those with waitlists, and create new regional programs. Much of the initial efforts will expand access in Ypsilanti and Whitmore Lake school districts, because they have significantly fewer CTE opportunities than other districts.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Mary Sheffield is Detroit’s next mayor. Can she influence education?

2025-11-05T14:39:22+00:00

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Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield won the race for Detroit mayor by a wide margin Tuesday.

The vote totals were 88,229 for Sheffield and 25,725 for Solomon Kinloch, the pastor at Triumph Church.

Her big win was also historic, with Sheffield becoming the city’s first female mayor.

She referred to the historical significance of her victory during an acceptance speech late Tuesday, noting that in the city’s 324-year history, there have been 75 mayors and “not one of them has been a woman.”

“But tonight, Detroit, we know that changes. And you changed it Detroit,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield will be the city’s first new mayor in about a dozen years. Current Mayor Mike Duggan didn’t run for reelection and instead is running in next year’s governor’s race.

Now that Sheffield has been elected, the attention will turn to whether she’ll deliver on her campaign promises. And for those who care about education in the city, the big question is whether she will be effective in partnering with the city’s schools to improve student outcomes.

Kinloch and Sheffield both said they intended to play a key role in helping address the issues that make it difficult for children to show up for school and learn. Sheffield won the August primary and led polls since then.

Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch, center, lost Tuesday's election to Mary Sheffield. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

The mayor of Detroit doesn’t have any control over the operation of schools in the city but can still have an influence.

Sheffield said Tuesday that her administration will be more involved in education in the city by creating coordinated transportation and investing in after-school programs and wraparound services. The goal, she said, is that every child can succeed.

“We know that when our youth rise, Detroit rises,” Sheffield said.

In interviews with Chalkbeat during the campaign, community leaders and education advocates offered these ideas for what the mayor could do:

Transportation: Many high school students take the city’s public buses to get to and from school. Many students say that the bus system isn’t reliable, buses are often late, and sometimes, buses pass them up. Students have also expressed concerns about safety while waiting at bus stops and on buses. The mayor can work with the Detroit Department of Transportation to improve reliability of bus service, including wait times, address safety concerns, and ensure bus stops are located in areas that are convenient for students.

Housing: Many Detroit families are struggling with housing insecurity, and the number of children experiencing homelessness is on the rise. Two Michigan State University political science professors wrote earlier this year that rising rents in the city are playing a role in housing challenges. About 59% of families with school-aged children are renters in Detroit, according to this fact sheet from Wayne State University researchers. The city has invested a lot in creating affordable housing, but concerns were raised during the campaign that the affordable housing isn’t affordable enough for the average Detroit resident. Meanwhile, evictions can create instability for children attending school.

What can the mayor do? Push for affordable housing that works for families with school-age children, while also ensuring that affordable housing is placed in areas that make it easier for parents to get their children to and from school.

Partnering with schools: The city’s mayor can create a more cohesive education system by bringing district and charter schools together and ensuring students who attend both have access to important resources such as after-school programming.

What Sheffield promised on education

Here’s what Sheffield told Chalkbeat this summer when asked what role the mayor could play:

“I understand my role to be a solutions-oriented advocate on behalf of parents, teachers, students and community members. In my opinion, it does very little good to point fingers or blame entries or people for current issues, especially when many times, whole systems need to be addressed to reach real solutions,” Sheffield said.

“Instead, I will establish deeper collaborative ties with DPSCD first and foremost, acknowledging that a strong school system means a strong Detroit. Everything from Detroit’s public safety to workforce to small business and entrepreneurship have direct ties to our educational system. So as a goal, we will understand the gaps and create solutions together. I am willing to commit significant resources towards improving the areas impacting education that the City of Detroit oversees: Infrastructure, quality of life for students and families, safety, and in some cases, funding advocacy. I will do this in collaboration with residents and with DPSCD partners.”

During an October debate, when confronted with a question about how the mayor can address low academic performance and high rates of chronic absenteeism, Sheffield replied:

“My administration will have a liaison working directly with our DPSCD and charter schools on a consistent basis. We will ensure that we have robust after school programming within a two mile radius of every school, focusing in on literacy. We will provide the wraparound service and address the social deterrents that prevent and impact our families and our students, like mental health and housing and having support in the schools and on the grounds to support our families and students. And lastly, as a mayor, I can ensure that we have safe routes to school and fixing the infrastructure around our schools and providing more coordinated transportation to reduce absenteeism and get our students back in school.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Election: Detroit’s next mayor could influence education in the city

2025-10-31T21:10:10+00:00

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Detroit residents who haven’t already voted will head to the polls on Tuesday to help decide who the city’s next mayor will be.

The election — featuring candidates Solomon Kinloch, a pastor, and Mary Sheffield, city council president — has been largely focused around issues related to neighborhood revitalization, safety, poverty, and housing instability.

All of those issues affect the city’s public schools, and each of the candidates say they intend to play a role by partnering with schools to ensure children have a quality education.

What that role looks like remains to be seen. But low academic achievement, high rates of chronic absenteeism, and the myriad effects of poverty on student learning are key challenges in Detroit.

Here’s what you need to know about the election.

What can Detroit’s next mayor do?

Unlike in some other big cities, Detroit’s mayor doesn’t have any control over or say in education issues. But the mayor can still have some influence.

For instance, students miss school at alarming rates in the city, and it’s not just because they want to blow off the classroom.

More than half of the students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District attend school outside their neighborhood, and challenges getting to and from school often lead to absences.

The Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research has reported that a third of families in Detroit don’t own a car, and 30% of families don’t have a fixed way to get their children to school.

Meanwhile, high school students largely take city-run transportation to get to school, and Chalkbeat has often heard from teens that buses don’t always arrive on time or pass them by when they’re waiting at the bus stop.

While the mayor can’t equip all Detroit residents with vehicles or require students to attend their neighborhood school, they can address issues with the transportation system. The topic came up earlier this month when Sheffield and Kinloch met for a televised debate.

Sheffield vowed to provide “more coordinated transportation to reduce absenteeism and get our students back in school,” while also noting that the city needs to improve transportation wait times. Kinloch said that in order to improve transportation, the city needs to ensure it is offering competitive pay to transit workers, has reliable vehicles, and has trained mechanics.

What Detroiters told us they want from the next mayor

Chalkbeat asked Detroit residents to tell us what they would like to see the next mayor do to address education issues in the city.

Some common themes emerged. Residents said they welcome the mayor playing a role in education issues, though several made it clear schools should continue to be independently operated. They told us they want to see Sheffield or Kinloch address issues such as safety, transportation, poor attendance, lack of stable housing, and lack of student engagement.

One reader told us that the mayor needs to play a role because she or he “has a direct impact” on some of the biggest challenges facing schools in the city.

Sharon Kelso, a Detroit district parent and education advocate, said safety, lack of student engagement, and lack of accountability of school staff are major factors affecting student learning.

“There is currently too much failure with blame being placed on students and parents,” Kelso said.

The next mayor, she said, can promote parental involvement by holding town hall meetings to hear parent concerns. They can also hold town hall meetings and conferences to hear from students. Kelso said the mayor can work with DPSCD and charter school leaders to address transportation and safety issues.

Sheffield and Kinloch’s views on education

Kinloch has said he will create a cabinet-level position that would partner with DPSCD “to make sure that we’re removing the social ills that keep the children from showing up in class in a productive way, not to just to survive, but to thrive.” He said on his website that the cabinet member would work with school administrators, educators, parents, and students “to coordinate city services that support student success.”

Sheffield, in a response to a Chalkbeat Detroit survey, said she would “commit significant resources” toward improving conditions that affect education that the city oversees. Sheffield, during the debate, said she would partner with DPSCD and charter schools on a consistent basis to “ensure that we have robust after-school programming within a two mile radius of every school, focusing in on literacy,” as well as addressing the social deterrents that affect students and families.

How to vote in Tuesday’s Detroit election

Detroit residents aren’t just voting for a new mayor. They also will be electing city council members, city clerk, board of police commissioners, and the community advisory council.

For information about how to vote early, BridgeDetroit has a handy guide here. A reminder that if you’re voting in person on Nov. 4, the polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Want to read more?

Chalkbeat wrote in July about why some advocates see education as a key issue in the mayoral race. After the primary, we broke down how the top two contenders would address education issues, specifically chronic absenteeism. And we had all the details about what the candidates said about education at a televised debate.

For more information on the candidates, check out coverage from our partners at BridgeDetroit.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

‘Broken’ and inequitable Michigan special education funding needs an overhaul, report says

2025-10-30T18:32:37+00:00

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A new report out Thursday calls for a huge shift in the way Michigan funds special education, including introducing a tiered system that funds students with disabilities based on how much support they need, with amounts ranging from $11,000 to $39,000 per student.

The recommendation is the work of a team that was created after the Michigan Legislature ordered a report in 2024 that designed a new way of funding special education in the state. More than a year of work went into the study, and more than 1,000 people, including parents, educators, advocates, and others provided feedback.

Advocates said there is an urgent need to reform the system, with the report citing low graduation rates for students with disabilities, low academic achievement, and growing needs as the population increases. Students with disabilities make up 15% of the school population in Michigan.

“For decades, our special education system has been stretched thin,” Heather Eckner, director of statewide education for the Autism Alliance of Michigan, said during a virtual news conference Thursday. “It’s underfunded, overly complex, and deeply unfair in how resources are distributed on special education funding in the state.

The recommended system would put the focus on the students’ specific educational needs. Schools would receive about $11,000, for instance, for students with “lower-intensity needs,” such as those with a speech or language disability or a specific learning disability.

Schools would receive about $39,000 for students who require full-time or intensive daily support. That includes students who have autism, a traumatic brain injury, an early childhood developmental delay, a visual disability, or an emotional disability.

Those per-pupil amounts would be on top of the $10,421 minimum amount the state provides to schools on a per student basis.

The report also calls for the creation of a high-cost fund that would reimburse 80% of any expenses schools spend above $57,615 per student. A news release accompanying the report said this fund would safeguard “districts that serve students with exceptionally high or complex needs.”

If the legislature adopts the recommendations, it would represent a huge shift in how students with disabilities are funded. Currently, districts must use general fund dollars if the cost of educating a student with a disability is higher than the $10,421 per-pupil grant. The state reimburses schools at a rate of just 28.6%.

That’s one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the country, Eckner said.

“It’s a question of fairness and opportunity. It means a child’s access to appropriate supports depends far too much on where they live and the wealth of their local tax base, and it means educators are constantly asked to do more with less, while families are asked to fight harder for services that should never be in question.”

The legislature didn’t ask the team to identify how the recommended funding structure for special education should be rolled out. But the report recommends phasing it in over six years, with full implementation estimated at $4.55 billion. The report offers two approaches, one in which the state assumes the full cost of eliminating inequities and the second being a shared model between the state and local districts.

Funding students based on their needs isn’t a new idea in Michigan. For the last few years, the state has used what it calls an opportunity index to provide additional funding for schools based on how many at-risk students they educate. A student is considered at risk based on multiple factors, including if they come from low-income homes.

Former Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, a parent of a child with autism and a longtime advocate for students with disabilities, called Michigan’s current system “broken.”

“When you have a funding system that doesn’t recognize the differences between what students need, it requires that parents fight for their services and puts them in kind of a defensive or an adversarial relationship with their school, which is exactly the opposite of what we would want,” said Calley, who currently is the president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan.

Adequate funding for students with disabilities would be a boon for classroom teachers, said Alexandra Stamm, the education policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy. Stamm and Eckner are former teachers. Stamm said she always had students with disabilities integrated within her general education classroom.

“I always felt like, ‘I wish that there was more of me. I wish that I could split myself into four so that my kids could get the services that are required and that they need per their IEPs (individualized education program).’ “

She said this amount of additional funding would mean “more supports for kids in terms of more paraprofessionals, more special education teachers, more speech and language pathologists, more help providing resources to the kids.”

Michigan schools have faced challenges in hiring enough special education teachers and related staff who provide critical services to students. That can cause delays in ensuring students are evaluated and receive the services they need. Whether additional funding would address those problems isn’t known, but Calley said Thursday that the money could help schools attract the staff they need by paying them more than they are now.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

As CTE programs expand in Michigan, not all students are getting opportunities

2025-10-29T15:51:47+00:00

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Small drones buzzed all around the small gymnasium at Ypsilanti Community High School, controlled by students competing to get them through an obstacle course fastest.

In this yearlong drone and aviation technology class, a new career and technical education offering at the high school, students who master flying the machines will earn an industry-level certification and potentially a career advantage. Those are big pluses in a state where officials have prioritized boosting skilled trades.

Kayden Ross, a senior, quickly took to the drone course and sees career potential.

“People are definitely starting to use it a lot more, especially for real world things like fires or scoping out things, or checking structures to see if there’s any damage,” Kayden said. “So I feel like people are going to pay a lot of money for people that really know how to do that.”

The class is providing a unique opportunity to the students who are enrolled, but it is one the few Career and Technical Education, or CTE, courses available to local students. By the state’s definition, Ypsilanti Community Schools is a CTE desert — an area where data show participation in career tech programs is lower than expected.

Kayden Ross, a senior at Ypsilanti Community High School, sees career potential in a new drone and aviation career and technical education program that he's enrolled in. Voters in Washtenaw County on Nov. 4 will consider a tax measure that would raise money to pay for CTE programs like the drone aviation class operating in Ypsilanti.

CTE programs are gaining traction in Michigan and nationwide, in part because of student demand but also as advocates promote them as a way for students to explore careers and gain important skills in emerging fields. But high costs, a lack of funding, and other barriers like transportation are creating significant inequities along not just geographic but racial lines.

The CTE outlook in Ypsilanti and across the rest of Washtenaw County could brighten come Nov. 4 if voters in the county approve a special millage, a kind of property tax measure, that would create new revenue to fund pre-kindergarten-12th grade CTE programs. The measure would raise approximately $25 million annually for 10 years, benefitting each of the county’s nine districts.

Such millages can help turn a CTE desert into an oasis because they provide sustained funding to create new programs and maintain funding for existing programs. That’s important not just here in Washtenaw County but across Michigan — 41% of Michigan school districts are CTE deserts.

The drone aviation program at the Ypsilanti high school is one of five state-approved CTE programs offered to students, with the others being in collision repair, automotive, culinary, cosmetology, said Ypsilanti Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross. The school also has some career-focused electives.

The drone aviation class was able to launch this year thanks to a temporary grant that will expire in June 2026, Zachery-Ross said.

That’s why the tax proposal is so important.

If it passes, Principal Chelsea Harris-Hugan said, the school would look to add programs in hospitality, entrepreneurship, HVAC, and law enforcement.

“The millage is incredibly important to our students and to our community,” she said. “It provides a bigger pathway and a better opportunity for our students.”

Research finds career tech access problems across Michigan

If you look at CTE enrollment numbers in Michigan, the overall picture looks deceptively good. During the 2024-25 school year, 114,495 students were enrolled in CTE programs, and a record 55,431 completed a CTE program.

The enrollment number has consistently risen since the 2011-12 school year, when the state first began collecting the data, except for a pandemic-caused dip during the 2020-21 school year. Meanwhile, the number of completers is higher than it’s ever been.

But not all students are getting the opportunity. Not only are nearly half of all districts considered CTE deserts, but a 2022 report from the University of Michigan Youth Policy Lab found students from low-income homes, Black, and Hispanic students have less overall access to CTE.

A separate Youth Policy Lab report on CTE access in Washtenaw County, home to the Ypsilanti district, found similar gaps. The report said access is inequitable, and that the same groups mentioned above “have less overall access to CTE programming compared” to more affluent and white students.

When they aren’t being used, drones sit inside these cases in the drone and aviation technology classroom at Ypsilanti Community High School.

The data prompted the State Board of Education in January to adopt a resolution that called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature to provide additional funding for districts to open new CTE programs. State lawmakers did exactly that in the budget that was adopted Oct. 3, though the $70 million in funding to CTE desert districts was less than the $125 million Whitmer proposed earlier this year.

Celena Mills, director of the office of career and technical education at the Michigan Department of Education, told Chalkbeat earlier this year that CTE programs give students an opportunity to explore careers and in many cases get a jumpstart on a career in which they have interest. Or they could learn that a career isn’t a good fit, she said. In general, CTE programs are focused on careers that are growing and are expected to grow.

“We have such a need in our economy for more of those jobs to be filled,” Mills said. “We need a workforce, and so we’re starting to think about how we can train students sooner to be able to do that, to fill those positions.”

When students lack that access, they lose out because they can’t start that career exploration early and often must wait until they graduate high school.

“They’re not able to have that competitive advantage and to move as far as fast as the rest of their peers,” Mills said.

Career and technical education millages are under the purview of intermediate school districts in Michigan, which distribute revenue from the millage to local schools and are responsible for monitoring the career tech programs. There are 56 such districts in Michigan, and they exist to provide a range of services to the local school districts within their borders. Many of these districts, 41, already have CTE millages. The Washtenaw Intermediate School District, which serves the nine local districts in the county, is one of 15 that don’t.

While Washtenaw County has been identified as having broad access issues, that doesn’t mean CTE programs don’t exist. Three districts — Ann Arbor, Whitmore Lake, and Ypsilanti — provide their own programs. The remaining five districts are part of the South West Consortium, a CTE program operated by the intermediate school district that allows students to take career tech classes outside of their districts, with most of the classes offered in Saline, which is in the southern portion of the county.

Even with this consortium, access problems exist. There are only so many openings each year in each program. Distance can be a barrier for some students. And some popular programs have a number of students on waiting lists, officials say.

“I hate telling students no when it’s something you know they can be good at or are passionate about,” said Michael Kapolka, superintendent of the Chelsea School District, which is part of the consortium.

“Students want these opportunities because they know what they can provide for them,” Kapolka said.

Ayden Sisson, a senior at Ypsilanti Community High School, is enrolled in a drone and aviation technology class but would love to see his school expand its career and technical high school options to include performing arts classes.

If the millage passes, the consortium programs, as well as the programs in districts that aren’t part of the consortium, would continue to operate as they do today. But the county schools would adopt a more centralized system “to sustain existing programs and expand those with waitlists, while also creating new regional programs in areas of need,” said Ashley Kryscynski, spokeswoman for the Washtenaw ISD.

Meanwhile, she said, while every district would receive money from the millage, “because some districts, such as Ypsilanti and Whitmore Lake, have significantly fewer CTE opportunities than other districts in our county, much of our initial efforts will be to increase access for these districts.

Drone aviation class opens up opportunities for Ypsilanti students

Even in the CTE deserts, school officials have found some resources to launch new programs like the drone aviation class at Ypsilanti Community High.

Last year, Michael Cushman taught fourth grade in West Bloomfield. But he has extensive aviation training, so he jumped at the opportunity to teach the new drone and aviation technology class at Ypsilanti Community High School.

Last year, Michael Cushman taught fourth grade in West Bloomfield. This year, he’s teaching the drone aviation class. It’s not as odd a shift as you might think. Cushman has a degree in aviation flight science from Western Michigan University. He has a commercial pilot’s license, was a certified flight instructor, and most recently earned the remote pilot certificate required to fly drones.

That’s also the same certificate he expects students to test for in the spring. They’ll need it if they plan to fly drones for commercial purposes, Cushman said.

For now, though, they’re still learning about the intricacies of flying drones and the coding that’s required to do it. When they first started flying the drones through the obstacle course in the gymnasium, it took about 50 seconds to navigate the course. On the day Chalkbeat visited Oct. 9, the students were down to 27 to 28 seconds.

“We get competitive with the obstacle course, and I’m competitive too,” Cushman said. “So I picked up the drone to see if I could beat some of their times, and some of these kids that had just picked up a drone for the first time were going through the obstacle course faster than I was.”

When junior Camari Vawters was around eight years old, his older brother had a drone. He remembers constantly crashing the drone when he would play with it. Now, he drives a drone with focus.

“I love it.”

Kayden Ross, a senior, wasted no time signing up for the class after seeing a demonstration during an assembly last school year. Cushman said Kayden, in particular, “has a knack for it,” and has “really taken to it very quickly.”

Kayden says it’s “definitely” a career option for himself.

Drone aviation classes are an example of how CTE programs have evolved over the years to keep up with changing technology and with burgeoning careers. What’s also changed is the CTE programs of years ago were mostly geared towards students who either had no desire or need to go to college. Now, Mills said, that mindset has shifted.

“Now we know that almost every student in almost every career requires some sort of post-secondary training,” Mills said. “What that looks like depends on the career that the student is interested in.”

Ayden Sisson illustrates how that strain affects students. The Ypsilanti senior is having a ball in the drone aviation class, which he signed up for because he’s always been fascinated by the drone shows he’s seen while watching sports events. But as much fun as he’s having, he still wishes his school had a performing arts CTE program — which the state of Michigan recognizes as a CTE field.

“We do have drama classes, we have musical theater and stuff like that,” Ayden said. But a single drama class doesn’t compare to a CTE program that might last one or two years. “If it was a CTE that would have made much more impact.”

Junior India Smith holds the drone and the device students use to control the drone during a class earlier this month.

India Smith, a junior at Ypsilanti Community High and a student in the drone aviation class, said she was inspired to enroll after attending an assembly during her sophomore year.

“I wanted to try something new,” India said.

Like Ayden, though, she has other career aspirations. She wants to be an artist, and is interested in animation. When the conversation turned to some of the potential new CTE programs that would benefit Ypsilanti students, said she was interested in learning how to use animation to draw. She’s seen people doing so on YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok and has been intrigued.

“I’ve always wanted to do it.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

This story is part of an occasional look at career and technical education programs in Michigan. The reporting is supported with an Institute for Citizens & Scholars Higher Education Media Fellowship from the ECMC Foundation, a grantmaking partner of Educational Credit Management Corp. focused on improving higher education and career success among underserved populations.

Correction: Oct. 29, 2025: A previous version of this story said there are eight school districts in Washtenaw County. The story has been updated to say there are nine districts.

What mayoral candidates Sheffield and Kinloch said about education at this week’s debate

2025-10-16T18:44:16+00:00

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Detroit’s mayoral candidates may be far apart about how they should solve many of the city’s challenges, but their views on improving education in the city sound similar.

Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Jr., the pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, and Mary Sheffield, the president of the Detroit City Council, faced off Wednesday night during a televised debate on WXYZ-TV. Moderators asked one question about education, but related topics such as child poverty, transportation, and safety also came up.

Education has been an issue throughout the campaign because of the depth of Detroit’s school challenges. Low academic achievement and high rates of chronic absenteeism are big problems in district and charter schools. While the mayor doesn’t have control over how schools are operated, the person elected can play a role in addressing many of the barriers that make it difficult for children to learn, including housing instability, a lack of transportation, and extreme poverty.

Here’s what they had to say at Wednesday night’s debate.

How will the candidates help improve education in Detroit?

Moderator Carolyn Clifford noted the city’s high rate of illiteracy and the most recent results for the Detroit Public Schools Community District on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, in which just 5% of district students were proficient or above in reading. Noting that the mayor has no control over district and charter schools in the city, she asked the candidates, “What can a mayor do to help ensure Detroit kids can read, can learn, and succeed?

Kinloch repeated what he’s said throughout the campaign: that he would “be an educational mayor” and would create a cabinet-level position that would partner with the school district. Though the city has dozens of charter schools, Kinloch only mentioned partnering with the district. Kinloch said that while “the school district is not the mayor’s job, it’s still the mayor’s responsibility.”

Solomon Kinloch Jr. faces off against Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield in a televised debate between the two remaining candidates in Detroit’s mayoral race on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 at the WXYZ-TV studio in Southfield.

“What we will do is partner with the district to make sure that we’re removing the social ills that keep the children from showing up in class in a productive way, not to just to survive, but to thrive. There are a whole lot of things that take place before those children get to class. And so we got to make sure that they have access to mental health professionals, that they have access to affordable housing, that they have access to food and grocery stores and healthy eating, that they have access to extra curriculum activities to keep them off the street and give them a sanctuary to be safe.”

Sheffield said she believes the mayor “can be a greater partner to drive better outcomes for our youth” and that every child deserves access to a quality education.

Setting students up for post-high school success

At various points during the debate, Sheffield and Kinloch talked about ensuring that children are set up for success once they leave high school.

Sheffield noted that the Detroit Promise, a scholarship program that gives eligible Detroit residents a tuition-free path to an associate degree, bachelor’s degree, or technical certificate, already provides opportunities for Detroit youth.

“We want to enhance that program and ensure that we’re creating pathways so that everyone who wants to receive secondary education has a pathway to do so,” Sheffield said.

Kinloch made a similar statement.

“I’ll make sure that every child has access to a quality education, giving them a pathway to college and giving them a pathway to a career,” Kinloch said.

Crime may be down, but safety is still an issue

Chalkbeat heard from a number of students earlier this year who said they often feel unsafe in the city, avoid being out in large groups because they fear what could happen, and worry about violence as they travel to and from school. That’s despite crime being down in the city.

At Wednesday night’s debate, candidates were asked how they explain the disconnect between the statistics and what people say in their neighborhoods and what they would do if elected mayor to solve this problem.

Kinloch noted that as a pastor, he has had to “give children dignity in death that they didn’t get in life because their life was taken too soon.”

He said one of the reasons there is a disconnect is “because Detroiters deserve two things. They deserve safety and they deserve justice.” He also suggested that the city is “fudging” crime statistics. BridgeDetroit and the Detroit Free Press reported that after the debate, Kinloch explained his comments, saying there should be additional oversight into how crimes are tracked.

Sheffield noted the reduction in crime stats, but also said “one life lost is still far too many.”

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield faces off against Solomon Kinloch Jr. in a televised debate between the two remaining candidates in Detroit’s mayoral race on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 at the WXYZ-TV studio in Southfield.

“I believe in a comprehensive and holistic approach to public safety that is rooted in strong partnerships with our law enforcement agencies in our community. I will ensure as mayor that we are investing in prevention, more year round, youth employment for our young people, ensure that we’re expanding our community violence intervention work.”

Her plan also includes launching the city’s first ever office of gun violence prevention and expanding community policing efforts.

Improving public transportation is important

The candidates were asked to explain how they would improve public transit in the city. While the question wasn’t specific to education or students, the city’s transportation woes affect school attendance. Many students take city buses to and from school, and Chalkbeat has heard from students who say the buses frequently arrive late, making them late for school, or don’t show up at all.

Transportation barriers are one of the reasons the DPSCD chronic absenteeism rate is high. The rate is improving, but 60% of students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year. At least one DPSCD school is experimenting with distributing bikes to students to make it easier for their children to get to school.

Sheffield said the most pressing issue is addressing public transportation wait times.

“We have to ensure that no one is waiting 30, 40, 50 minutes to catch a bus. And so as mayor, my number one priority is to reduce wait times, increase frequency and reliability of our system, make sure that our drivers are paid the wages that they deserve, and make sure that the system is safe.”

Kinloch said the city needs to ensure it is offering competitive pay to transit workers, has reliable vehicles, and has trained mechanics.

“I remember growing up in the city of Detroit, and the only way I can get from point A to point B is I had to depend on public transportation,” said Kinloch, who said improving the transit system is a necessity. “A lot of our school children are dependent on public transportation. Our family, our community is dependent on public transportation.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

This Michigan alternative high teacher sees his students reach everywhere in his small community

2025-10-15T19:57:17+00:00

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Corey Rosser doesn’t have to go far in the rural community in which he teaches to see how much his former students have to offer.

When he goes to the bank, he’s likely to see students he taught at Quest High School, an alternative high school in North Branch Area Schools, working there. When his son broke his arm, the emergency room nurse was one of his former students. So was the coach for his son’s youth basketball team. And when their community needed a grand marshal for a Fourth of July parade, a former student who became disabled serving the country in the Middle East was chosen.

“The impact is everywhere in my rural community because my students are everywhere, and are the most likely to remain local,” Rosser said. “I am proud of the contributions my students make to the community they are now an integral part of.”

Rosser, Michigan’s Teacher of the Year for 2025-26, is a longtime teacher in an alternative program. He knows well the misconceptions people have about the students he teaches — that they’re lazy, unmotivated, have little to offer, and are unable to learn. He also knows well that those misconceptions couldn’t be further from the truth.

Corey Rosser is a program coordinator and teacher at Quest High School in North Branch Area Schools.

“They may either just be motivated differently or not motivated by what you are teaching,” Rosser said.

Often, it has nothing to do with education.

“When you have a student that works 40 hours a week to help pay their families’ bills, their poor performance has little to do with your curriculum. It has to do with competing interests,” he said. “My interest is the subject. Their interest is keeping the lights on. That is the challenge. You have to bridge that by providing an authentic learning experience that they see benefitting their lives.”

Rosser has been a teacher for 22 years and is the program coordinator and a teacher at Quest. He spoke with Chalkbeat about his career, his favorite lesson on political affiliation, and connecting with students.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I decided to become a teacher after working at Teen Ranch, a juvenile detention center, during my college summer breaks. It was the first time that I found a calling that wasn’t about me … and even greater, was bigger than me. It was the first time I wanted to be “better” for the sake of helping others. I knew that teaching was what I was meant to do.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite lesson to teach about political affiliation through a political compass quiz. The political compass quiz asks students numerous questions about their ideology. At the end, it places them on a political compass scale that shows their leanings based on their belief system. As an educator, it isn’t about whether they identify with left or right leaning politics. It’s about their ability to articulate why they identify with a respective party. It forces students to think about what they believe and support that belief with sound rationale. It’s not teaching them what to think, but how to think.

After completing the test, students submit their results anonymously. I compile the responses and present them on a political compass chart, along with graphs and pie charts that display historical data from previous years’ students. This data allows students to identify trends and make inferences about the data. Engaging students through their direct participation in the political compass test draws them.

Additionally, we critically examine the validity of the political compass test itself. We ask important questions: What biases might exist in the test? What motivations could someone have for creating it? Were any questions slanted to favor one side over another?

This unit defines my teaching philosophy in several ways. I believe that the driving force of learning lies in questioning. We must strive to understand the world around us and identify how we fit into it. Each of us should have a set of principles guiding our behavior, and those principles should be consistent across all situations. Discourse is crucial, but even more important is understanding how to engage in discussions that lead to resolution.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom (or your school)?

I don’t like to think of it as something separate. That being community and classroom. The classroom is the community; the community is the classroom. As educators, we get wrapped up in our four walls, our curriculum. Those are obviously important, but if students can’t see parts of their community in the classroom, and if my community can’t see the impact we are having in classrooms then we have failed. We work to remove those barriers. I work with great students and families, but with working with at-risk youth they have few mentors that drive the community. Connecting them to the community is crucial to helping them see their future success in it. That is true with our learning community and the community of North Branch at large.

How do you approach news events in your classroom? Please provide an example.

I think you have to approach current events understanding that not everyone perceives an event the way you do. Fake AI-generated news on social media platforms makes it difficult. People’s social media algorithm feeds them news similar to their previous clicks. It has divided us more than ever. The first step is to sift through what is “news”. By that, I mean, what can we confirm to be true. The 24-hour news cycle can make it difficult as well with evening reputable news sources wanting to break information on the story. We start there. What is real? What do we know? How might perspectives on the event be different? How can we respectfully discuss it, acknowledging different perspectives, and feeling our perspective heard?

How do you develop relationships with students who have struggled in a traditional school setting?

In my experience, developing relationships with at-risk learners is more difficult because they don’t particularly care about the ethos. They don’t care about what you have accomplished. They want to know what you can help them accomplish. Their path is full of well-intentioned adults who are successful with most learners, but fail to connect with them. You have to care consistently and relentlessly. They have to see that you aren’t going away. You have to value what they value. You have to incorporate it in your approach. It can’t be one-sided with the student being expected to meet you even in the middle, not at first. But more than the individual relationships, it begins with a culture. If you have a school with a strong, inclusive culture that will get you over the first hurdle.

How will you use your voice as Michigan Teacher of the Year to advocate for teachers and for students?

My message to students is to take advantage of every opportunity. We live in a country where all doors are open to you. Your decisions in school can keep them open or start to close them.

My message to all teachers: “You Are Enough!”

Corey Rosser in his classroom at Quest High School in North Branch Area Schools.

The challenges we face in education can often feel overwhelming. We are frequently told that we don’t do enough — whether by society, parents, community members, or even administrators. The most painful critiques come from our students.

Many students face daily challenges that are unfathomable to most. You owe it to them to put forth the best version of yourself. Your efforts are enough.

I feel like a failure, at least at some point during each day. Some days I know I have done everything in my power. Some days I feel like a fraud. Being recognized as Michigan Teacher of the Year has not changed that. YOU ARE ENOUGH!

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

My own high school experience was very positive. I was a leader on my sports teams, captain and MVP of some. I was president of the student council. This gave me a very narrow view of what the high school experience was. I built leadership skills in so many ways. Early in my career, my view of students was that if they couldn’t achieve the same it was their lack of effort. I didn’t understand the many variables that kept them from the experience. More so, I didn’t fully understand that many of my students didn’t value those same things. The contrast between my experience and my students’ experiences was so stark it led to a lot of failure as a teacher early on. I was blessed to have great mentors to follow. I evolved and adapted to remain relevant in my students’ lives.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

The best advice that I received was that you have to let people try and fail. You can’t save them from every lesson they need to learn. Failure is the greatest teacher. When you rob a student of failure, you steal an opportunity to grow.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

I think one of the most influential books that I have read as an educator is “Detroit Divided.” The book was very eye-opening. Being from a small, rural community growing up, I tended to view the world as very black and white, right and wrong. There is much more gray than we care to admit. It showed me there was a deeper layer to any subject. While the book is a study of historical race relations in the Detroit Metro area, the theme can be applied in so many ways across social classes.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

State education board urged to reject proposed health and sex education standards

2025-10-14T23:01:11+00:00

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Some Michigan parents and community members sharply criticized the State Board of Education Tuesday about a proposed health education standards update they say will strip parents of their rights to opt their children out of lessons that don’t align with their children’s religious upbringing.

But officials at the Michigan Department of Education said parents can continue to opt their children out of sex education lessons. That opt-out provision is in state law.

This is the first update to Michigan’s health education standards since 2007, and people who spoke against it were most concerned with the addition of standards on gender identity for students in grades 6-8.

“This is not biology; it’s ideology,” John Grossenbacher of Clinton Township said of the proposed sex education standards. “These lessons promote gender theory and sexual identity discussions that belong in the homes guided by parents’ faith and values, not in classrooms.

But state education officials say the updated standards maintain a parent’s rights to opt their children out of sex education lessons.

Education officials also noted that local school districts can make individual decisions about how they incorporate the standards once they’re adopted. That means districts don’t have to align their curriculum on health and sex education with the standards.

These are among the standards speakers took issue with:

Define gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, and explain that they are distinct components of every individual’s identity.
Explain how biological sex, gender identity, and gender expression are distinct concepts and how they interact with each other.
Explain that romantic, emotional, and/or sexual attractions can be toward an individual of the same gender and/or different gender(s), and that attractions can change over time.
Analyze the similarities and differences between friendships, romantic relationships, and sexual relationships and discuss various ways to show affection within different relationships.
Describe how sexual health values and priorities may change with age, maturity, knowledge, and responsibilities.

Pamela Pugh, the president of the elected eight-member state board, said in a statement that politicians, media, and advocacy groups “have spread falsehoods to scare parents into thinking that schools would teach sex education to their children without giving parents a chance to opt out from the instruction. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

She reiterated that at the state board meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The update includes standards for both health education and sex education, which has led to concern from some about weaving the two together. An MDE official said that the two were part of the same package of standards in 2007.

The board first heard a presentation on the proposed update during a September meeting. Friday was the deadline for the public to provide feedback. Interim State Superintendent Sue Carnell, answering a question at the end of the lengthy meeting about the timeline, said the intent had been to bring the standards to the board for a vote in the next two months, but she said she will now “meet with the team” to reassess.

Grossenbacher was one of dozens of people who spoke in person at the monthly meeting of the State Board of Education in Lansing. The public comment period lasted more than two hours, and about 20 more people were in line to speak virtually, but the board voted to delay those comments until later in the meeting.

Some invoked the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Mahmoud vs. Taylor case, in which the court sided with religious parents who sought the right to opt their children out of LGBTQ+ inclusive instruction. Their district in Montgomery County, Maryland, had prevented such an opt-out for LGBTQ+ inclusive storybooks. Chalkbeat reported earlier this year that the court said preventing opt-outs interfered with a parent’s right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.

Matt Wilk, a former school board member in Northville, said if the standards are adopted, teachers would have to justify them to parents.

“What this does is it puts the teachers in the unfortunate position of trying to come between the parents and the kids. Rank and file teachers do not want to have to have this fight which you are going to force them to have.”

Taryn Gal was one of a few people who spoke in favor of the proposed updates. Gal is executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health.

Misinformation about the standards, Gal said, “is doing harm not only to our trust in public education, but to the health and safety of Michigan students. We should not be fearing the adoption of these standards. We should all be fearing what will happen if they are not adopted.

“Michigan’s current health education standards have not been updated since 2007. This means that an entire generation of students has gone through school using outdated guidance that does not reflect what we now know about mental health, technology, vaping, healthy relationships, consent, among many other topics.”

State board member Nikki Snyder, a Republican from Goodrich, proposed the board approve a resolution that declared the proposed standards violate the U.S. Constitution and the precedent set in the Mahmoud v. Taylor case and should be stopped. The resolution failed on a 5-2 vote along party lines, with five Democrats rejecting it.

Tom McMillin of Oakland Township, the other Republican member of the board, supported the resolution and said “we should stop here and reevaluate.”

McMillin warned that if the board approves the standards, “Immense amounts of money will be spent on litigation.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

New state budget bars Count Day financial incentives, requires curriculum transparency for parents

2025-10-08T22:18:20+00:00

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The state budget Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed this week included transparency requirements — one would give parents more insight into what reading curriculum their school uses — and a new rule to bar schools from using financial incentives to encourage students to attend school on Count Day.

These were among some of the lesser known parts of the budget, with much of the attention going to record levels of per-pupil funding, a big increase in at-risk funding, and the protection of an initiative that provides free breakfasts and lunches to students regardless of income.

The budget also included more money for schools to lower class sizes in the lower grade levels, eliminated flexibility that allowed districts to hold up to 15 days of virtual instruction, and created a new funding source to provide additional pay for teachers.

The budget was approved after months of stalled negotiations, and after the legislature blew two budget adoption deadlines.

Some of the new provisions are puzzling because there was little to no discussion about them, said Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, a group that represents the interests of dozens of school districts in the state. He raised concerns that the budget includes new curriculum requirements well over a month into the school year.

“This is just another example of how broken this budget process was,” McCann said.

Here are some details about the budget:

Parents to get a heads up if their child’s school uses a reading curriculum that isn’t recommended

New language in the budget requires districts to notify parents if their schools use a K-5 reading curriculum that isn’t on the state’s list of evidence-based curriculum, or that isn’t aligned with state standards. An evidence-based curriculum is one that research has shown to be effective. As part of that notification, schools must tell parents that the curriculum they’re using “could negatively impact student academic outcomes.”

Whitmer proposed such a transparency measure when she presented her budget proposal earlier this year.

The new requirement comes in the midst of disappointing student performance on state and national exams. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders were considered proficient, and results overall showed little improvement even as other states showed gains. On the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, performance in many grades and subjects went up slightly, but third graders posted their worst reading scores in the 11-year history of the exam.

In addition to informing parents that the curriculum doesn’t meet state guidelines, school leaders must also let parents know why they’re using a curriculum that isn’t evidence-based and share a plan for when such a curriculum will be adopted.

If schools fail to notify parents, they risk losing up to 5% of their state aid.

No more financial incentives for Count Day

Another way schools can lose up to 5% of their state aid: by offering financial incentives to students to attend on Count Day.

Some schools have offered gift cards or other incentives for students who show up. But it’s unclear how widespread those practices are across the state.

There are two count days in Michigan: One on the first Wednesday in October and another on the first Wednesday in February. Student enrollment counts on those days largely determine how much state aid a school district receives.

And because schools are funded on a per-student basis, getting kids to school has been vitally important on those days. (Schools can still count some students who are absent on Count Day as long as they attend school within a certain time period afterward.) It’s why some enrollment-challenged schools entice students to attend by offering things like pizza parties for the classroom with the highest attendance, extra classroom credits, and fun activities.

Additional funding to lower class sizes

The budget sets aside $65 million, to be paid in grants, to allow school districts to maintain or establish lower class sizes in grades K-3.

School districts with large percentages of students from low-income homes would be eligible to receive the grants.

Class sizes would be capped at 19 students per class.

The budget identifies several school districts (Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System, Benton Harbor Area Schools, Flint School District, and Wayne-Westland

Community School District) to automatically receive these class size grants.

The budget also allows all districts to use up to 30% of their at-risk funding to reduce class sizes.

No more virtual instruction days

The budget eliminates language that allowed school districts to hold up to 15 virtual instruction days.

Michael Rice, who retired Friday as state superintendent, has pushed the legislature to remove that language, as well as flexibility that allows up to seven professional development days to count as instructional days. During professional development days, teachers spend the day training, and students stay home and receive no instruction.

The virtual hours provision was struck, but schools can continue to count the professional development days as instructional days.

New teacher pay fund

The budget includes $350 million in one-time grants to increase educator compensation, though details are still scarce about how the money can be spent.

Districts must report to parents on how at-risk grant money is spent

The budget increases funding for at-risk students by 25%, but it also adds a new reporting requirement for school districts.

Districts receiving the at-risk money must now provide a report to parents that shows how much funding they received, how the money was distributed, and what evidence-based interventions were used with the funding.

Districts must also provide a method for which parents can provide feedback on how the money is used.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org

Outgoing state schools chief: Students need more, not fewer, instructional days

2025-10-01T19:38:49+00:00

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On Friday, Michigan’s State Superintendent Michael Rice closes the book on a decades-long career as an educator.

Rice, who has been the state’s top education leader since 2019, is retiring and paving the way for new leadership.

Glenn Maleyko, the current Dearborn Public Schools superintendent, takes over Dec. 8. Until Maleyko starts, Sue Carnell, the chief deputy superintendent at the Michigan Department of Education, will serve as interim state superintendent.

Rice led during a difficult time, with the pandemic upending education not even a year into his tenure. Students performed worse on state and national exams, chronic absenteeism surged, and student mental health concerns increased. Academic recovery has been slow, and despite small gains across the board on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress this year, third graders posted their worst reading scores in the 11-year history of the exam.

In a recent Chalkbeat interview, Rice talked about some key issues that are critical to improved outcomes for students, including his insistence that Michigan lawmakers must act to stop schools from being able to count seven professional development days as instructional days. He said that flexibility, and others, mean students across Michigan could be receiving far less than the 180 days of instruction that are required by law.

Here are four takeaways from that interview:

The state gives schools too much flexibility to reduce the number of instructional days

Rice has repeatedly asked Michigan lawmakers to change state law to ensure students are receiving 180 days of instruction.

Rice is concerned because in recent years, state lawmakers have added flexibility in the law that allows schools to count up to seven professional development days — days when teachers are training and students are not in school — as instructional days.

Professional development, Rice said, “is immensely important.”

“But prior to the 2019-20 school year, professional development did not compete with instructional time,” he said. “It now does. Children shouldn’t have to pay for professional development of staff with lost instructional days.”

Schools also can shift to online instruction — meaning students are taught virtually — for up to 15 days. While those are technically instructional days, pandemic experience demonstrated that many students struggle with virtual learning.

Meanwhile, classes can be cancelled for reasons beyond the control of administrators, such as snow days and emergencies that close buildings.

It’s unclear to what extent Michigan schools are taking advantage of the flexibility lawmakers have given them for counting professional development as instructional days or going online. There is no requirement schools indicate how many of their instructional days include this flexibility.

But Rice is convinced it’s a problem in part because “we wouldn’t have the challenges of getting it rectified in the state legislature.”

Michigan has some deep educational challenges, but there have been some wins

Michigan student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, has been flat, with little improvement while other states are making significant progress. Literacy, particularly in the early grades, has been a challenge on state and national exams.

There have been some encouraging signs, which Rice easily rattled off during the interview as he discussed progress on the Michigan Department of Education’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan. That initiative outlines eight ambitious goals to improve education in the state and includes expanding early childhood learning, improving early literacy achievement, expanding postsecondary learning opportunities, increasing the percentage of students who graduate from high school, increasing the number of certified teachers in areas of shortages, and providing adequate and equitable school funding.

Rice cited examples of progress toward those goals: Lawmakers have allocated additional funding for some of the most vulnerable children — students from low-income homes, students with disabilities, students who are English language learners — to provide more equitable school funding. Substantially more children are enrolled in Michigan’s free preschool program, and the graduation rate of 82% for high school students is the highest it’s ever been.

But challenges persist, and the state hasn’t fully achieved any of the goals.

“If I could paraphrase Frost, and I like my poets, we have miles to go before we sleep on all of the issues. There’s been progress made … on every goal area, arrival on none,” Rice said.

Michigan can learn from Mississippi’s policies that led to big reading gains

A lot has been said about how the state of Mississippi has seen significant improvement in fourth grade reading on the NAEP, while Michigan’s performance has been flat. Mississippi was ranked ninth in the nation in fourth grade reading this year, up from 49th in 2013.

In Mississippi beginning in 2014, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (or LETRS) training was required for teachers in some state schools. LETRS is a professional development program based on the science of reading. The science of reading refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge. (Since 2022, Mississippi has used AIM Pathways as its science of reading training.) Those schools were also required to hire literacy coaches.

Michigan has provided some funding in the state budget for the LETRS training, and more than 5,000 teachers have completed the training and another 7,000 have begun it, but Rice and the State Board of Education wants Michigan to make it mandatory for K-5 teachers. He has pointed to Mississippi as an example of why that’s important.

“The training was a priority, and it was a fundamental part in our progress toward understanding how our students learn to read through instruction aligned to structured literacy,” said Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the department.

Mississippi paid for training for general education teachers, special education teachers, administrators, speech-language pathologists, and other speech-related personnel, Cook said. As the state efforts grew, Cook said, “the training became strongly suggested rather than required.”

Rice said Mississippi “has been more focused than Michigan has,” and has “leaned into high quality, research based early literacy materials long before Michigan did.” He said they also recognized the value of low class sizes in high-poverty schools in grades K-3.

And just as important, Mississippi hasn’t allowed the incursions into student instructional time that Michigan has.

Michigan, to be sure, has focused efforts on literacy. In 2016, lawmakers passed legislation — the Read by Grade 3 law — that required schools to identify and intervene with struggling readers. The law also required schools retain struggling third-grade readers based on their performance on the M-STEP, though the law allowed a number of exemptions. The retention part of the law was rescinded in 2024.

Last fall, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Laws that require the Michigan Department of Education to identify reading curriculum that align with the science of reading, require schools to screen children to identify those who are struggling with dyslexia, and require teacher preparation programs to include instruction on identifying and addressing dyslexia.

Teacher shortages improving, but it’s not over yet

Michigan investments are paying off in reducing teacher shortages. Rice said that when he became state superintendent, there wasn’t any money in the state budget to address shortages. Since then, the state has invested millions of dollars in a number of efforts, including stipends for student teachers, scholarships for those going into teaching, and funding for “grow your own” programs. There has also been growth in programs aimed at strengthening the current workforce.

Teacher shortages “really had gotten quite acute immediately prior to the pandemic, and then exacerbated during the pandemic. We’re coming out of this,” Rice said.

He said the state went from having 23,000 people preparing for the profession in 2011 down to 9,500 in 2017. But now, he said, “we’re up to 18,000 preparing for the profession annually.”

But shortages are still a problem.

“When you go into the communities that are the most challenged, and you look in the classrooms and when they don’t have shortages, when they don’t have openings, when they have fully credentialed, strong teachers in every classroom, then we can say the shortage is over.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroiters, tell us what role the city’s next mayor should play in education

2025-09-23T19:05:42+00:00

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No matter who Detroiters elect as mayor on Nov. 4, one thing is certain: The city’s next mayor intends to take advantage of the city’s resources to play a greater role in education issues.

Candidates include Solomon Kinloch, the senior pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, and Mary Sheffield, the president of the Detroit City Council.

Their interest in education is happening at a critical time in the city, as district and charter schools struggle with low achievement and high rates of chronic absenteeism, two issues that are intrinsically intertwined. While schools have aggressively tackled chronic absenteeism, there is only so much they can do to address the root causes of students failing to attend school — which researchers at Wayne State University’s Detroit PEER made clear in a book released earlier this year.

Both candidates say they plan to use resources the city controls to help eliminate barriers to attendance.

That’s where Detroiters come in. Chalkbeat Detroit wants to hear from city residents about what role, if any, they see the city’s mayor playing in education issues, including chronic absenteeism.

Please complete the survey below to share your thoughts. And please share the survey with other city residents.

No time to fill out the survey? Feel free to share brief thoughts via email: detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

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Michigan’s chronic absenteeism rate drops but is still above pre-pandemic levels

2025-09-17T20:58:24+00:00

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Nearly 28% of Michigan students were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year, the third consecutive year the rate has dropped.

But the rate is still significantly higher than it was before the pandemic began, when 19.7% of students were chronically absent during the 2018-19 school year, according to data released Wednesday by the state Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Chronic absence, which impedes students’ ability to learn and creates instability in the classroom, is a concern in a state where academic performance has been lackluster.

“It’s important for communities to continue to collaborate to emphasize the importance of good attendance and assist children most in need of attendance support,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement Wednesday.

Students are considered chronically absent in Michigan if they miss 10% of the school year, or roughly 18 or more days in a typical 180-day year.

Michigan had one of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the nation at the height of the pandemic, when the rate was 38.5% during the 2021-22 school year. The rate dropped to 30.8% in 2022-23 and 29.5% in 2023-24.

The state’s progress last year was similar to the previous two years, said Jeremy Singer, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Singer, who has conducted extensive research on attendance via Wayne State University’s Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research, or Detroit PEER, said that progress still is slower than “we want to see on average.”

“But obviously it’s a good thing to see things moving in the right direction.”

A Chalkbeat analysis of the data found:

263 district and charter schools had chronic absenteeism rates above 36%, which Singer considers “very high.” The average rate among those districts and charters was 51%.
The highest rate of chronic absenteeism, nearly 93%, belongs to Blended Learning Academies Credit Recovery High School, a charter school, which appears to have campuses in Lansing and Livonia..
Nearly half of Black students statewide were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year, compared to 34% of Hispanic students, 34% of Native American students, 20% of Asian American students, and 21% of white students. The rate for Black students is above the pre-pandemic level of 39% in 2018-19.

Despite the problem, more than half of the school leaders who responded to a statewide survey by researchers at Detroit PEER said they haven’t received any guidance from their districts on how to improve students’ attendance.

Even among those who did receive guidance, just 13% said the guidance was very helpful, Singer said.

“That might be because the guidance is unclear, or maybe it’s because they feel like what is being recommended isn’t working as well as they were hoping.”

Still, simply providing stronger guidance won’t solve the problem, because schools alone can’t solve chronic absenteeism, something Singer and research partner Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, the Detroit PEER director, made clear in a book they released earlier this year.

“I do think clear guidance can help, especially if it helps schools be thoughtful about what strategies they prioritize and how they allocate their resources,” he said..

Detroit PEER sent surveys to around 2,700 school leaders across Michigan. About 41%, or 1,143, replied, giving the researchers a broad look at how schools in the state are addressing chronic absenteeism. The research is ongoing, but initial findings were recently released.

Districts serving impoverished communities have more to overcome

A lack of accessible transportation, parents’ inflexible work schedules, health concerns, and unsafe routes to school have long contributed to high levels of chronic absenteeism in impoverished communities.

The negative effects of the pandemic, which disproportionately hit low-income households, exacerbated existing systemic inequities.

Michigan’s recently released data, however, shows many of the districts with the most to overcome outpaced the rest of the state in improving attendance – like the Detroit school district.

Before the pandemic, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, where 84% of students come from low-income homes, made progress reducing absenteeism with wraparound services for families, hiring attendance agents, and community partnerships.

That momentum was lost in the 2021-22 school year, when the rate of chronic absenteeism shot up to 76.7% in the school system largely due to quarantine rules at the time.

Last year, for the first time, students in the district were chronically absent at a lower rate than in the years preceding the pandemic, the state’s new data shows.

In 2024-25, 60.9% of students in the district missed 10% or more of days in the school year. The rate was 1.2 percentage points lower compared to the 2018-19 school year – the last year before COVID upended in-person instruction.

“Our improvement is rooted in our intentional efforts to expand services to students and families, changing staff mindsets about owning the student attendance improvement process, and increasing family accountability regarding their children’s attendance,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email.

The school system has used a multilayered approach to improve attendance in the years since then , including connecting directly with families to help meet their needs, fostering more partnerships, financial incentives for students, and installing laundry machines at schools, among others.

In the Lansing Public School District, where more than 87% of students are from low-income homes, the absenteeism rate is also now lower than it was before the pandemic. The percentage of kids missing too much school has dramatically decreased from high rates in the early days of COVID.

In the 2021-22 school year, more than 90% of students in the district were chronically absent. Last year, the rate decreased by nearly 38 percentage points.

The district uses a tiered system of support for kids who are at risk of missing too much school with classroom, school, and district-level strategies. The system ranges from informing families on how they can ask for help managing barriers to creating attendance success plans.

Classroom teachers reward students who improve their attendance. At the school level, families of students who are missing three to four days of school a month may get wake-up robo calls as a “friendly nudge.” At the district level, administrators follow-up on referrals to the Office of School Culture’s Attendance Team to set up parent and student meetings.

“We are so proud of our students, families, and educators, who have focused deeply on making every day count and having as many of our students show up to learn,” Benjamin Shuldiner, superintendent of the district, told Chalkbeat in an email.

Some districts improve attendance with mental health supports, accountability

James E. Anderson, superintendent of Wyandotte Public Schools, told Chalkbeat mental health concerns have been the cause of many instances of chronic absenteeism since the pandemic.

“More and more students are having anxiety about something at school,” he said. “It may be peer-to-peer interaction or not wanting to get back into the habit of going to school everyday.”

That aligns with what researchers have learned from the Detroit PEER survey. Researchers provided a list of 33 potential barriers and asked the school leaders to select the top five most common. The survey responses found 43% of school leaders selected mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, as a top barrier.

Chronic absenteeism in the suburban school district jumped to 45.7% in the 2021-22 school year – more than 20 percentage points higher compared to the years before COVID. Last school year, the rate stabilized at 27.8%.

Anderson said the district addresses absenteeism with a simple system.

When students are absent five times, they receive a letter breaking down how many days of school they will miss by the end of the year if they continue missing days at their current rate.

By 10 absences, administrators ask for a meeting with the students’ family to determine what challenges they are facing. The district connects the students with resources based on their needs, such as school or community-based mental health services or arranging transportation, like carpools with neighbors.

At 15 absences, a ticket is issued via a local ordinance. Families must then appear in court to explain why students aren’t getting to school. In some cases, fees are issued.

Statewide survey show schools taking similar approaches

Initial findings from the Detroit PEER research indicate that there is little differentiation between schools in how they’re addressing chronic absenteeism.

“Schools are looking at and are approaching the issue relatively similarly,” Singer said.

Singer said he isn’t sure yet whether that’s a good or a bad thing.

“It worries me a little bit because I think what it communicates is that schools are still trying to figure out how to solve it and so they’re doing a lot of everything.”

The report noted that “the most common practices centered on communication, social-emotional learning, and mental health support” but that “resource-intensive practices like home visits or arranging transportation were less common.”

The least common practices, Singer said, are strategies related to improving conditions within schools so that students have a more positive experience.

“That’s something that’s within the school’s control,” Singer said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Sept. 18, 2025: This story was updated with a comment from Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Glenn Maleyko, Michigan’s next state superintendent, will earn $272,000 annually

2025-09-16T21:12:17+00:00

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Glenn Maleyko, selected last month to be Michigan’s next state superintendent, formally signed a three-year contract on Tuesday.

Maleyko, currently superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools, will begin the job Dec. 8. He will earn an annual salary of $272,000.

Earlier this month, the State Board of Education appointed Sue Carnell, the chief deputy superintendent at the Michigan Department of Education, to the interim superintendent position effective Oct. 3 and lasting until Maleyko takes over. Current State Superintendent Michael Rice is retiring effective Oct. 3

In August, Maleyko was chosen by the board in a 5-3 vote from among three finalists. The other two were Lisa Coons, former state superintendent in Virginia and a former Tennessee education official, and Judy Walton, superintendent of Harrison Community Schools.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to support children and families, educators, and other school staff at all of Michigan’s public schools,” Maleyko said in a Michigan Department of Education statement Tuesday.

“From my experience in Dearborn Public Schools and the relationships I have with educators across the state, I know that local districts, the Michigan Department of Education, and the State Board of Education are all strongly committed to doing whatever we can to improve student achievement.”

He will be taking on the job at a critical time. State test results released a day after he was selected showed slight gains for students in many areas, but third grade English language arts results reached an 11-year low. There has long been criticism and concern about school performance in Michigan, especially in literacy, with the most vocal critics being many Republican lawmakers and even Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who said earlier this year that the state must “face our literacy crisis with fierce urgency.”

The contract was signed Tuesday by Pamela Pugh, the president of the State Board of Education, and Judy Pritchett, the board secretary. On Sept. 9, the board voted to allow Pugh to negotiate on its behalf with Maleyko.

Here is a breakdown of the contract’s benefits:

He’ll be eligible for the same retirement, insurance benefits, and deferred compensation plans as other state of Michigan cabinet level officials.
He’ll receive 104 hours or 13 days of sick leave each year.
He’ll receive 240 hours or 30 days of annual leave.
He’ll be provided with a state vehicle for work within the scope of his official duties. The vehicle can be used for personal use, but Maleyko will have to reimburse the state each year.
The board will evaluate Maleyko’s work each year. If his work is deemed satisfactory, his salary will be increased by “at least the average percentage increases granted to other department directors in state government,” according to the contract.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Kresge invests $180M to improve Detroit neighborhoods for families

2025-09-12T21:48:32+00:00

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On a recent July day, a group of adults took to the streets of Detroit to experience what students encounter on their way to and from several schools.

The excursion was the work of a new effort — a piece of a $180 million investment into multiple Northwest Detroit neighborhoods announced Friday by the philanthropic Kresge Foundation — to identify issues, such as unsafe vacant homes and property, that can make the trek to school a challenging one for children.

“The vacant property, whether it’s residential or commercial, is factored into how do you look at your neighborhood, or set neighborhoods, through the eyes of a child or young person, and create a different not only aesthetic but ecosystem that supports their growth, development and educational opportunity,” Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program, told Chalkbeat Thursday.

Kresge announced its $180 million investment Friday morning, with its plan to move its headquarters from Troy to the Marygrove Conservancy Campus in Detroit. Since 2018, that campus has been the site of another of the nonprofit foundation’s investments in Detroit, with the closed Marygrove College campus transformed into a unique preschool through college site, which holds a K-12 campus (part of the Detroit Public Schools Community District,) an early childhood center, and a University of Michigan teaching school with housing for dozens of students. (Kresge is a Chalkbeat funder.)

The move to Detroit “gives us the possibility to really become a very different kind of partner in neighborhood work,” said Rip Rapson, Kresge’s CEO and president.

The five-year investment is focused on housing stabilization, home ownership, revitalization of the Livernois-McNichols corridor, public space enhancements, and financial support to residents and businesses in the Fitzgerald, Bagley, University District and Martin Park neighborhoods, Kresge officials said.

The focus on “how can we do this in a much more comprehensive way that centers and puts kids and families really at the center of how we strengthen and support neighborhoods,” builds on work Kresge has already done in the city.

Here are some more specifics about the investments:

A new structure to house the Kresge headquarters would be built on the northeast corner of the Marygrove Conservancy campus. In addition, Kresge would make improvements on the campus to create new open spaces, new pathways, and public gardens. “The whole idea is to help create an amenity that is basically owned by and committed to by the community,” Rapson said.
Kresge pledged $50 million to promote home ownership, home repair, wealth building, improvements in the physical environment and rental assistance — all things Jackson said in a news release that residents of the neighborhoods have said they’ve been promised but few of those promises have been kept. Among the initial commitments Kresge is making, in partnership with the Live6 Alliance, will create a resident investment and opportunity fund that will invest in resources for home maintenance, repairs, and accessibility improvements; property tax relief; support for renters; and the revitalization of vacant land.
Kresge is also investing in completing the Ella Fitzgerald Greenway. Construction of the greenway began in 2017 in the Livernois-McNichols area. Kresge will extend it east to Livernois Avenue and by making improvements to Ella Fitzgerald Park.

Community engagement work is already underway, and began in late July when Kresge, with support from several partners, began four community groups (on youth and education, housing and development, arts and culture, and health, wellness, and environmental sustainability) that has residents working together with the foundation in “co-designing strategies and recommendations for change,” Jackson said.

It was members of the youth and education group that walked the routes students take to and from Mumford High School, the School at Marygrove, and Bagley Elementary School of Journalism and Technology. It was an initial step in their work, Jackson said, and they likely will also look into the routes students take at other schools within the four neighborhoods. The group will also be seeking feedback from the young people who are making these treks daily.

Youth safety is a critical issue in Detroit. Students interviewed by Chalkbeat earlier this year said they fear getting attacked on the way to or from school. They also said they worry about bullying, school shootings, and immigration actions.

“Yes, they saw vacant properties, particularly along the commercial corridor,” Jackson said of the adults who walked the routes.

Then they set out to draw what they consider to be a safe route. What was interesting about that exercise, Jackson said, is that everyone had a different idea of what a safe route would be. Bringing young people into the conversation, she said, “is going to be fascinating to kind of see if there is, you know, a consensus.”

Rapson said a philanthropic organization like Kresge won’t have all the answers, though, and that partnerships with the city of Detroit and community organizations will be a key part of the investments the foundation makes.

“There’s always, I think, a temptation for philanthropy to think that it can kind of do it on its own,” Rapson said. And while Kresge can invest in making vacant lots safer, “at the end of the day, it’s also a public sector function. So we’re hoping that by demonstrating our commitment … to the sort of integrative approach, we’re going to invite other partners in.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

State education board appoints interim state superintendent

2025-09-09T21:27:14+00:00

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Sue Carnell, the chief deputy superintendent at the Michigan Department of Education, will take over as interim state superintendent in October and serve until the man who was selected to permanently take the job can step into the role.

The board last month voted to offer the state superintendent job to Glenn Maleyko, who currently is the superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools. On Tuesday, the board approved allowing Pamela Pugh, the president of the board, to negotiate with Maleyko and his attorney on its behalf.

It’s unclear when Maleyko will begin. The board’s timeline for the superintendent search process had set Oct. 4 as the start date for the new leader.

Tom McMillin, a board member from Oakland Township, asked about the start date during Tuesday’s monthly meeting, saying “I’m just wondering if January or April,” or another date. McMillin said there had been some suggestion that Maleyko might need to remain in his Dearborn role through December.

“All I can say is that we are negotiating,” Pugh said.

Carnell will begin as interim superintendent Oct. 3, the last day for current State Superintendent Michael Rice, who is retiring.

She will be the first Black woman to serve as state superintendent in Michigan’s history, according to the MDE.

Carnell has had a 40-year career in education government, according to an MDE news release. She was superintendent in Westwood Community Schools, deputy superintendent in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and an administrator in the Southgate Community Schools. She has also served as education policy advisor for former Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Pugh said in the news release that Carnell “is just the right person to lead MDE as we transition to a new state superintendent.” Carnell said she looks forward “to supporting the staff at MDE as we work with our education partners, the governor’s office, legislators, and families to continue the momentum of improving outcomes for children,” according to the release.

In his final remarks as state superintendent at a board meeting, Rice doubled down on criticism he has made recently about the Michigan legislature’s failure to adopt a budget for the current fiscal year. Lawmakers are required by state law to adopt a budget by July 1, but that deadline has come and gone, and there could be a state shutdown if a budget isn’t approved by Oct. 1.

“This is unacceptable,” Rice said. “The failure to pass a budget timely has led to districts being more cautious in their spending decisions, including their staffing decisions this summer into the beginning of the school year.”

He said some districts are now informing parents that some programs could be eliminated or will be eliminated because of the budget stalemate.

The Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House are far apart on how they would fund schools.

During the public comment period of the meeting, the board heard from a number of education leaders who praised Rice for his role in education leadership, including from a tearful Flint Superintendent Kevelin Jones, who said Rice mentored him during his tenure as the district leader. Rice thanked the leaders for their words.

“And I also want to thank the two people who said good riddance to me. Amen to that,” Rice said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Dearborn superintendent Glenn Maleyko selected as Michigan’s state superintendent

2025-08-26T22:34:10+00:00

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Michigan’s State Board of Education has selected Glenn Maleyko as the next state superintendent.

The selection of Maleyko, who currently serves as the superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools, is pending contract negotiations. He will take over from Michael Rice, who announced earlier this year that he is retiring effective Oct. 3.

Maleyko’s appointment is happening at a critical moment in Michigan, largely because of criticism over the lackluster student performance on state and national exams. The criticism has especially targeted low literacy rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation’s Report Card, where just 24% of Michigan fourth and eighth graders were proficient on the rigorous exam, which is given to a representative sample of students from each state. Also concerning is that 31 states scored higher in fourth grade reading than Michigan.

Maleyko was chosen on a 5-3 vote among a field of three finalists that included Lisa Coons, former state superintendent in Virginia and a former Tennessee education official; and Judy Walton, superintendent of Harrison Community Schools. All three were interviewed in two-hour sessions Tuesday.

His selection created some division on the eight-member board, with Republicans Tom McMillin from Oakland Township and Nikki Snyder from Goodrich voting no. They were joined by Democrat Mitchell Robinson of Okemos, who supported Walton as the superintendent. Democrats control the board, with Snyder and McMillin the lone Republicans.

“I really appreciated his passion around public education as an entity,” board member Ellen Cogen Lipton, a Democrat from Huntington Woods, said of Maleyko. “In a system where 90% of our students are going to public schools, having someone who is an advocate and a believer of our public education is really important.”

Maleyko, who has spent his career as a teacher, principal, administrator, and superintendent in the Dearborn district, told the board at the end of his interview that he was ready to lead because of all of the relationships he’s built across the state.

“Education is complex,” Maleyko said. “But the mission is simple, whether we’re here debating policy, workforce shortages, or navigating a lot of politics … if you hire me, you’re going to see me always bringing it back to what is the impact on students.”

His vast relationships across the state were seen as an asset to Board President Pamela Pugh, a Democrat from Saginaw. She said she heard positive remarks in conversations with Dearborn district staff and parents who appreciate his style of leadership.

Pugh said the state needs someone who “can come in and pick up the helm and run as fast as they can to address our literacy issues in the state.” Maleyko, she said, “understands the importance of the laws that are in place now and I believe can help to move those laws forward.”

She was referring to recently enacted legislation aimed at improving literacy in the state by requiring dyslexia screening for students. It also requires the Michigan Department of Education, or MDE, to recommend for local school districts reading curriculum that is aligned with the science of reading, which refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge.

Snyder criticized those voting for Maleyko, saying “he did not come nearly as prepared as Judy and Lisa.” She also repeated a claim she made at a previous meeting, when she said there was a clear favorite. On Tuesday, she said there was “bias towards him in closed session.” She said she can’t be specific about her claim because the discussion happened in a private meeting.

Snyder specifically noted that Coons “blew these interviews out of the water and brought to the table an entry plan. It’s shocking. Whoever you guys do choose as a majority of the board, please feel free to hijack her plan. It’s an excellent plan.” She also noted that not choosing either of the candidates she believed set themselves apart is “something we’re going to be accountable for.”

The board will discuss the superintendent selection at a Sept. 9 meeting, when their search firm will provide an update on contract negotiations. A vote to approve the contract is possible at that meeting. According to a calendar the board set at the beginning of the search process, Maleyko would begin by Oct. 4.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s what Chalkbeat is watching as the new school year begins in Detroit

2025-08-22T10:00:01+00:00

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Monday is the first day of school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and many others across Michigan, but educators face uncertainty about how schools will be funded.

Michigan lawmakers have yet to agree on a budget that will determine how much money schools will receive. The delayed budget is one of many issues Chalkbeat will be keeping an eye on during the 2025-26 school year.

DPSCD also is starting a pilot program that will provide yellow school bus transportation to students at two high schools in a bid to improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism. The Trump administration’s actions, including cuts to federal funding, could affect Michigan schools. And we’re interested in whether a change in leadership at the Michigan Department of Education and a governor’s race will elevate the conversation about improving Michigan schools.

Here’s more on what we’re watching.

Budget stalemate leave school districts in limbo

Free school meals for all Michigan children is a potential casualty of a budget stalemate that has lasted for months.

July 1 was the deadline for the Michigan Legislature to adopt a state budget. Lawmakers have blown that deadline and don’t appear close to resolving it. Blame is flowing between Democrats and Republicans, each blaming the other for the delay. Meanwhile, school leaders who had to adopt budgets by June 30 are left to wonder if they’ll have to lay off staff if the state budget, when it’s finally adopted, doesn’t align with their spending plans.

It’s not the first time the school year has begun without a state budget, but in years past when this has happened, there weren’t major differences between the House and Senate. This year, though, the Republican-controlled House budget makes substantial changes to how schools are funded. Instead of a separate line item funding the free school meals, the House budget creates a separate funding stream from which local districts can choose to pay for a number of items, including meals. The Democratic-controlled Senate maintains dedicated funding for free school meals.

“I don’t ever recall in my career so little clarity about approximately where school funding in the annual budget will land. It is troubling and, if not rectified very soon with the passage of a reasonable budget for schools, will ultimately hurt children,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said at a recent State Board of Education meeting.

As far as the school meals are concerned, state funding runs out Sept. 30. Districts are being urged to continue providing the free meals at least until that date. But if the date comes and goes and there is still no budget, or no explicit funding for the meals, it could result in some students going hungry.

Education a key issue in Detroit mayoral election

Detroiters on Nov. 4 will decide who will be the next mayor of Detroit. Mary Sheffield, the president of the city council; and Solomon Kinloch, the senior pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, were the top vote-getters in the primary held earlier this month.

Both cited the need for the city of Detroit to play a stronger role in education in the city, particularly as it relates to fighting chronic absenteeism. Whoever is elected will take over from Mike Duggan, who has been mayor for more than a decade.

The desire to get involved in education issues is happening at a critical moment in the city. Low academic achievement and high rates of chronic absenteeism are among the biggest challenges schools face. But contributing factors such as poverty, housing instability, transportation, and safety concerns — issues schools alone can’t resolve — impede school success for many students.

Sheffield said in a response to a Chalkbeat survey that her role would “be a solutions-oriented advocate on behalf of parents, teachers, students and community members.” She said she would “commit significant resources” toward improving conditions that affect education that the city oversees.That includes Infrastructure, quality of life for students and families, safety, and funding advocacy.

Kinloch, on his website, said he will appoint a senior cabinet level position on education and that person would be “specifically tasked with working with our school administrators, educators, parents, and children to coordinate city services that support student success.”

How to address troubling academic performance for Michigan students

There are many reasons to believe improving Michigan schools is a top priority at the state level. But the selection of a new state superintendent and a governor’s race where education is expected to be a key issue, should fuel discussion.

Student performance on state and national exams has been troubling. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, just 24% of fourth graders were considered proficient in literacy, and 31 states scored higher in fourth grade reading than Michigan. Results are similarly lackluster for the other grades and subjects tested, as well as on the state’s Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress.

Candidates hoping to become Michigan’s next state superintendent, a process that will continue Aug. 26 with the interviews of three finalists, all cited literacy as a key priority in improving school performance.

On the campaign trail, some of the candidates vying to become Michigan’s next governor identified improving schools as a key issue, with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan releasing his education plan earlier this year.

The big question we’ll be seeking answers to is what can be done to help students succeed academically. Michigan has tried many reforms, but few have stuck for an extended period of time. Some have been abandoned completely.

How Trump administration affects education

School district leaders also must contend with the uncertainty about how the Trump administration’s actions will affect schools.

Massive layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education has meant Michigan parents who filed federal civil rights complaints against their local districts are in limbo waiting to hear if and when their cases will be held — and if their children with disabilities will get the services they need to succeed.

Stepped up immigration crackdowns have been felt in Detroit and will likely continue to be an issue throughout the 2025-26 school year. Near the end of the last school year, Detroit teen Maykol Bogoya-Duarte was detained while on his way to a field trip. He had been working toward citizenship and was just three credits shy of earning a high school diploma. He was deported to his native Colombia in June.

The budget bill Congress passed last month cuts Medicaid spending, affecting districts that rely on Medicaid reimbursements to provide services to some students. And it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will attempt to cut key federal funds, particularly after the government froze — but eventually released — more than $6 billion in school funding.

Yellow school buses for some Detroit high school students

In DPSCD, a pilot program might answer questions about whether providing yellow school bus transportation to high school students could help combat chronic absenteeism.

It’s the district’s latest effort to address its attendance issues, and it involves offering bus transportation to students at Henry Ford High School and East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney.

DPSCD currently doesn’t offer yellow bus transportation for most high school students. Transportation concerns are among the factors that have resulted in the district having a 60% rate of chronic absenteeism, well above the state average of 30%.

Chronic absenteeism is a problem in many school districts across the state, and it affects student performance. It’s an issue Chalkbeat Detroit has covered extensively since 2022, and we will continue to make it a priority.

Some Detroit students with disabilities move to a different school

Big changes are coming to DPSCD’s special education programs.

In the fall, the district will increase the number of self-contained classrooms, where students with disabilities receive instruction from a special education teacher for most of the day, from 174 to 185 classrooms. Self-contained classes are designed for students to get the services they need while still attending general education schools.

However, services will be offered in fewer schools, going from 60 to 38. Some students will have to transfer to one of the new sites that offers a program specifically for their disability.

The restructuring is happening to ensure every special education classroom is fully staffed with teachers and support staff. And it reduces travel time for families by offering programs in their high school feeder pattern — the school they would be assigned to based on where they live, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said at a June school board meeting.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan board is closer to hiring a superintendent to lead schools. Meet the three finalists.

2025-08-20T00:58:57+00:00

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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.

Over two days, the board interviewed seven candidates to find the best applicant to succeed State Superintendent Michael Rice, who announced in April that he is retiring effective Oct. 3. Rice has been in the role since 2019.

The board interviewed four candidates on Monday but ended up selecting as finalists all three of the applicants who interviewed on Tuesday. They are:

Lisa Coons, former state superintendent in Virginia and former chief academic officer for the Tennessee Department of Education.
Glenn Maleyko, superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools
Judy Walton, superintendent and curriculum director for Harrison Community Schools

The three finalists will come back next week for a final interview with the board.

The four semifinalists that didn’t make it to the next round were Paul Salah, superintendent for Huron Valley Schools; John Severson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators; Thomas Ahart, an education consultant and former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools; and Christopher Timmis, superintendent for Dexter Public Schools.

Some of the board members noted that they had a strong field of semifinalists.

“We’ve heard from an incredible group of educators who are doing amazing work across the state and beyond,” board president Pam Pugh said.

Board member Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, advocated for Timmis and was disappointed he wasn’t a finalist.

“He’s a change agent,” McMillin said, citing what Timmis said about moving away from what he described as a system that rewards seat time toward one that rewards student engagement and attainment of knowledge and skills.

“If we don’t get him, someone else will,” McMillin said.

He voted no on the finalists and fellow Republican Nikki Snyder, who is from Goodrich, initially passed on voting but then said, “You’re welcome to put it as a no.” Snyder and McMillin had advocated for including Timmis as a fourth finalist, but the consensus was to go with three candidates. The six Democrats on the board voted in favor of the finalists.

Here’s what they heard from the candidates, as well as their application materials:

Maleyko: Working together will make it happen

Maleyko, the Dearborn superintendent, said his vision for public education in Michigan is aligned with what the State Board of Education and the Michigan Department of Education, or MDE, have already established as goals toward improving education. Among those eight goals are expanding early childhood education, improving early literacy achievement, increasing graduation rates, increasing the number of certified teachers in areas where there are shortages, and providing adequate and equitable school funding.

“These are all things that we know other states have been successful … at implementing,” Maleyko said.

But academic performance has struggled in Michigan, and other states are showing more improvement on a rigorous national exam.

Maleyko said Michigan needs stronger collaboration between the state and local districts, the business community, students, and other stakeholders to move the state forward.

“We know there’s strengths in Michigan, but there’s also areas where we can improve, and I think together, we can do that, and I’m steadfast in my belief that working together will make that happen,” he said.

Candidates were asked about how their experiences as educators shaped their approach to leadership. Maleyko, in his response, talked about when he was a first-year third-grade teacher at Salina Elementary School in the Dearborn district. A young boy had drawn a picture in his journal of someone being shot. Maleyko, concerned, consulted his principal and the school social worker. The parents, who spoke little English, came in. Through translation, the meaning behind the drawing became clear.

“It turned out that that student saw his uncle get shot … in Iraq after the first Gulf War in the 90s,” Maleyko said. “It was eye-opening, because here’s the thing, I grew up middle class. I didn’t have to deal with what that student had to deal with.

“But the one thing as an educator is that I could work my hardest to make sure that that student will receive the highest possible, best education they could, so that they would be successful in society. That has stood with me throughout my career.” That student’s story has stuck with him for years, and it helps him remember that many other students are dealing with challenges.

Walton: We must grow the ‘future stories’ of students

The school year that began this week in Harrison Community Schools is the fourth one that has had a “future stories” theme. Superintendent Judy Walton said her vision for public education is to expand that theme across the state.

“We want to grow their future stories,” Walton said. “That has to be our vision, and we can’t do anything along the way that takes options off the table for them. It’s their job to write that story, and it’s also our job to sometimes help them see that future, even when they can’t because of things that are impacting them.”

In order to invest in those future stories, she said, Michigan will need to ensure there is “sustainable, equitable funding that recognizes the uniqueness of districts.” Each district has its own challenges and opportunities, and they vary in size and location, she said. In a small rural district like hers, she said, there is less red tape, but there are also fewer opportunities for competitive grants because of their size.

“Overall, it still matters the ZIP code of a child as to what kind of education you get, and that’s still not okay.”

Walton said there needs to be more of a connection between the MDE and districts, teachers, and students. The state education department, she said, must be the leader in making those connections happen and to build on “the great work that’s been happening.”

“We need to be out in front, making those connections, helping districts network with each other, because great ideas are everywhere in the state. But if we can’t connect people to them, they sit in silos, and a silo will be the death of great education across the state.”

When it comes to students, Walton said the Michigan Merit Curriculum, which outlines what classes students need to take for high school graduation, affected how many opportunities students had in school.

“It really impacted elective choices and things like [career and technical education] and things like work-based learning. … I think it also really dampens some of the creativity and love of learning that our kids have. And so I think we have to provide more choices for them, not let go of rigor, not saying we don’t want you to be able to compete. We’ve got to figure out more ways to help have more of their own voice heard in their path to a diploma.”

Coons: Improving early literacy is a key priority

Coons spoke extensively about her experiences in Tennessee and Virginia and described herself as passionate about literacy. When she became executive officer of priority schools in Nashville, at a time when a growing number of struggling schools were at risk of a state takeover, it became imperative to “walk through every single classroom to see what was happening.”

As they walked through second grade classrooms, one troubling theme emerged. “No one was teaching reading. In every single second grade classroom I walked through, they were coloring. Not only were these students having a lot of challenges outside of the classroom, they weren’t having the opportunity to learn to read inside the classroom.”

When she sat down with the principal and second grade teaching team, she asked why they weren’t teaching reading. “And they said, ‘Our children can’t sit still. We are not able to teach.”

Thus began an intensive approach to turn around that school.

“We started with teacher training, instructional materials, partnered with a nonprofit to give deep, deep coaching for our teachers on classroom management and how to implement strategies, but also to our school leaders so they could track the data and understand data,” Coons said.

She told the board that the goal to improve early literacy must be the biggest priority and that Michigan needs to ensure that school districts across the state receive the resources and support they need. She said that how MDE partners with districts will be different in different parts of the state.

“It’s an incredibly important space for us to be over the next five years, to make sure that, first and foremost, our students have the opportunity at the end of third grade [to learn to read], because we know that opens doors for their futures.”

Coons said the MDE goal to increase the percentage of students who graduate from high school is also an important part of the state’s vision for improving education.

“As a student walks the stage, if they’re only ending with graduation, we haven’t served their next step. It’s incredibly important for us to think about what are those post-secondary opportunities that they’re having in high school that help them solidify their steps after they graduate?”

Michigan, she said, has a lot of different opportunities for high school students, such as early college programs and workplace readiness programs.

The goal should be that as students graduate, they’re not asking ‘What’s next?’ but are instead thinking, ‘This is where I’m headed.’

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan superintendent candidates agree the state needs a vision to improve student achievement

2025-08-19T00:17:45+00:00

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Candidates hoping to serve as Michigan’s next state superintendent say they see students’ lackluster literacy performance, the need for more student engagement, and high rates of chronic absenteeism as key issues when it comes to improving schools.

The State Board of Education on Monday interviewed four of the seven semifinalists, in 90-minute time blocks. The remaining three candidates will be interviewed Tuesday and after those sessions, the board will select the finalists.

The superintendent’s job is the top educator position in Michigan. That person oversees the Michigan Department of Education and presides over, but doesn’t vote at, state board meetings. They also advocate in the community and with the Michigan Legislature on issues relevant to the state’s public schools. Hiring the superintendent is one of the state board’s main functions.

Those interviewed Monday were Paul Salah, superintendent for Huron Valley Schools; John Severson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators; Thomas Ahart, an education consultant and former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools; and Christopher Timmis, superintendent for Dexter Public Schools.

Tuesday’s interviews will be with Glenn Maleyko, superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools; Judy Walton, superintendent and curriculum director for Harrison Community Schools; and Lisa Coons, former state superintendent in Virginia and former chief academic officer for the Tennessee Department of Education. The interviews begin at 9:45 a.m. and can be viewed on YouTube.

It’s no surprise academic achievement was top of mind for the superintendent candidates. Just 24% of Michigan fourth graders were proficient in reading on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national exam given to a representative sample of students in every state. While Michigan’s performance has been stagnant in literacy, other states have seen significant growth. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called out the poor performance earlier this year when she noted that Michigan spends more money than many other states but is getting less achievement.

“It’s not acceptable,” Whitmer said. “Let’s face our literacy crisis with fierce urgency.”

The candidates largely offered similar sentiments.

“We need to accelerate third grade reading proficiency dramatically,” said Ahart, who led the Des Moines district for a decade before resigning in 2022.

He suggested that local school boards should focus their meetings on student outcomes instead of on things that are “two or three or four degrees removed from what’s actually happening with students.” Des Moines implemented a program that specified that 50% of a board’s time in meetings should be spent talking with principals, central office teams, students, and families about student achievement.

“That helps not only the board put more focus, obviously, on student achievement, but it also greatly narrows the focus of the entire district staff, because they know all of their work is being put on public display once a month or twice a month, and it opens a very big window to the community to understand better what’s happening,” he said.

Student engagement is a major priority for Timmis, who has been a superintendent in Michigan for 18 years. He said the current education system is designed to sort and select kids.

“And it does a great job of it. Some kids are successful, and we sort others right out of the system.”

Under this system, he said, “we are failing way too many kids.” He noted that the graduation rate for students with disabilities is 60% in Michigan.

He said his goal in the first five years as state superintendent would be ensuring that every student graduates on time ”with the skills and the knowledge to be successful as healthy and happy adults.”

Timmis advocates for a competency-based system focused on measuring student engagement rather than the current system, which he says is largely focused on seat time.

For 10 years, the Michigan Department of Education has touted an initiative aimed at helping the state rise to among the top 10 in the nation in education by this year. The state is far from reaching that goal.

One of the initiative’s goals was related to literacy, which continues to be a pain point.

Salah said one of the greatest challenges in addressing the “alarming” literacy rates in Michigan is that there have been “fits and starts” in efforts to turn it around. State lawmakers in 2016 passed a third grade literacy law that called on greater investments in literacy coaches and early intervention. It also called for holding back some third graders who were far behind , though that part of the law was repealed in 2024.

Schools invested heavily in literacy efforts as a result of the law, but the pandemic stalled those efforts, Salah said. More recently, laws were enacted that require students to be screened for dyslexia and require the MDE to recommend reading curriculum that is aligned to the science of reading, a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary.

Salah said the state needs a consistent vision for improving literacy.

“The focus on phonics, science of reading, LETRs (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading) training is all important,” Salah said. However, he later said, “we have to continue to fund this literacy initiative.

“We cannot stop in a year from now because there’s a different focus,” he said. What successful organizations do “is they focus on a few rigorous goals, and they stay the course.”

Digging deeper on literacy is important, Severson said. He noted that the MDE has trained thousands of teachers in LETRs training and said the training should continue and be incentivized. There currently is no requirement that teachers take the LETRs training.

Also important, he said, is “training elementary principals to be stronger instructional leaders.

He also wants to address chronic absenteeism. In Michigan, about 30% of students are chronically absent, according to the latest statewide data from the 2023-24 school year. In some districts, the percentages are even higher.

“If students aren’t coming to school, they can’t learn, right? So we need to look at this problem systemically, not just what schools can do, but what all we can do in the community,” Severson said.

Monday’s interviews were disrupted several times when one board member wanted to ask a question about a parent’s rights related to gender identity.

Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, asked Salah, the first interviewee, whether he would stop efforts to “deceive parents” by keeping information from them about their children’s gender identity, pronouns, and the bathrooms they use.

He was referring to MDE training videos that sparked media attention in 2022. In the videos, a trainer suggested that teachers can talk with parents about a student expressing suicidal thoughts without having to reveal that gender identity or sexual orientation is a cause of their distress.

Board President Pam Pugh, a Democrat from Saginaw, immediately interjected, saying the question wasn’t on the approved list, prompting McMillin to say, “I’m being silenced. Are you serious?”

After a break, Pugh reiterated her stance, saying that the question wasn’t on the list, but noting that board members could ask follow-ups questions as long as they were relevant to the question that had just been asked and answered. She didn’t object when McMillin asked the same question to Severson after the candidate answered a question about Michigan’s political landscape.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Who will be Michigan’s next state superintendent? Here are the semifinalists.

2025-08-12T19:06:08+00:00

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Michigan superintendents in the Dearborn, Dexter, Harrison, and Huron Valley school districts are among the seven semifinalists for the state’s top education leader position.

The semifinalists for the state superintendent job also include Virginia’s former top education leader, a former Des Moines superintendent, and the head of a Michigan association of intermediate school district administrators.

Michigan’s State Board of Education chose the seven semi-finalists Tuesday after a closed session in which they reviewed 33 applications for the top job. They are seeking to replace State Superintendent Michael Rice, who announced in April that he is retiring, effective Oct. 3.

The semifinalists will be interviewed by the board in 90-minute sessions next week, on Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, during the first round of interviews. The board will then choose finalists, and the schedule includes making a final decision in early September.

Here are the seven people who will interview for the job:

Thomas Ahart, education consultant and coach, and former superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools
Lisa Coons, former state superintendent in Virginia and former chief academic officer for the Tennessee Department of Education
Glenn Maleyko, superintendent, Dearborn Public Schools
Paul Salah, superintendent, Huron Valley Schools
John R Severson, executive director, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators.
Christopher Timmis, superintendent, Dexter Public Schools
Judy Walton, superintendent and curriculum director, Harrison Community Schools

The seven semi-finalists were recommended by representatives of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the search firm assisting the board.

Max McGee, an associate with the search firm, told the board the seven recommended are the candidates whose experiences and background best meet the 12 desired characteristics and qualifications that the firm developed based on what they heard in interviews with stakeholders, focus groups, forums, and survey results.

The board approved moving those seven recommended candidates to the first round of the interview process, with member Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, the lone “no” vote among the eight members. McMillin had motioned to include an eighth candidate as a semifinalist, but that effort failed.

McMillin explained that his vote “doesn’t mean I oppose them all” and doesn’t mean he won’t eventually vote for one of them.

Fellow Republican Nikki Snyder, from Goodrich, voted to approve the semifinalists, but said the search process “has been inherently flawed.”

“I do believe the candidate has already been chosen,” Snyder said.

Marshall Bullock, a Democrat from Detroit, said he hasn’t chosen a candidate.

“I take some kind of dislike to that commentary that we’ve already selected a candidate. This is all very fresh to me,” Bullock said.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, McGee read a list of 10 candidates for the job who had not requested confidentiality in releasing their names prior to interviews. None of them, however, were among the semifinalists. One of them was Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a member of the Detroit Public Schools Community District board and former Michigan lawmaker and teacher.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s where to find free backpacks, school supplies, and have some fun in Detroit

2025-08-11T22:12:05+00:00

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Need school supplies for the upcoming school year? There’s a good chance you’ll find some at one of many back-to-school events happening across Detroit in the coming days and weeks.

Many of those events are offering school supplies, backpacks, and other necessities students might need in the classroom. They’re also offering a last bit of fun for kids and their parents, with music, games, and food.

Monday, Aug. 25, is the first day of school for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Michigan’s first official day of school is Sept. 2.

Below are some of the upcoming events. Know of others that aren’t on our list? Email us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org. And keep in mind that in most cases, free supplies are available until they run out, so it’s best to arrive at events early.

Also, be sure to check the links for any event you’re interested in attending. Some require advance registration.

Wednesday, Aug. 13

Back to School Bash

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: 8034 W. Warren in Detroit

What: Free backpacks with supplies will be given away. There will also be free lunch served and free dental cleanings. A specialist from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Resources, or MDHHS, will be on hand to speak with parents. Organized by MDHHS Pathways to Potential Wayne County.

Thursday, Aug. 14

Back to School Fest

Time: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: 1211 Trumbull in Detroit

What: 100 backpacks will be given away. The event also includes games, music, bounce houses, and food. Organized by the Detroit Hispanic Development Corp.

Friday, Aug. 15

Back to School Bash

Time: Noon to 4 p.m.

Where: Heilmann Recreation Center, 19601 Brock Ave. in Detroit

What: Event includes backpack and school supplies giveaways, face painting, bounce houses, music, lunch, and crafts. Organized in part by MiSide.

Saturday, Aug. 16

Back to School Giveaway/Family Fun Event

Time: 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: 24409 W McNichols Rd.

What: The event will include games, prizes, and activities.

Back 2 School Block Party - Sneaker Edition

Time: Noon to 6 p.m.

Where: Social Status Detroit, 9101 East Jefferson Avenue #Suite A in Detroit

What: Event includes the giveaway of 500 backpacks filled with supplies. It also includes free haircuts for kids from noon to 2 p.m., live DJs, a basketball 3-point contest and one-on-one tournament, vendor booths, food trucks, and more giveaways.

Reading in Ramsay Park + Back To School Supplies & Backpack Giveaway

Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: 14800 Longacre St., Detroit

What: Event includes free school supplies, backpacks, and books. Organized by the Grandmont Community Association Youth & Education Committee.

Sunday, Aug. 17

Back to School Bash

Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Campus Martius Park, 800 Woodward in Detroit

What: Event includes entertainment, interactive activities and engaging experiences for kids. Organized by Downtown Detroit Partnership, with Corewell Health, Detroit Zoo, and Michigan Science Center

Saturday, Aug. 23

Back to School Community Kick off

Time: Noon to 3 p.m. Doors open at 11:45 a.m.

Where: Faith Clinic, 12260 Camden Ave. in Detroit

What: 300 backpacks will be given away. Free food will be served from noon to 1:30 p.m. The event also includes free school supplies, free haircuts and styling (hair must be washed beforehand), balloon animals, face painting, and a gospel DJ. Organized in part by Trane U.S. Inc.

Sunday, Aug. 24

Back 2 School Family Beach Party

Time: 10 a.m. to noon

Where: Honest John’s, 488 Selden St. in Detroit

What: Back-to-school supplies will be given away. There will also be live music, a dance party, games, and temporary tattoos. Vendors will also be on hand for attendees to purchase food, drinks, and back-to-school essentials.

Wednesday, Aug. 27

Back to School Rally

Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: Downriver Campus, Wayne County Community College District, 21000 Northline Rd. in Taylor.

What: Free backpacks, school supplies, and food. The event also includes youth and parent workshops, vendors, community resources, and entertainment. Organized by Wayne County Community College District.

Saturday, Aug. 30

Baby Smoove’s 2025 Back-to-School Backpack Giveaway

Time: Noon

Where: DABO Detroit, 12048 Grand River Ave. in Detroit

What: Event includes free backpacks filled with school supplies, an appearance by Detroit rapper Baby Smoove, and health and education resources. Organized in part by Detroit Association of Black Organizations.

Saturday, Sept. 6

Back to School Keychains

Time: 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Knapp | Detroit Public Library, 13330 Conant in Detroit

What: Children will be able to create fun, school-inspired keychains.

Tuesday, Sept. 9

Back to School Crafts

Time: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Bowen | Detroit Public Library, 3648 Vernor Highway in Detroit

What: Families can drop in anytime to make back-to-school crafts.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan schools urged to provide free meals to all students despite budget stalemate

2025-08-11T16:02:54+00:00

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State Superintendent Michael Rice is urging Michigan school districts to continue offering free school meals at the start of the school year, despite uncertainty about whether the state will provide funding for the meals program.

School officials don’t yet know how much funding they’ll receive for school meals because the Michigan Legislature missed its July 1 deadline for passing a budget for the current fiscal year.

Part of the delay has been a divide among lawmakers about whether to continue paying for free school meals. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed an education budget in May that continues the funding for the meals program. The Republican-controlled House budget does not include the money.

In a memo sent last week, Rice urged lawmakers to pass a budget soon “so that schools and districts do not have to begin the new school year with uncertainty.”

Michigan began funding free meals for students, regardless of income, in the 2023-24 school year. The initiative also receives federal dollars through the Community Eligibility Provision run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Michigan funding runs out Sept. 30, Rice said.

“MDE strongly recommends that local districts offer free meals at the beginning of this school year to take advantage of the student health, attendance, and performance benefits of school meals,” Rice said in the memo.

Rice said the department cautions districts “from making too quick a decision” regarding participation in the meals program because the Agriculture Department has made it clear that if a district changes its participation, those changes “cannot be reversed within the same school year.”

Okemos Public Schools notified parents last week that it will no longer be providing free meals because of the budget stalemate, and students who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for a free or reduced-price meal because of their family’s low income will now be required to pay for their meals.

That decision in Okemos prompted Democrats and Republicans to blame each other for the budget stalemate.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Fighting chronic absenteeism key issue as Sheffield and Kinloch gear up for November mayoral race

2025-08-06T15:25:03+00:00

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The two contenders to be Detroit’s next mayor both say they will invest city resources into addressing chronic absenteeism, one of the biggest challenges facing schools in the city.

Mary Sheffield, the president of the Detroit City Council, and Solomon Kinloch, the senior pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, were the top vote-getters in the mayoral primary in Detroit Tuesday and will face off in the general election in November.

Just 17% of Detroit residents voted in the primary election, according to city of Detroit data. Sheffield, who led polling throughout the campaign, received 43,572 votes, or 51% of the vote. Kinloch came in a distant second, with 14,893 votes, or 17.4% of the vote.

They were among a field of nine candidates who said they intended to play a role in collaborating with schools across the city and improving outcomes for young people.

Mary Sheffield was the top vote-getter in the Detroit mayoral primary Tuesday.

There has been a growing realization among many community leaders that the city’s rebirth from bankruptcy won’t be complete if schools continue to struggle, and student achievement won’t see substantial improvement if the city doesn’t partner with the education community.

Rev. Solomon Kinloch, right, hugs a community member on election day, Tues., Aug. 5, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan.

So what would the two mayoral contenders do?

In her response to a Chalkbeat Detroit survey on education issues, Sheffield said her role would “be a solutions-oriented advocate on behalf of parents, teachers, students and community members.” She said she would “commit significant resources” toward improving conditions that impact education that the city oversees.

“I will establish deeper collaborative ties with DPSCD first and foremost, acknowledging that a strong school system means a strong Detroit,” Sheffield said. “Everything from Detroit’s public safety to workforce to small business and entrepreneurship have direct ties to our educational system. So as a goal, we will understand the gaps and create solutions together.”

Kinloch, who didn’t respond to Chalkbeat’s survey, told the Detroit News that he would be an “educational mayor” and would appoint a chief educational officer who would work with Detroit school officials.

On his website, Kinloch said he would partner with Detroit’s school community to address social barriers to education.

The person he would appoint to the senior cabinet level position would be “specifically tasked with working with our school administrators, educators, parents, and children to coordinate city services that support student success.”

Both candidates say they would tackle attendance challenges. In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, about 60% of the students were considered chronically absent during the last school year. That’s down from a high of nearly 80% at the height of the pandemic, but still far above state and national averages. Charter schools have similarly high rates. A student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10%, or 18 days, of the school year.

“Together, we will attack the root causes of truancy, such as housing instability, financial need, lack of transportation, and mental health, and set our students up for success,” Kinloch wrote on his website. “My administration will prioritize it, set metrics to track progress and keep us accountable.”

Sheffield said attendance and literacy rates must be addressed together.

“We have to make sure that we are having conversations about both, because they are inevitably linked. And possible solutions have to take this into account as well,” Sheffield said in her response to the Chalkbeat survey.

“If students are not showing up to school consistently, we are not able to accurately gauge the quality of the educational system itself,” she said. “I am committing to piloting realistic wraparound services solutions that include transportation, housing, employment and childcare supports to our students and households with the highest barriers to attendance.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

‘Fight for the future’: Why education has become a key topic in Detroit’s mayoral race

2025-08-04T13:52:34+00:00

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High absenteeism rates, youth fearing for their safety, and a fragmented education scene with dozens of governing bodies overseeing 185 public schools mean Detroit’s next mayor will have their hands full if they want to improve outcomes for young people.

Next week’s primary is the first open race for mayor in more than a decade, and nearly all of the candidates racing for the top two vote-getting spots say they have plans for how the mayor can play a more effective role in education.

But it will be a tough challenge in Detroit, because the scope of the problem includes low academic achievement and high rates of students missing far too much school, and also because factors such as extreme poverty, housing instability, and transportation woes impede school success for a majority of students.

Community leaders like Angelique Power, the president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, see this election as a “liminal moment” for Detroit public education, because along with a new mayor, the city will elect new city council members. Next year, Michigan residents will elect a new governor.

“This is sort of a fight for the future and the soul of Detroit.”

While Detroit’s mayor doesn’t have control or oversight of schools, the person elected in November will need “political will” to create cohesion in the city’s schools when there is pushback, Power said. (The Skillman Foundation is a Chalkbeat funder. To learn more about our funding, go here.)

That’s important considering the city has 185 public schools. That translates to one elected school board overseeing more than 100 schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and 56 appointed school boards overseeing charter schools. Meanwhile, city leadership must take into account the nearly 30,000 school-age children who live in Detroit but leave the city every day to attend suburban schools.

“There’s no cohesive vision or strategy that crosses over the different types of public schools that we have here,” Power said.

That matters greatly. While DPSCD can boast of some high-performing schools, and charters can too, many schools in the city are struggling academically.

Nine Detroiters are running for mayor. They are Jonathan Barlow, James Craig, Fred Durhal, Joel Haashiim, Saunteel Jenkins, Solomon Kinloch, Todd Perkins, Mary Sheffield, and DaNetta Simpson.

Just five of them (Barlow, Durhal, Jenkins, Perkins, and Sheffield) filled out a Chalkbeat Detroit survey first sent to the candidates July 2. Between those responses and a candidate forum hosted recently by the Detroit Federation of Teachers, Chalkbeat got a clear picture of what the candidates would prioritize on education.

They say there needs to be better coordination between the city and schools to align resources. They want to improve attendance and other outcomes such as safety for city students. They want to work to ensure that schools receive adequate state and federal funding. They want to improve access to a number of services, including after-school programs and career and technical education programs. You can read their responses below.

“The need to fix the broken bridge and communication between City government and schools is pressing,” Durhal wrote in his response.

Wayne State University researcher Sarah Lenhoff, whose team has done extensive research about Detroit education issues, including chronic absenteeism, enrollment, and housing, is pleased to see candidates making education a focus. She’s long believed that Detroit’s mayor should play a bigger role in improving the city’s education landscape as well as the conditions that support student success.

“It should be the responsibility of the mayor,” said Lenhoff, director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research, or Detroit PEER. “Just because they don’t have direct authority over the schools doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of influence over how well the schools are doing, how well students are doing in the city. It’s overdue, and I’m hopeful that whoever becomes mayor will carry that through into action while they’re in office.”

Playing a role, but leaving control to the schools

If Detroit’s next mayor plays a key role in education, they’ll have to overcome skepticism from residents who may still be wary after more than two decades of reform attempts.

Helen Moore, a longtime education activist in the city who has pushed back against school takeovers, said she’s not opposed to the next mayor having some input on education issues.

Detroit’s mayor “should have a role, but they should not be taking over,” Moore said. “That’s happened before,” and it didn’t work, she said.

Moore said the mayor needs to send their representatives to school board meetings to listen to the public and understand the district’s challenges. They need to be focused on helping students succeed, she said.

“We’re going through hell trying to get them (students) to the place they should be,” Moore said. “There are too many people trying to keep our children from getting the quality education they deserve.”

Mayoral control became an early reform effort when Michigan lawmakers transferred control of Detroit Public Schools to the city mayor in 1999, allowing then-Mayor Dennis Archer to appoint a seven-member school board that answered to him.

That experiment ended in 2005, when Detroit voters approved a ballot initiative to return to an elected board. But in 2009, mounting debt in DPS led then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm to appoint the first of what would become a series of emergency managers who had almost complete control of the district. By the time emergency management in the district ended in 2016, the debt had ballooned to catastrophic levels.

To ward off bankruptcy and unsaddle classrooms from the debt, Michigan lawmakers implemented a controversial plan to create a new district — DPSCD — to educate students and operate schools, while DPS remained intact to collect tax revenue and pay off debt. DPSCD has been on relatively solid financial footing since it had that fresh, debt-free start.

But the many years of state and mayoral oversight decimated the district. Enrollment declined from around 160,000 just a few years after mayoral control began to around 49,000 today. Dozens of schools closed, leaving some areas of the city with no neighborhood schools.

And the emergence of charter choices, which began opening in Michigan in the mid-’90s, has created intense competition in Detroit, giving parents a plethora of often dizzying options for where to send their children. It’s also created instability in the system as parents move their children frequently from school to school, often in the middle of the school year. Those frequent moves happen for a number of reasons, including a desire to find the best option for their children but often because housing instability forces families to move unexpectedly.

In a 2018 special report on the effects of frequent moves, Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan explored how they create instability and makes it difficult for schools to improve academically.

Tackling chronic absenteeism will be a key issue

Lenhoff and Jeremy Singer, her colleague and fellow researcher, coauthored a book released earlier this year about chronic absenteeism in Detroit in which they argued that schools alone can’t solve the intractable problem and called on city and community leaders to get more involved. Detroit PEER recently released several fact sheets that highlight areas where it sees the mayor having “the most direct influence over the conditions for learning and education in the city.”

About 60% of DPSCD students were chronically absent during the last school year, meaning they missed 18 or more days of instruction. Citywide, the rates have hovered around 50%.

“Many of the big reasons why kids miss so much school in Detroit have little to do with the schools themselves and have much more to do with the conditions in which they’re living, with their access to transportation, with their housing and neighborhood situations,” Lenhoff said.

Those are mostly within the control of the mayor and city government.

So what could the city do? According to Lenoff, it could make it easier for kids to ride public transit to and from school, strengthen the safety of neighborhoods so students who live close enough can feel safe biking or walking to school, and invest in family-friendly affordable housing.

The city has invested in affordable housing, but for Lenhoff, the key question is whether there’s an emphasis on housing that can accommodate families and is located near schools.

Those housing efforts, she said, don’t necessarily require working with school systems, but they might be more effective if they were coordinated with DPSCD and major charter school operators “to ensure alignment between where the city’s investing and where schools are prioritizing their efforts.”

Many families in Detroit lack reliable transportation, making it difficult for kids to get to school every day. The Detroit PEER fact sheet on the top notes that a third of families in Detroit don’t own a car, and 30% of families don’t have a fixed way to get their children to school.

DPSCD doesn’t provide yellow school bus transportation for most high school students, who can receive bus passes to take city buses. But just 4% of students use those bus passes to go to school daily, according to the fact sheet.

The city can look for ways to make riding city buses more palatable and convenient for teenagers, perhaps by letting teens use their student identification cards instead of bus passes, Lenhoff said. Crucial steps would be researching bus routes to ensure they are located in areas that are more easily accessible for students, making sure buses arrive on time, and making sure bus stops are safe.

Another area the next mayor can collaborate on is promoting district schools. DPSCD and charter schools in the city would be far more stable enrollment-wise if they were able to reengage with students who leave the city to attend suburban schools.

“Our city’s leaders have an interest in those children coming back to the city for school, and, you know, for neighborhoods to have thriving community-based schools,” Lenhoff said. “So figuring out ways to promote that … could be really worthwhile.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated after a fifth candidate, Jonathan Barlow, filled out Chalkbeat’s candidate survey after publication.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

2025 Detroit mayoral candidates on education issues: An election guide for voters

2025-08-04T13:50:50+00:00

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Detroit’s next mayor will likely be someone who wants to create more cohesion between district and charter schools, help the city to play a role in reducing chronic absenteeism, and ensure students have more access to after-school, career and technical education.

Nine people are running to replace Mayor Mike Duggan, who has served as mayor since January 2014. Five of the candidates — Jonathan Barlow, Fred Durhal, Saunteel Jenkins, Todd Perkins, and Mary Sheffield — responded to a Chalkbeat Detroit survey about whether and how they plan to play a greater role in education issues.

They will face off Tuesday in a primary election that will decide the top two vote-getters who will compete in the November election.

There’s been a growing push for Detroit’s mayor to take a more active role in addressing some of the conditions that lead to school success or struggles. Low academic performance is prevalent in most schools and the city has alarmingly high rates of students who are missing too many days of school. City youth say they’re constantly worried about their safety.

Below is the candidate guide with background information on those who responded to the survey and answers to the questions. You can read more about the importance of this election here.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after a fifth candidate, Jonathan Barlow, filled out Chalkbeat’s candidate survey after publication.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district school board seeking new member after resignation

2025-07-03T19:54:47+00:00

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The Detroit district school board will be on the hunt for a new member to replace Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, who is resigning to take on a countywide role.

Peterson-Mayberry, who was elected to the seven-member board in 2016 and began serving in 2017, was appointed this week to the Wayne County Commission. She’ll be completing the term of Irma Clark-Coleman, a longtime community leader, who died last month. Clark-Coleman had served on the board since 2010 and represented a portion of Detroit.

The board is now seeking people who want to fill the remainder of Peterson-Mayberry’s seat, which expires at the end of 2026.

Interested candidates can send their letters of intent to Vania Moore at vania.moore@detroitk12.org. The letters must explain why the candidate is interested in the position and include a resume and a copy of an identification card that lists their address. There also is a way for people to apply online. The board will consider those letters of intent and interview some candidates before making a decision.

A deadline for submitting applications will be determined next week, a spokesperson for the district told Chalkbeat Thursday.

Board President Corletta Vaughn said in a statement that the board “will move forward with a sense of urgency,” in filling the seat.

“We are grateful for Ms. Peterson-Mayberry’s leadership and look forward to engaging with Detroiters who are passionate and committed to DPSCD and will provide a collaborative and problem-solving approach.”

Peterson-Mayberry was one of the original members of the board for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which was created as part of a legislative initiative to resolve deep debt in Detroit Public Schools. DPSCD was launched to concentrate on educating students and the day-to-day operation of schools, while DPS remains intact to collect tax revenue and pay off a mountain of debt.

One of the biggest decisions the board made early on was to hire Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to helm the district.

“Over eight years Angelique always led with integrity and with a spirit of service to the City and its people, especially employees, students, and families,” Vitti said in a statement. “She always listened to everyone but was willing to make hard decisions to rebuild the District and place it on a path of sustained success. Her legacy creates enormous shoes to fill but provides everyone with the example of what public service should look like.”

The board is holding a special meeting at 5 p.m. Monday to discuss the search process. The meeting will be in the board’s 12th floor conference room of the Fisher Building, 3011 W. Grand Boulevard.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s state superintendent demands release of $160 million in federal funding

2025-07-02T21:30:34+00:00

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Michigan’s top education leader is urging the Trump administration to release nearly $7 billion in funding the federal government is withholding from schools nationwide.

In Michigan, that includes nearly $160 million.

The funding, approved by Congress earlier this year as part of a continuing budget resolution signed by President Donald Trump in March, was supposed to be distributed Tuesday. But the Trump administration said Monday it would not release the funds, Chalkbeat reported.

“These federal dollars support some of our most economically disadvantaged and vulnerable students,” Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement Wednesday. “The U.S. Department of Education should provide the approved funding immediately.”

The money funds programs that support migrant education ($5.4 million), services for English learners ($12.8 million), staff professional development ($63.7 million), before- and after-school programs ($36.7 million), and academic enrichment ($38.3 million), Rice said.

Rice said that based on past practice, “local school districts were rightly counting on this approved funding by July 1.”

He said the Michigan Department of Education, which he oversees, “is working with colleagues across the country and with legal counsel to reflect upon the adverse impact to students, staff, and schools of this withholding.”

It was unclear Wednesday afternoon if the department is considering legal action.

A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget, said Wednesday that the move to withhold the funding was part of an ongoing programmatic review of education funding, and that no decisions had been made yet.

Initial findings, the spokesperson said, “have shown that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”

Chalkbeat senior national reporter Kalyn Belsha contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

For DPSCD’s small schools, costs are high and solutions are needed

2025-06-26T21:54:03+00:00

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The high per-student cost for operating buildings at 19 Detroit district schools, some of which also have low enrollment and are underutilized, is creating funding challenges and will have officials wrestling with what to do with them in the coming years.

The district is already in the process of phasing out the operation of four of the schools, but that may not be the fix the district seeks with the remaining schools. No recommendations have been made to the board. But a report on the small schools, discussed during a school board committee meeting Wednesday, outlined potential solutions that include merging schools, stepping up enrollment efforts, reconfiguring grades served, and investing in marketing.

The costly schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community Schools aren’t covering their costs, meaning their expenses far outweigh the revenue received through state and federal funding and grants, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during the committee meeting.

Northwestern High School, for example, enrolls 302 students and the building has a utilization rate of 23%. On the other side of the city, Pershing High School’s utilization rate is 20%. It enrolls 421 students.

Underutilized schools are a critical issue in Detroit, given the district must fill in the gaps in revenue for the schools that don’t have enough per-pupil revenue coming in. But it’s not a problem unique to Detroit. Enrollment declines across the U.S. mean many districts are grappling with what to do with underutilized schools.

DPSCD enrollment has declined from more than 156,000 in the 2002-03 school year to 49,000 during the last school year. The declines have left schools with far fewer students than they were originally built to hold.

Vitti said Wednesday that the community should not look at the list of 19 schools and assume they are all going to be slated for closure.

“It just means that in order for these schools to continue to function … we have to move money (in the budget) to cover the costs,” he said.

“Most of these schools are going to be fine,” Vitti said later in the meeting. But, he said, the district will have to consider the long-term future of underutilized schools with buildings that need costly work.

Board member Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, who chairs the board’s academics committee, said the information shared at Wednesday’s meeting is important for the community “to go deep into.”

“There’s a science and a method to why we’re saying if schools aren’t kind of paying for themselves with enrollment, this is a way to unpack that so that they understand,” Peterson-Mayberry said.

Among the 19 schools are a handful the district is already phasing out, including Ann Arbor Trail Magnet School, J.E. Clark Preparatory Academy, Catherine Blackwell Institute, and Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School. At these schools, the district has stopped accepting new students and those enrolled at the time the phase-out began will be allowed to remain until they matriculate. When that happens, the schools will close.

The list includes Paul Robeson-Malcolm X Academy, which moved to another location during the last school year. That move was necessary because the district is constructing another building for the school at the old site. But the move has resulted in enrollment declines — from 392 students to 299 — as some parents opted not to make the move. The district expects enrollment to return to normal once the new school opens.

The list also includes two Montessori schools. Those schools are more costly to operate because Montessori programs require more paraprofessionals than a traditional school, the report says.

The report includes a cost per student as well as what the cost is for a comparison school. The comparison schools are similar schools based on grade band and enrollment type. For instance, schools that require an exam or application in order to enroll are compared to each other.

Below is a list of the schools on the list, not including those already being phased out:

Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 69
Utilization rate: 5%
Revenue: $1,723,543
Expenses: $3,049,269
Cost per student: $44,192
Comparison school cost per student: $12,858
Potential solution: Relocating the school to another high school and operate as a separate school within a school.

Davis Aerospace Technical High School

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 96
Utilization rate: 13%
Revenue: $1,888,804
Expenses: $3,082,647
Cost per student: $32,111
Comparison school cost per student: $12,858
Potential solution: There are already plans to move the school to space the district leases at City Airport. The district will also explore expanding course offerings to non-Davis students.

DPSCD Virtual School

Grades: K-12
Enrollment: 178
Utilization rate: n/a
Revenue: $2,362,709
Expenses: $4,107,150
Cost per student: $23,074
Comparison cost per student: $14,644
Potential solution: Reconfiguration to Grades 6-12. Reduce enrollment standards. Consider different forms of online learning.

Detroit Lions Academy

Grades: 6-12 (alternative school)
Enrollment: 391
Utilization rate:
Revenue: $6,555,334
Expenses: $7,809,592
Cost per student: $19,973
Comparison school cost per student: $12,858
Potential solution: “Because the demand and need for alternative education settings are high, and because students at the school need smaller, supportive learning environments, continue to fund at current levels,” the report states.

Detroit International Academy for Young Women

Grades: K-12
Enrollment: 246
Utilization rate: 16%
Revenue: $4,066,670
Expenditures: $4,843,925
Cost per student: $19,691
Comparison school cost per student: $14,644
Potential solution: Reconfiguring grades and/or move to a larger high school building and operate it as a program within a school.

Crockett Midtown High School of Science and Medicine

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 186
Utilization rate: 36%
Revenue: $2,882,917
Expenses: $3,241,117
Cost per student: $17,425
Comparison school cost per student: $12,858
Potential solution: Eliminate some positions and long-term, consider moving the school to another high school building to operate as a program within a school.

Carstens Academy of Aquatic Science

Grades: PreK-8
Enrollment: 274
Utilization rate: 40%
Revenue: $5,157,224
Expenses:$5,517,800
Cost per student: $20,138
Comparison school cost per student: $14,503
Potential solution: The report says leadership challenges over the years led to low reenrollment rates, and that a new leader along with a new building will restore enrollment and overcome the funding gap.

Mark Twain School for Scholars

Grades: PreK-8
Enrollment: 253
Utilization rate: 49%
Revenue: $4,729,176
Expenses: $5,024,224
Cost per student: $19,859
Comparison school cost per student: $14,503
Potential solution: The district suggests providing the school with prioritized enrollment and reenrollment support.

Northwestern High School

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 302
Utilization rate: 23%
Revenue: $4,835,242
Expenses: $5,172,957
Cost per student: $17,129
Comparison school cost per student: $12,377
Potential solution: Continue providing prioritized enrollment support with a focus on reenrollment of current students. The district could also consider turning it into a K-12 school by merging with Sampson-Webber Leadership Academy or as a special education center site.

Osborn High School

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 413
Utilization rate: 34%
Revenue: $6,022,533
Expenditures: $6,440,302
Cost per student: $15,594
Comparison school cost per student: $12,377
Potential solution: Continue providing prioritized enrollment support with a focus on 9th grade recruitment. The district may also consider the phase-out of Osborn after the new Pershing building opens.

Edison Elementary School (Montessori)

Grades: Pre-K to third grade
Enrollment: 277
Utilization rate: 67%
Revenue: $4,946,746
Expenses: $5,139,978
Cost per student: $18,556
Comparison school cost per student: $14,859
Potential solution: Provide school with prioritized enrollment and reenrollment support. The district may also consider a new building for the school.

Detroit School of Arts

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 523
Utilization rate: 58%
Revenue: $7,362,518
Expenses: $7,706,953
Cost per student: $14,736
Comparison school cost per student: $12,858
Potential solution: The district will continue to develop and expand the K-8 performing arts programs to increase enrollment at DSA. Enrollment is actually on the rise at the school, but staff costs are expensive because of the arts programming, the report says.

Pershing High School

Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 421
Utilization rate: 20%
Revenue: $6,125,510
Expenses: $6,328,932
Cost per student: $15,033
Comparison school cost per student: $12,377
Potential solution: Continue providing prioritized enrollment support with a focus on 9th grade recruitment. The district anticipates a new building being constructed for the school will increase enrollment.

Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy

Grades: PreK-8
Enrollment: 299
Utilization rate: 82%
Revenue: $5,466,768
Expenses: $5,519,697
Cost per student: $18,461
Comparison cost per school: $14,859
Potential solution: The report says: “The school is currently operating out of the former CMA (Communication and Media Arts High School), while a new building is constructed. This had a negative impact on enrollment. When the school relocates back to its new building enrollment will fully fund the school.”

Edmonson Elementary (Montessori)

Grades: Pre-K to 8th grade
Enrollment: 260
Utilization rate: 43%
Revenue: $4,331,072
Expenses: $4,340,392
Cost per student: $16,694
Comparison school cost per student: $14,859
Potential solution: Continue to expand the number of seats in lower grades if teachers and paraprofessionals can be hired to build enrollment and address demand for seats in primary grades. Enrollment is actually on the rise, but the Montessori program requires more staffing than a traditional school, which increases costs.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit teen detained by ICE has been deported to Colombia, attorney says

2025-06-20T13:03:40+00:00

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Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, the Detroit teen whose detention by federal immigration authorities last month caused an outcry and led to calls for his release, has been deported, his attorney said Friday morning.

Attorney Ruby Robinson said he learned late Thursday night from Maykol’s mother, in an 11:15 p.m. voicemail, that the teen was back in his home country of Colombia.

Robinson said he hadn’t yet spoken with Maykol, but hoped to do so later Friday. He said the teen is now with his grandmother in Colombia.

Chalkbeat reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to confirm the deportation, but did not get a response. His information is no longer available on ICE’s detainee locator.

Maykol, 18, was arrested on May 20 while he and a group of other newcomer boys attempted to join a field trip at Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles away from Detroit. Rockwood police stopped the teen for allegedly tailgating another car. Maykol did not have a driver’s license, only a City of Detroit identification card, Robinson has previously said.

His detention prompted advocacy from his teachers, fellow students, community members, and lawmakers who pleaded for Maykol to be allowed to remain in the country to finish high school. He was 3.5 credits shy of a high school diploma at Western International High School, where he was enrolled.

Kristen Schoettle, a teacher at Western International High School in Detroit, speaks about Maykol Bogoya-Duarte’s detention during a DPSCD meeting June 10.

“I’m devastated,” said Kristen Schoettle, who taught Maykol at Western.

“The cruelty of this country really shakes me,” Schoettle said. “This kid, my bright student, was passed along to prisons for a month, scared and facing awful conditions I’m sure, for the crime of what — fleeing his country as a minor in search of a better life? And the US government decided his time was better spent in prison than finishing out the school year.”

Schoettle said she hopes to hear from Maykol today.

“I hope he’s safe with his grandma. I hope he can recover from this traumatizing experience and still will dream of a better life. I’ll miss him in my classroom next year and our city and our country are worse off without people like him,” she said.

Schoettle shared examples of Maykol’s classroom work with Chalkbeat, including what he wrote when asked earlier this year to write about freedom.

“I think the freedom in this moment is a little confusing since we can’t leave safely since we don’t know what can happen and it seems strange to me since we have to be more careful than usual,” he wrote in Spanish.

Kristen Schoettle, a teacher at Western International High School, shared this image Maykol Bogoya-Duarte's writing from a class assignment earlier this year in which students were asked to write about freedom. Maykol was deported back to Colombia this week. The English translation, provided by Schoettle: "I think the freedom in this moment is a little confusing since we can't leave safely since we don't know what can happen and it seems strange to me since we have to be more careful than usual."

Thousands of people signed a petition earlier last week calling on the Detroit Public School Community District and lawmakers to condemn Maykol’s arrest.

Dozens of people spoke in support of the teen’s release for more than 2½ hours at the district’s school board meeting on June 10. Afterward, the board released a statement saying it wanted Maykol to be able to stay in the country to earn his diploma.

Maykol’s mother attended that school board meeting, though she didn’t speak. Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said the organization isn’t representing Maykol’s mother.

“But I would suspect she will try to return to Colombia at her own expense based on what she learned with Maykol’s month-long, taxpayer-funded, and entirely unnecessary and harmful detention.”

Kristen Schoettle, a teacher at Western International High School, shared a note from Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, the Detroit student who was detained by immigration officials. The teen, who wrote the note using a translation app, was deported this week and is now back in Colombia, his home country.

During the May 20 traffic stop that led to his detention, police officers could not communicate with him in Spanish and called Customs and Border Protection agents to translate.

Maykol, who came to the U.S. when he was 16, had already been going through a legal process to return to Colombia after receiving a final order of deportation in 2024. He was working with immigration officials and the Colombian Consulate to obtain the documentation he needed to fly out of the country with his mother.

While he made those arrangements, Maykol planned to finish high school in Detroit.

Hannah Dellinger contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school board adopts budget that maintains programs, continues attendance incentive

2025-06-12T21:34:23+00:00

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The Detroit school board on Tuesday night adopted a $1 billion spending plan for the next school year that maintains funding for programs at their current levels, extends an incentive program that pays students to attend high school, and invests in a new pilot program to provide yellow bus transportation for students at two high schools.

But there’s still some uncertainty about the budget approved for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The Michigan Legislature has yet to approve a state budget that will outline how much per-pupil funding public schools will receive. And there are unknowns about federal funding.

Because of that, “we will then bring back a budget amendment in the fall,” Jeremy Vidito, the district’s chief finance officer, said during a budget hearing.

The budget assumes Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 4.1% increase — $392 — in the per-pupil foundation allowance. The minimum amount a district can receive would increase to $10,000 per student. DPSCD receives the minimum.

The district’s $1.09 billion in expenditures is less than the current year’s amount of $1.12 billion. The decline is not related to cuts in programs, but instead due to a change in the state made in how it allocates pension funds to school districts.

Here are some of the budget priorities included in the adopted budget:

Budget focuses on literacy support for students

The budget includes $38 million from the state as part of the settlement of a literacy lawsuit. This is the second year that the settlement money, which totaled $94 million, is included in the budget. For the next school year, it will go toward a number of efforts, including hiring additional academic interventionists, hiring additional teachers to lower class sizes, and paying tutor stipends.

The settlement was from a historic lawsuit filed against the state on behalf of seven Detroit public school students who alleged that they were denied the opportunity to have a quality education because of poor building conditions, a shortage of textbooks and other learning materials, and poorly qualified teachers. It was filed during a period in which the state oversaw the district because of its massive debt.

A new pilot aims to improve attendance with bus transportation

The district is launching a new transportation pilot program aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism that will provide yellow school busing for students attending Henry Ford High School and East English Village @ Finney. High school students in the district currently must take city buses provided by the Detroit Department of Public Transportation to get to and from school. There are exceptions, including for some students with disabilities and students who are homeless. The pilot will mean students who live within the boundaries of the two schools can hop on yellow school buses for transportation.

“We want to see if yellow buses will improve student attendance vs. the current high school bus model,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email.

During the 2023-24 school year, 88% of the students at Henry Ford and 94% of the students at East English Village were considered chronically absent. A student is considered chronically absent in Michigan if they miss 10% or more of a school year. The district’s overall chronic absenteeism rate for that school year was 66%.

The district will continue attendance incentive that pays students

Another effort at improving attendance is an incentive program the district launched in January to pay students with $200 gift cards every two weeks if they have perfect attendance. Throughout the course of the incentive, which ran through March, students could earn a total of $1,000 in gift cards.

The program will be funded through the next school year.

Data showed that while many of the students who earned the gift cards were already consistent school attenders, the incentive did improve attendance and reduced chronic absenteeism.

It’s unclear how much the district has budgeted for both the attendance incentive or the bus pilot.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

After community outcry, Detroit district board calls for release of student detained by ICE

2025-06-11T03:31:10+00:00

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After more than two hours of heated criticism from the public, the Detroit school board reversed course and issued a statement condemning the detention of a district high school student by federal immigration officials.

In its statement, the board demanded that Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an 18-year-old junior at Western International High School, be released and allowed to complete high school in Detroit.

Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, 18, worked night shifts at a hotel while he attended Western International High School.

Maykol was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, last month after a traffic stop and has not been released. On Tuesday night, the teen was in a Louisiana jail being prepared for “imminent removal,” according to his attorney.

Immigration advocates had been urging the Detroit Public Schools Community District board to issue a statement condemning the arrest, but at the beginning of the meeting, several members said the board has previously adopted a policy that identifies DPSCD as a sanctuary district that doesn’t welcome ICE on school grounds.

Sherry Gay Dagnogo, a board member, said that while the board stands with Western and the Southwest Detroit community, “We are cautious in not bringing unnecessary attention that will prevent us moving smoothly in having this issue addressed.”

That wasn’t enough for many of the people who spoke before the board during Tuesday’s meeting, with some suggesting the board is afraid that speaking out will affect the district’s federal funding. One urged a stronger public statement, saying, “It has never worked to cower in the face of fascism.”

Community members, teachers and students listen to public comment at the DPSCD meeting on Tuesday night.

“What we want to see is for this district, for the board, to stand up in the same ways that we’ve seen board members stand up in New York and Massachusetts, in places where we’ve seen other students detained,” said another commenter, Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, a Detroit-based nonprofit focused on education.

By 9:45 p.m., board members indicated they would issue a statement.

“We heard you. We agree with you. But we’ve got to get to work,” Board President Corletta Vaughn said before the board retreated into a closed session in part to write the statement.

They emerged with this:

“The Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education stands firmly with our community in demanding the immediate stay of deportation for our student, Maykol Bogoya-Duarte. Maykol is part of our DPSCD family, and we are heartbroken by the fear and disruption this situation has caused his loved ones, classmates, and school community. We call for the immediate release of Maykol and request a formal stay of his deportation. We want him to complete his coursework and graduate with his high school diploma—just as he has worked hard to do. We will also continue to keep in touch with the family and keep the school community updated.”

Those who remained in the auditorium cheered after Vaughn read the statement.

Earlier during the meeting, Maykol’s mother sat in the audience and wept as the latest update on his whereabouts came that evening. She didn’t speak, but she listened through an interpreter as dozens of people hammered school officials to make a statement.

DPSCD board members LaTrice McClendon and Corletta J. Vaughn read a statement asking ICE to release Maykol Bogoya-Duarte so he can complete high school.

Teachers, classmates, politicians show support

Multiple Western International teachers told the board the school community is rattled by his arrest.

Maykol’s teachers who spoke at the meeting said he was a good, hard-working student who wanted to earn his diploma. He made a mistake driving to the field trip, they said, but his punishment should not be imprisonment and deportation.

A student named Abby, who asked to use only her first name because of immigration concerns, told Chalkbeat, “we feel his loss in the school.”

On her first day at Western International, she didn’t know where her classes were, and Maykol led her to them.

He was respectful and gentlemanly, she said, and they soon became friends.

Before the board decided to issue a statement, the teen’s attorney said a show of support from his school would greatly help his immigration case.

Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, speaks about Maykol Bogoya-Duarte’s detention by ICE during the DPSCD meeting on Tuesday night in Detroit.

Maykol, who had been issued a final removal order by an immigration judge in 2024, was going through the legal process to obtain the documents to return to Colombia with his mother. He hoped to earn his high school diploma first and needed 3.5 credits, according to his lawyer, Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.

Immigration advocates urged district officials and Michigan lawmakers, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to condemn Maykol’s arrest and call for his release so he can finish high school. By late Tuesday, they had gathered more than 1,400 signatures on a petition.

U.S. House Rep. Shri Thanedar responded on social media Monday, saying “Maykol should be “released immediately and allowed to get his diploma.”

State Sens. Stephanie Chang, Mary Cavanagh, Sylvia Santana, and Rosemary Bayer released a joint statement on the teen’s arrest Tuesday evening. They called for a stay of deportation for Maykol.

“While awaiting his court hearings, Maykol should be able to live his 18-year-old life in the community,” the statement reads.

Maykol is a ‘very good student,’ his teacher says

On the day of his arrest, Maykol called Abby. Police officers pulled him over on May 20 for allegedly tailgating another car. He had driven with classmates who were also newcomers to try to join a school field trip at Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles from Detroit. District officials have said none of the students in the car had permission to attend the trip.

Abby, who was on the trip, told her teachers Maykol needed help.

One of his teachers who was on the field trip, Kristen Schoettle, said she got a ride from staff at the park to the scene of the traffic stop to try to intervene.

Maykol was not licensed to drive and had only a City of Detroit identification card, according to his attorney. The Rockwood police officers who pulled him over couldn’t speak Spanish and had trouble communicating with him, according to Robinson.

Because of the communication barrier, the officers called Customs and Border Protection, the attorney said.

Maykol was then detained and sent to Chippewa County Correctional Facility around 350 miles north of his home in Detroit, Robinson said, adding that the other students were not arrested.

On Monday, Maykol was moved to the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Robinson said.

On Tuesday, Robinson said Maykol was sent to the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Louisiana and was being prepared to be sent out of the country.

Schoettle said she helped connect Maykol to an immigration attorney the day of his arrest.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat that district police tried to advocate for Maykol but were limited in what they could do because he was off campus at the time of his arrest.

Schoettle told Chalkbeat it’s important to Maykol to earn his high school diploma. If he attends summer school, he might be able to graduate by the end of the calendar year, she said.

“He was a very good student,” said the teacher. “He asks a lot of questions and puts himself in situations that allow him to be a better learner.”

A lot of the teen’s friends graduated this year, said Schoettle. He was proud of them and wanted to achieve the same for himself.

Maykol’s detention prevented him from celebrating the end of his junior year and the obstacles he overcame. Even though he often worked late night shifts as a hotel doorman, Maykol came to school ready to learn, said Schoettle.

Abby said the arrest made her “really angry.”

“There’s a great sadness knowing he’s not here,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Higgins is the Detroit bureau chief. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Who will be the state’s next education leader? Answer could come by early September

2025-06-10T19:54:02+00:00

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The State Board of Education could select Michigan’s next top education leader by Sept. 4, seeking input from the public on the qualifications that person should have.

Representatives from Hazard, Young, Attea, and Associates, the search firm the board hired to assist in conducting the search, presented the timeline to the board during a meeting Tuesday. The firm was hired after State Superintendent Michael Rice announced earlier this year that he is retiring Oct. 3.

Mike Richie, a vice president at the Arlington Heights, Illinois, search firm, said during the meeting Tuesday that the next superintendent is expected to begin the job Oct. 4.

The search for the next superintendent comes at a time of increased focus on the state’s mixed education record. While graduation rates are at their highest levels in 16 years, performance on a rigorous national exam showed Michigan students aren’t making progress. Just last week, Rice and Pamela Pugh, the president of the state board, faced criticism from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee because of low literacy rates in the state.

Pugh, in a statement sent Tuesday during the board meeting, said the board “is committed to finding a new state superintendent who will be dedicated to continuing the progress we have made on behalf of Michigan school children under Dr. Rice’s tenure.”

Here are the key dates Ritchie outlined in the search timeline:

June 11-July 20: Aggressive recruiting of candidates will take place.
June 12-18: The search firm will conduct interviews with each of the eight members of the State Board of Education. The interviews will help the search firm develop the job posting and advertisements for the position.
June 25: The state superintendent position posting will go live.
June 23-July 3: The search firm will conduct interviews, focus groups, and forums with key individuals and organizations. Board members will help to determine who that outreach should include. An online survey would also be available for anyone to share feedback.
Aug. 12: The search firm will present the board, during its monthly meeting, with a slate of “tier one candidates” it considers the best fit for the job. The board will choose, from among that slate and/or from among the rest of the applicants, and those will be invited to interview with the board.
Aug. 13-15: The search firm will provide the board with some interview questions.
Aug. 18-20. The board would conduct interviews with the semifinalists Aug. 18 and 19. On Aug. 20, the board would whittle the list of semifinalists down to two to three finalists.
Aug. 25-26: The board would conduct interviews with the finalists.
Sept. 5: The board would select from the finalists.
Oct. 4: The next state superintendent would begin the job.

The outreach to the community is a key part of the search process, because it will help shape the questions the board will ask candidates and provide insight into the kind of candidate the public wants to see in the position.

The board brainstormed groups the search firm should reach out to for interviews or focus groups. Among those cited were groups that represent the interests of teachers, superintendents, and principals; student and parent groups; organizations that fight for equitable funding for schools; advocates for students with disabilities; and groups that advocate for transparency.

Board member Nikki Snyder, a Republican from Goodrich, said the list should also include literacy experts.

“You might even need to go outside of Michigan to seek the curriculum changes that have been made nationwide in states that are making major strides in literacy,” Snyder said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Advocates call on Michigan lawmakers to condemn ICE detention of Detroit student

2025-06-09T22:32:33+00:00

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Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an 18-year-old undocumented immigrant, had planned to return to Colombia with his mother after he graduated from Western International High School.

With roughly one semester left in school, Maykol began making arrangements to leave the U.S.

But his plans and his education were upended last month when he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Instead of finishing out his junior year this week, the teen is in custody of the federal government and faces an “imminent” risk of deportation, according to his attorney.

Immigration advocates are now calling on Michigan’s governor, several Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation, and Detroit school district leaders to fight for Maykol’s release so he can complete his schooling in the U.S.

“At this time of the year, students should be focused on graduation and summer,” said Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, who is representing Maykol. “And here we have a student on precious time who is being deported. He should be able to finish his studies.”

Maykol is only 3.5 credits away from graduating, Robinson said, and would likely be able to finish school around the end of the calendar year.

His attorney said he is asking to be released and granted a stay of deportation to see his studies through before returning to Colombia.

Maykol was arrested on May 20 after he attempted to join a school field trip to Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles from Detroit. While driving with three other students in the car, Maykol was pulled over for tailgating another vehicle, said Robinson.

The teen was asked to provide his driver’s license but only had a City of Detroit identification card. Michigan does not currently issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

The local police officers who pulled Maykol over could not speak Spanish and had trouble communicating with him, Robinson said, so they called Customs and Border Protection.

“An important aspect of this story is that local police, instead of relying on internal translation services, were relying on Border Patrol agents to interpret for them,” said Robinson.

The practice of calling on Border Protection for traffic stops with people who can’t speak English could be interpreted as racial profiling, the attorney said.

Randy Krause, chief of the Rockwood Police Department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maykol, who came to the U.S. at 16, received a final deportation order in 2024. After that, Maykol was working with ICE and the Colombian Consulate to obtain the travel documents he needed to depart the country, according to his attorney.

“We were in compliance with their order,” said Robinson, adding the documents are required in order to board an airplane out of the country. “It takes time for those documents to be generated.”

He was still in the process of arranging to return to Colombia with his mother when he was arrested. It’s unclear if he would have been able to graduate before leaving.

On Monday afternoon, Robinson and Maykol’s family didn’t know where he was. They believed he was being moved from the Chippewa County Correctional Facility to another location early Monday morning, the attorney said.

“We expect when he does reach where he will spend the night tonight, we will be able to find him, or he will be able to make a phone call to us or his mom,” said Robinson.

The attorney said because of the high number of people detained by ICE, the agency places them wherever bed space is available.

“We’re seeing people detained in far parts of Michigan,” he said. “We’re also seeing people being sent to Ohio and other places as well.”

Advocates want Michigan leaders to speak out

By Monday afternoon, nearly 900 people had signed a petition asking Michigan officials to condemn Maykol’s arrest, urge for him to be released to complete his high school education, and “to put preventative policies in place to better support immigrant students and families.”

Three advocacy groups — 482Forward, MI Students Dream, and the People’s Assembly — created the petition.

Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, said the advocacy effort is aimed at raising awareness of the issue and the petition, if it gains traction, will put pressure on those who have the power to intervene.

“Even a statement from the school board will be helpful,” Matson added.

The petition calls for action from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, U.S. House Reps. Shri Thanedar and Rashida Tlaib, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Thanedar, in a Monday evening post on X, formerly Twitter, responded to the detention, saying: “ICE should not be detaining high schoolers! Maykol Bogoya-Duarte just needs 3 credits to graduate, but was put in detention by ICE. He should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma.”

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the district, told Chalkbeat last week that the school system’s police department had advocated on the student’s behalf.

But the district did not notify students and families of the arrest because Maykol was not “under the protection and responsibility” of the school system when ICE detained him, said Vitti.

Robinson said notification about the incident or future instances like it would provide reassurances to families about how the district responds in these situations.

“I think people are looking for something like that from the school district,” said Robinson.

In addition to advocating for Maykol’s release to allow the teen to finish school, the attorney said the district should ensure its policies and practices support the needs of community members with immigration challenges.

That includes making sure students and staff understand their rights in interactions with law enforcement, he added.

In New York, the detention of a student has gained widespread attention and calls from advocates and political leaders for his release. (A second teen has since been detained.) Similarly, the detention of a teenager in Massachusetts prompted rallies.

Less attention has been paid to Maykol’s plight in comparison.

Matson said his case isn’t less important than what has happened in the other states.

“I feel like Democrats in Michigan have not really stood up for our immigrant population here,” she said.

The advocacy groups calling for Maykol’s release are asking community members to attend the Detroit Public Schools Community District board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. High School to urge school leaders to make public statements.

Immigration advocates are also encouraging community members to call the offices of state and national lawmakers, as well as ICE.

Lori Higgins is the Detroit bureau chief. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

It’s time to get Detroit kids signed up for summer school

2025-05-23T21:36:25+00:00

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The June 6 deadline for Detroit district parents to enroll their children in summer school is quickly approaching.

The school year for the Detroit Public Schools Community District ends June 10. Summer school begins June 23 and runs through July 25.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he’s hoping to surpass the 12,800 students who participated in summer school in 2024. The district enrolls nearly 50,000 students during the school year.

Summer school is a critical part of the district’s efforts to improve academic achievement. Though the district has seen promising improvement on state exams, too few students are meeting reading and math expectations. As it has for more than a decade, the district has posted the worst scores among big-city districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam known as the nation’s report card.

The K-8 summer school programs are being funded mostly through a grant from the Ballmer Group. The district’s general fund is paying for high school credit recovery courses.

Here are the details included on the district’s website that parents need to know about this year’s summer program:

Nearly 30 sites will serve K-8 students.

For students from kindergarten through the eighth grade, summer school will include a mix of academic lessons and enrichment activities. Classes will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or from 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., depending on the school.

The mornings will be focused on academics, while the afternoons will be focused on enrichment activities such as performing and visual arts; physical fitness; and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities.

These schools will serve as K-8 summer school hosts:

Academy of the Americas (elementary), Bates, Barton, Bennett, Bethune, Brenda Scott, Charles Right, John R. King, Davison, Duke Ellington, Durfee, Earhart, Edmonson, Emerson, Fisher, Golightly Education Center, Gompers, Greenfield Union, Henderson, Hutchinson, Mackenzie, Marion Law, Marquette, Munger, Noble, Priest, Roberto Clemente, Ronald Brown, Schulze,

Each of the schools above will serve students from certain schools in the district. The district’s website includes a chart that shows parents which school their child can enroll for classes.

High school is virtual, but students can get in-person support

Summer school for students in grades 9-12 is focused on credit recovery for those who are missing academic credits.

Classes for high school students will be held virtually from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

However, if a student wants support from a teacher or lacks the technology to take classes virtually, they can attend in person. Those sites are: Academy of the Americas (high school), Cass Technical High School, East English Preparatory Academy at Finney, Detroit Lions Academy, and Mumford High School.

Like the K-8 enrollment process, high school students can visit in person at the building assigned based on where they were enrolled during the school year.

Meals, transportation, and other programs included

Summer school students will be served breakfast and lunch, and school bus transportation will be provided for K-8 students, though it’s more limited than it is during the school year, so call 313-945-8600 for more information. High school students who opt to be in person for support will be provided city bus passes.

The district’s Summer Learning Experience will also include:

A boot camp for those entering kindergarten.
A 9th grade bridge program for students entering high school.
A fine arts program for middle and high school students will operate from Saturday, July 19 to Saturday, Aug. 2 at the Detroit School of Arts.
There is an extended year program for students with disabilities whose individualized education programs call for the extra time.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Alternative high school teacher Corey Rosser named Michigan Teacher of the Year

2025-05-06T20:27:17+00:00

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A man who teaches social studies at an alternative high school in Lapeer County is Michigan’s newest top teacher.

Corey Rosser was named Michigan Teacher of the Year Tuesday in a surprise announcement at Quest High School. The school is part of the North Branch Area Schools just north of metro Detroit.

Rosser was one of 10 Michigan teachers named in February by the Michigan Department of Education as regional teachers of the year for the 2025-26. About 500 teachers were nominated for the state’s highest teacher recognition award.

“Corey is incredibly gifted at connecting with students who have struggled in a traditional program,” North Branch Superintendent Jim Fish Tuesday said in a news release from the MDE. “The relationships he builds with students are instrumental in guiding them to believe in themselves and their future.”

Quest High, which has around 40 students, opened in 2004, and Rosser has worked there since its opening.

“His approach of truly getting to know them on an individual basis, understanding their goals and the challenges they have faced, is crucial to the program,” Principal Doug Lindsay said in the MDE release.

Rosser “focuses on developing a relationship with his students and providing them the necessary support to achieve their goals” as soon as students join the program, Lindsay said.

Rosser said during the ceremony following the surprise announcement by State Superintendent Michael Rice that “I think you could throw a pebble down our hallway and probably find a teacher more deserving than me,” according to the release.

“I work with so many amazing people here … Really, to me this is all about a culmination of what our students have been working toward. We’ve had 580 or so graduates over 20 years. Any teacher knows they all remember you. They create a really special place to learn and a really special place to teach.”

After he was named a regional teacher of the year, Rosser told The County Press that if selected as the top educator in Michigan this year, he would advocate for alternative education students.

Rosser and the other nine regional teachers of the year will serve this year on the Michigan Teacher Leadership Advisory Council, lending a teacher voice to the most pressing issues facing the state’s education system.

He will attend monthly meetings of the State Board of Education as a non-voting member and serve on the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council. He will also be Michigan’s nominee for the 2025 National Teacher of the Year award.

Here are the other nine regional teachers of the year:

Susan Solomon, an elementary teacher at JKL Bahweting Anishnabe Public School Academy in Sault Ste. Marie.
Thomas Schultz, a science teacher at Charlevoix Middle/High School in Charlevoix Public Schools.
Sarah Kresnak, an elementary teacher at Discovery Elementary School in Kentwood Public Schools.
Heather Wolf, a social studies teacher at Shepherd High School in Shepherd Public Schools.
Becky Manore, a Spanish teacher at Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge Public Schools.
Lindsey Cook, an elementary teacher at Sonoma Elementary School in Harper Creek Community Schools.
Deidra LaPointe, an elementary teacher at Luther C. Klager Elementary School in Manchester Community Schools.
Stephanie Jaskolski, an English language arts teacher at Woodhaven Upper Elementary in Woodhaven-Brownstown School District.
Susan Kelsey-Brewton, a science teacher at Hope Academy in Detroit.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan commission calls for increased funding, efforts to reduce youth suicide

2025-05-02T18:06:48+00:00

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A state commission created in the wake of the 2021 deadly school shooting at Oxford High School has issued a final report that calls for steps to improve school safety, reduce youth suicides, and strengthen the mental health of students and their families.

The School Safety and Mental Health Commission was created in 2022 because of the Oxford shooting, which left four students dead, but also because of the student mental health challenges that soared during the pandemic and continue to be a concern.

Terry Dangerfield, superintendent for Lincoln Park Public Schools in Wayne County, said in a Thursday press release about the report that data shows about 16.5% of children between the ages of 0 and 17 have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and one in five have emotional or behavioral concerns.

“These numbers represent real students in classrooms who are trying to learn while struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, or other serious concerns, ” said Dangerfield. Michigan, he said, must invest in mental health resources to ensure students not only succeed academically but are able to “lead healthy, full lives.”

The report, which is dated April 14 but was publicly released Thursday, includes 10 recommendations for policymakers. It comes at a time when Michigan lawmakers have made school safety a priority. In January, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law legislation that would require every public school to have a behavior threat assessment and management team, require the Michigan State Police to create standardized terminology for use during school emergencies, and require the MSP to make training available to schools on how to use threat assessment materials, among other new initiatives.

Lawmakers in the Michigan Legislature are currently weighing additional safety bills that would create a comprehensive “school-community mental health system” and put additional crisis teams in schools.

Here are some of the recommendations. To read the full report and all of its recommendations, go here.

The state must provide consistent funding on a per pupil basis to support schools in ensuring they are provided with the resources needed to support their students.
The state must work with schools to ensure that the true impact of policy changes is understood, because policy changes can create additional burdens for districts and require them to hire additional staff or enter into costly contracts. Michigan schools currently struggle to hire mental health professionals because of shortages.
Minimize risk for suicidal behaviors by promoting safe environments, resiliency, and connectedness. Increase awareness of warning signs, provide opportunities for selective screening of high-risk youth, train on risk assessment and communication strategies for youth at-risk for suicide, and improve referral channels to facilitate care for youth at-risk for suicide in their communities.
Increase and expand access to care to support those at risk of suicide.
Improve suicide prevention training and education for school staff and volunteers.
Continuing to expand the 988 (a suicide and crisis hotline) line’s accessibility, including adding text and chat capabilities, with the aim of reducing youth suicide Michigan.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps leave Michigan tutoring program searching for new funding

2025-05-01T22:40:35+00:00

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A Michigan program that deploys reading and math tutors to schools to help struggling students faces an uncertain future because of Trump administration cuts.

Holly Windram, the executive director of the Michigan Education Corps, said she learned Friday that the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, had terminated funding for AmeriCorps, a government agency focused on national service and volunteerism.

That affects the Michigan Education Corps work because it is part of AmeriCorps.

The immediate impact came this week with a stop-work order from the Michigan Community Service Commission, the administrative agent for the AmeriCorps program in Michigan. And it means funding for the 2025-26 school year that had been included in the continuing budget resolution Congress passed in March has also been terminated.

The cuts don’t just affect education programs like the academic intervention provided by the Michigan Education Corps. AmeriCorps programs also affect disaster response, public health, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship, and other areas. Those programs also face an uncertain future.

“This is an urgent situation,” Windram said of the wide scope of the cuts. “This is an absolute disaster for our communities.”

The cuts have the potential to upend efforts to improve student achievement across the nation. Many districts had used federal pandemic relief money to provide tutoring in an attempt to help students recover from the public health crisis. But that money has dried up and the AmeriCorps volunteers have helped maintain that work in many schools.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel earlier this week joined with 22 other attorneys general as well as two states in filing a lawsuit challenging Trump administration’s termination of the grants and staffing cuts to the agency.

“The President and his administration’s ongoing disregard for the rule of law is once again on full display in their attempt to dismantle AmeriCorps,” Nessel said in a statement earlier this week. “By canceling grants and slashing AmeriCorps’ workforce, the administration is illegally undercutting a Congressionally established and funded independent agency, while harming communities across Michigan.”

Despite the stop-work order, the Michigan Education Corps has enough money to continue paying tutors through the end of the current school year.

“The question mark is next program year,” Windram said.

This uncertainty was unexpected for Windram. When Chalkbeat first talked to her about potential federal funding cuts on April 17, DOGE had already cut a significant portion of the AmeriCorps staff but Windram was optimistic because the budget resolution had kept the funding for the next school year. Now she has to step up efforts to seek additional funding.

Windram has worked to diversify the program’s funding, and currently federal funding covers about 20% of the cost. She’ll now need to find sources of funding that can cover what will be lost if the federal funding cuts stand.

There is much at stake. The program serves 3,740 students from age 3 through grade 8 (the agency includes an early childhood component). Data shows that 75% of them meet or exceed their academic growth target. Windram said that’s important because the program isn’t just seeking to demonstrate growth with students, but instead seeking to have them close achievement gaps.

At Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School in Ecorse, a wall of fame in a hallway features students who were placed in the reading intervention program and have improved enough to no longer need the help. The smiling students are photographed holding their certificates, some posing with their tutors. The wall is a symbol of the impact of the work that happens when the tutors meet one-on-one with the struggling students.

When Chalkbeat visited Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School in Ecorse on April 4, there was already concern about whether the reading and math tutors would be able to continue beyond the current school year.

“That is very worrisome,” said Sandra Fuoco, the school’s Title I teacher, whose position is funded by federal money. “I have my interventionist wondering what’s going to happen? Do they look for a new job over the summer? They want to come back. They’re wonderful, wonderful workers, and we don’t want to lose them.”

The AmeriCorps cuts are happening as uncertainty swirls about potential federal education funding cuts that could affect everything from school meals for students to early childhood programs. Fuoco and Bunche Principal Toyre Burks worry that politicians and policymakers proposing such cuts don’t understand how much cuts could affect students.

“I have my concerns around us being able to meet our kids where they’re where they’re at,” Burks said. “We’re in an at-risk district. Our kids, they need the breakfast, lunch, sometimes even dinner and snacks that we’re giving them.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

With the threat of federal funding cuts looming, here’s what’s at stake in Michigan schools

2025-04-25T20:38:44+00:00

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In a slightly warm classroom on a sunny April afternoon, five fifth graders loudly clapped their hands together or on their desks as they read a sentence out loud.

“Did” Clap. “She” Clap. “Wink” Clap. “At” Clap. “Hank” Clap.

With each clap, the students at Mark Twain School for Scholars in Detroit were distinguishing between the different sounds they were hearing with each word in the sentence, a common exercise in literacy lessons on phonological awareness.

They quickly moved to the next sentence, and Kimberly Sommerville, the academic interventionist who works closely with them to improve their literacy skills, immediately spotted a problem.

One student read the sentence, then the other four students were expected to say, and clap, what they heard. But the students were clearly hearing “A lot of junk is in the sink.”

“Listen,” Sommerville interrupted, then enunciated each word loudly for the group, helping them hear that the last word was supposed to be “tank” and not “sink.”

Scenes like this happen across the Detroit Public Schools Community District and are led by academic interventionists like Sommerville, whose work is a vital part of the district’s effort to improve academic achievement and get struggling students like the five in this classroom back on track. She is one of 600 such interventionists that the district employs. Their role existed before the pandemic, but the district has invested even more in them to address the learning loss students experienced during the public health crisis.

It’s “the best program ever,” Sommerville said, because of its strong focus on phonics and its use of the Orton Gillingham method, a popular approach to teaching reading. But she worries about its future because it partly benefits from federal education funds that are at risk of being cut. (Money from the settlement of a literacy lawsuit and a grant from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation also cover the cost of the academic interventionists.)

Sommerville has reason to worry, as do educators across Michigan whose schools rely on federal funding. The Republican-controlled Congress has signaled that it plans to substantially cut federal dollars for public schools. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools if they allow transgender girls to participate in girls’ athletics — already, it has moved to strip Maine of its funding for refusing to comply. The administration also has threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don’t eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools. (Those efforts hit a legal roadblock Thursday.)

Republican proposals could affect Michigan students in myriad ways, from early childhood to tutoring to accessing school meals. Trump has proposed eliminating Head Start, a long-running early childhood program for children from low-income homes. Republican lawmakers have pitched changes to federal school meal programs that could leave hundreds of thousands of students in Michigan without crucial breakfasts and lunches. Deep cuts in the U.S. Department of Education, part of Trump’s efforts to eliminate the agency, have affected services for some of the most vulnerable children. Deep cuts in AmeriCorps could also be felt locally, particularly for a statewide tutoring program that helps students at about 80 schools in Michigan. And Trump’s tariffs could increase costs for school districts.

In Glen Lake Community Schools in northern Michigan’s Leelanau County, district officials fear the district could lose nearly $3.3 million in federal impact aid that it receives to offset the loss of property tax revenue from Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore, which is located within the district’s boundaries. The impact aid provides operating funds for the district and makes up 20% of the district’s budget.

Glen Lake Superintendent Jason Misner said the proposed cut could be absorbed by the district’s healthy fund balance for the next school year. But there are limits to how far that rainy day money can go.

The uncertainty weighs on school district leaders who must build budgets for the 2025-26 school year by the end of June with little concrete information about how much federal funding they’ll receive, or if they’ll receive any. And teachers don’t know yet what potential cuts will mean for them in the classroom.

“Every day I’m scared,” said Janine Scott, a math lead teacher at Davis Aerospace Technical High School (and a member of Chalkbeat’s reader advisory board), during a recent panel discussion on teacher morale. “We have kids who rely on [federal funds].”

The unpredictability “creates anxiety, and anxiety within our school administration and support staff” creates more concern,” said Nick Ceglarek, superintendent of the Northwest Education Services, an intermediate school district that provides services to local schools in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties. Many of those services, including some that provide direct instruction and help to students, rely on federal funding.

There are few answers to anxious questions

On an evening in mid-March, more than 1,000 people logged into a virtual engagement session with DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to hear about the potential cuts and their impact on the district. Those attending peppered Vitti with questions about whether nurses, central office staff, special education staff, and others would be affected. Some wondered if class sizes would rise, whether there would be funding for school lunches, and whether paraprofessionals could lose their jobs.

There were few concrete answers because so little is known about what might happen.

Federal funds touch many aspects of education. Among the most common: Title I funding helps schools provide support to students from low-income homes. Title II funding provides money for teacher training and other initiatives on effective instruction. Title III money invests in English language learners. Title IV supports programs that provide educational enrichment for students from low-income homes. Schools receive Medicaid reimbursements for some students’ special education services. And the federal school lunch program allows all students in a school with a large number of students from low-income homes to receive free school meals.

The stakes are particularly high for DPSCD, the state’s largest district, as about 32%, or $210 million, of its annual budget comes from federal funding. In the virtual session, Vitti shared how a 25% cut — which hasn’t been proposed but is something a national urban schools’ group has suggested might happen — would affect the district.

Whatever cuts happen, Vitti said the district might be OK for the next school year if it uses its fund balance and state funding increases at the level Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proposed. Other strategies to address potential funding cuts include accelerating the closure of schools the district is currently phasing out, reducing discretionary funding, freezing vacant positions, decreasing operating costs, decreasing the frequency of technology refreshes, and reducing insurance coverage.

But he strongly urged those in attendance to reach out to state and federal lawmakers to share their concerns and ask them to fight back against the potential cuts.

“This current president and administration is not supportive of our children and our communities based on their budget. Budgets define your priorities, period,” Vitti told those in attendance.

The possibility of federal funding cuts was the talk of a recent superintendent’s meeting for the school districts that are part of the Northwest Education Services.

Like most intermediate school districts in Michigan, the agency provides a range of direct services to students. Ceglarek, the superintendent, said he’s particularly concerned about proposed cuts in Medicaid funding.

Ceglarek said schools rely heavily on Medicaid dollars to provide services to students from low-income households and students who have individualized education programs, or IEPs, which spell out what services schools are required by law to provide.

“When a student has an IEP, we are obligated as a district to ensure that plan is enacted and those services are provided, whether we get funding for it or not,” he said.

The ISD receives more than $2 million in Medicaid reimbursements, which is used to hire speech and language pathologists, psychologists, social workers, and physical therapists and then “deploy them into our local districts to provide these needed services.”

“It’s quite an efficient model,” Ceglarek said. “Many of our districts … don’t necessarily need a full-time speech pathologist. They may only need a half-time person.”

He has the same concern about any potential cuts to federal migrant student funding, because the ISD hires a specialist who travels among the districts and provides a range of services to English learners.

“Should those dollars be eliminated … That’s a scary proposition,” Ceglarek said.

‘You want your kids to do well in life.’

“Are you ready?” one girl standing at the front of the classroom at Detroit’s Mark Twain school said to her peers. When they all said yes, she began reading sounds such as “ing,” “sp,” “a,” and “wh.” With each sound, the students wrote what they were hearing onto a dry erase board then held it up when they were done.

After a few exercises led by Sommerville, she turned it over to her students to guide their peers. Having students lead an activity isn’t part of the academic intervention program, but it’s something Sommerville began doing because students expressed an interest.

“To me, they take ownership of the program,” Sommerville said. They do so well that when Sommerville’s coach visited her classroom two months ago, she joked that, “you’re not going to have a job.”

Sommerville is trying to remain hopeful that the Trump administration won’t make substantial cuts to education.

“I think he’s just being spiteful right now, but I don’t think he’ll do that. Because you want your kids to do very well in life. You really do, and that looks bad on him if you cut education. This is a representation of you, you know,” she said.

Marcie Gould, a tutor/interventionist with the Michigan Education Corps, works with a student on literacy exercises at Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School on Fri., April 4, 2025 in Ecorse, Michigan.

A little over a mile away from Mark Twain, at Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School in Ecorse Public Schools, similar literacy interventions were taking place as Marcie Gould, a tutor/interventionist, worked one-on-one with a struggling third grader.

After doing a warm up activity, Gould, who wore a black shirt with “literacy and justice for all” written in colorful letters, pulled out a set of small tiles and laid them out in front of the girl.

“We call these letter tiles so it helps the kids have a more hands-on experience,” Gould said of the tiles, each of which had different sounds that she moved around to create words and asked the student to read out loud.

The Ecorse district uses state early literacy grant dollars to pay for tutors like Gould from the Michigan Education Corps. But the program could still be affected by federal cuts. The Michigan Education Corps program is part of AmeriCorps, a federal initiative that has undergone significant cuts since Trump took office.

Ecorse Superintendent Josha Talison said that if any facet of the program had to be altered because of funding cuts, he would be concerned.

“Because the program has aided in the reading comprehension growth of our students since the program has been in place over the last five or six years,” he said.

Holly Windram, executive director of the Michigan program, said a continuing budget resolution Congress passed March 14 keeps their funding stable through the 2025-26 school year for the 80 or so schools that will use corps tutors. After that, there is uncertainty. Federal funding makes up 20% of its budget, and if that funding is cut for the 2026-27 school year, she’ll need to seek other sources of money.

“We financially have diversified funding. I’m concerned, but I’m not panicking financially at this point. My question is who are we going to get our money from,” Windram said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

This Detroit principal has unique ties to the children he serves

2025-04-15T21:45:39+00:00

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Mario Lemons leads a school in the same westside Detroit neighborhood where he grew up, and just a block away from the high school from which he graduated.

“I know the students, families, and teachers,” said Lemons, the head of school at Detroit Achievement Academy, a charter on West Outer Drive. “I know them figuratively because they are a product of this community, just like I am, so there’s a strong cultural and communal connection and understanding that can only come from a shared lived experience.”

It doesn’t end there, though. Lemons said many of the teachers at the academy “are people who I literally grew up with, and many of the students at DAA are children of parents who I also grew up with.”

Lemons is one of 10 Detroit educators (see full list below) who were recently honored as a 2025 Skillman Visionary by the Skillman Foundation. The annual awards program recognizes education changemakers. (The Skillman Foundation is a Chalkbeat funder.) Winners include people ranging from a foster care advocate to a teacher leader and curriculum designer.

Lemons, who, growing up, attended Paul Robeson Academy, Detroit Open School, and Renaissance High School, has been the head of school at DAA for six years and prior to that was the school’s behavior interventionist. He began his career as a teacher.

As a child, Lemons was involved with the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, an experience that shaped his love of the arts. It’s something he’s worked to instill in the students he serves.

“The arts are such a unique opportunity for students to express themselves, strengthen their confidence and identity, as well as draw parallels to core academic content.”

Growing up, he said, “the theater arts undeniably strengthened my reading, writing, and speaking skills. Music and visual arts helped me make strong connections to mathematical concepts such as fractions and geometry.”

Lemons spoke with Chalkbeat about his experience with school, empowering young people, fostering teacher morale, and how he started learning American Sign Language.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What led you to a career in education?

I felt led to go into education during my senior year in high school while walking to school and praying about my future. I wanted to do something that would make a difference in the lives of young people the way that adults in my community impacted my life growing up.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I grew up in a community where everyone believed in the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child.” So I was educated by every adult that I interacted with in school, church, and [Mosaic] youth theater company, etc. My elementary school was an Afrocentric school where that philosophy was embedded into how I viewed elders and their roles in inspiring me to reach my highest potential for the greater good of the community. This affects my work today because I instill that same “village” mindset into our school community. It takes all of us to educate our children — school staff, students’ families, experts in the community, and neighborhood leaders to produce the best outcomes for students. So I leverage all stakeholders as best I can.

Mario Lemons is the head of school at Detroit Achievement Academy.

I often tell my staff, “If we do this right, our students will grow up to be the community members who keep our neighborhoods and society safe, creative, cooperative, and productive. That’s how powerful our role is in the community! Don’t ever take that lightly at all.”

What’s the best advice you ever received — and how have you put it into action?

The best advice I ever received was early in my education career, and it was “Forgive yourself every night; and rededicate yourself every morning.” I still use that advice on my toughest days as a school leader. Not everything will always go as planned, but as long as I give it my best, I can sleep at night, and try again with renewed energy and purpose in the morning.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

I have been so inspired by the work of [educator and writer] Elena Aguilar. I have read almost all of her books, and her work on cultivating emotional resilience has allowed me to be stronger in my presence and efforts in education each day. But it also gives me an awareness of how to more effectively interact with staff, students and families no matter what state of being they are in.

In recent years, many students have faced mental health challenges. How has your team helped support them at this time?

As a district, we have continued to prioritize having a full-time school social worker in our buildings every day throughout the school year. We also have contracted a clinical therapist to assist our students who need more intensive mental and social-emotional support than what a school social worker has the capacity to provide.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

Over the years, I have established and maintained clear and inflexible boundaries between work and my personal life. This has helped me to have a sustainable balance between the two. I prioritize doing things that bring me joy, like roller skating every Monday night, volunteering at my church as a singer and a sign language interpreter for the deaf members, being involved in the vibrant arts community in Detroit, and traveling periodically as a vacation. This allows me to fill my “personal bucket” so that I can have the energy to continue doing the hard but great work of leading our school community day to day.

Your bio notes that you’ve dedicated yourself to empowering young people in creative spaces. What does that look like?

I have a background in theater and the performing arts. So I weave that into just about everything that I do — and I support, promote, and help to cultivate creativity with our young people in many different ways. We hired and retained a full-time dance teacher, a full-time art teacher, and a part-time instrumental music teacher. Over the years at DAA, I also have taught drama/theater during and after school; and I taught American Sign Language, where students learned sign language and were able to perform a song in ASL. I have coached students on creative writing and speech. Outside of school, I have taught youth theater classes, produced theatrical productions, directed plays, and consulted for arts organizations that gave young people opportunities to express themselves creatively. No matter what I am doing, my natural inclination is to incorporate and foster students’ creative talents as well.

What do you do to improve teacher morale? How do you address your own morale?

I am a “people first” kind of person, so improving teacher morale starts with acknowledging them as human beings first. I listen, and I lead firmly but with compassion. I am able to connect with my teachers on a personal level to inspire them to stay positive easily because I establish and maintain a meaningful relationship with them every single day throughout the school year. As I model this type of relationship with my staff, I create opportunities for staff to model it amongst their peers during staff meetings, professional development, and whole-school assemblies and events.

We also ensure that staff have everything they need to do their jobs well — supplies, competitive salaries, snacks in the staff lounge, consistent instructional coaching, ample amount of prep and planning time, student behavior support, positive public and private praise and appreciation, and clear and consistent communication from leadership. All of that makes for a wonderful teacher working environment, and seeing my staff joyful and excited to be at work boosts my morale as well!

How long have you used American Sign Language, and how did you learn it?

I learned ASL when I was about 12 years old by simply sitting in the front row at church watching the sign language interpreter interpret during the Sunday morning services. After a few weeks of me talking to the interpreter after church about the vocabulary that I was learning, she started to teach me more words so I can practice interpreting the songs. As the years went on, I learned enough vocabulary to be confident to interpret the pastor’s sermon and, in some cases, the entire church service. I have continued to hone that skill over time and found joy in interpreting at churches around the city for the past 20-plus years.

I used ASL when I was a classroom teacher as a fun way for students to memorize their spelling words. An activity they would do would be to spell their words using ASL. Oftentimes, if I am explaining a concept or a hard academic word and I realize that, in ASL, visually, it looks like the meaning of the word, then I would teach the sign for it to help students understand the meaning of the word. I also use it to teach students how to greet one another in sign language — Good morning/afternoon. How are you? Good. Happy. Sad. One year, I had a non-verbal student at our school, and I would interpret for her when necessary.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit, and writes about Detroit schools. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Parents’ inflexible work schedules impact student attendance

2025-03-28T20:42:07+00:00

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Challenges faced by working parents can contribute to chronic absenteeism, according to a new book.

“The shift is like a twelve-hour shift,” said one parent whose experience was recounted in “Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve It Alone,” which was written by two Wayne State University education researchers. “It’s hard to work around that and her going to school.”

The parent ended up quitting that job because of the strain of needing to rely on her mother to ensure her daughter made it to school. It’s a frequent reality for Detroit parents.

Housing instability, transportation inequities, and health challenges are among the most commonly reported causes of chronic absenteeism. Less focus has been paid to the role employers can play in the fight to improve attendance.

“It’s a perfect example of a sector that is likely not thinking at all about student attendance,” Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, one of the authors of the book, told Chalkbeat in an interview. Employers, she said, “could have a major impact on how much kids get to school.”

Frequent absences are a problem across the U.S., but particularly in the Detroit school district, where 66% of students are chronically absent. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10% or more of a typical 180-day school year. Citywide, the rate is more than 50% for district and charter schools. The high rates have a huge impact on schools, making it difficult to improve academic achievement and maintain continuity in the classroom.

Lenhoff and Jeremy Singer, who co-authored the book with her, were among a group of researchers that published a paper in October in the journal “The Urban Review” on the relationship between parent work schedules and their children’s school attendance.

“Parents’ work schedules in Detroit did have a strong association with their children’s attendance,” said Lenhoff, the Leonard Kaplan Endowed Professor and an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State. “Essentially, kids who had a parent with a more flexible work schedule were more likely to get their kids to school regularly.”

Like the parent above, they heard from parents who quit their jobs because they couldn’t make their jobs work with their kids’ school schedules.

“Employers might want to know … they’re actually losing employees because of this issue,” Lenhoff said.

They’re now trying to explore the topic further to see for instance, what schools can do to ensure parents are able to communicate with their employers in advance about school schedule changes as well as “what are some things that employers could maybe think about being more flexible about, whether it’s schedule, whether’s it’s time off in the middle of the day to go to events or things like that.”

The book takes a wide-ranging look at chronic absenteeism in Detroit and offers a solution to solving it: getting policymakers as well as community organizations and coalitions involved in improving attendance.

Here’s more of what Lenhoff and Singer said in a Chalkbeat interview:

Charter schools also struggle with chronic absenteeism

More than half the school-age children in Detroit attend charter schools in the city or in the suburbs, or are enrolled in suburban school districts. The book, though, is focused on the district.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a strong research partnership with the district,” said Singer, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State. “It’s obviously easier to study what they’re doing at scale, because it’s one governing entity, whereas, of course, we have a number of charter operators.”

They have done some research on the strategies being used in charter schools and early evidence has shown that the way charter schools are approaching the issue tends to mirror each other and what the district is doing, Singer said.

“There’s, frankly, a pretty limited toolbox that schools are drawing from to figure out how to solve these issues,” Lenhoff said.

Some families struggle because they lack a support system

In interviews with parents, the researchers found that they often rely on a strong network of family, friends, or neighbors to help with getting their children to and from school.

Some lack that network, though.

“In a few cases, parents described being truly socially isolated,” they wrote in the book. Others have a network, but its members are less reliable for various reasons, such as their own inflexible work schedules, lack of transportation, or financial struggles.

“Scientists have been documenting this for 50 years — there’s been this just societal erosion of our social linkages between each other, such that, you know, all of us have fewer people who we can call in a pinch,” Lenhoff said.

Another factor, she said, is the effect school choice policies have had. The city has a number of charter schools, and a large percentage of children in the district attend a school outside their neighborhood.

“if you live in a neighborhood where none of the other children go to your children’s school, then it’s pretty hard to call on a neighbor or friend to, you know, give your kid a ride or pick your kid up at the end of the day,” Lenhoff said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit and writes about Detroit school issues. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

‘Why schools can’t solve it alone’: New book tackles chronic absenteeism

2025-03-26T19:51:45+00:00

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Researchers Sarah Winchell Lenhoff and Jeremy Singer have been studying chronic absenteeism in Detroit for years, talking to scores of parents, students, educators, and school administrators along the way, and keeping track of many school efforts to reduce absenteeism.

One thing they’ve learned during that time is that no matter how much passion schools put into solving the chronic absenteeism problem, they may be fighting a losing battle. That’s because while chronic absenteeism “is a problem for schools,” it’s not a problem that can be solved by schools.

Their new book, “Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve it Alone,” which was released Tuesday by Harvard Education Press, explains why and provides a road map for what they describe as an “ecological” instead of an “educational” approach to addressing chronic absenteeism.

Why? Because poverty weighs heavily into the reasons students miss school, particularly in communities like Detroit where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income homes.

Chronic absenteeism has been a problem in Detroit for years and is also affecting school districts across Michigan. Statewide, nearly 30% of students were considered chronically absent, meaning they missed 10 or more days of school, during the 2023-24 school year, according to state data. In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the rate was nearly 66%. Many charter schools in the city also have high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Sarah Winchell Lenhoff is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University.

The pandemic fueled a surge in chronic absenteeism, though rates have since decreased.

The book has a number of recommendations for policymakers, school and district leaders, and community-based organizations and coalitions.

“I hope that folks outside of education pick up the book and think yes, there’s a role for me in health, or for me in housing, for me in transportation, or for me as a lawmaker,” said Singer, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University.

For policymakers, who have the power to legislate change, the authors recommend they substantially increasing efforts to reduce poverty, eliminate punishments for schools and students for chronic absenteeism, invest in systems to ensure students have the resources they need, and reduce the emphasis on chronic absenteeism within school accountability systems.

Jeremy Singer is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University.

Lenhoff said she hopes the book will shatter stereotypes people may have that children who are chronically absent aren’t motivated to attend school and that their parents don’t care.

“Detroit parents want their kids in school,” said Lenhoff, the Leonard Kaplan Endowed Professor and an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State. “Many parents, even parents who have kids with really good attendance, are going to extremely great lengths to get their children to school, coordinating all kinds of different resources and backup transportation.”

Lenhoff and Singer lead the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, or Detroit PEER, with Lenhoff as its director and Singer as its associate director.

Chalkbeat talked with Lenhoff and Singer in a wide-ranging interview about chronic absenteeism.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Stay tuned for more later this week.

Your book makes the argument that an ecological approach to chronic absenteeism is needed. Why is there such a need to rethink the way communities approach this problem?

Lenhoff: That’s a big reason why we wrote this book was feeling a real need to have an intervention on the current discourse around chronic absenteeism and attendance in schools. In Michigan, and the majority of states around the country, chronic absence is counted against schools when they have many students who are missing lots of school. We have observed how that has seeped into the everyday practices of schools, such that lots of people are thinking about chronic absence, lots of people are trying to do something about it. They’re spending a lot of time on things that may not have a lot of benefit for students, may not be able to improve attendance, which means that they’re not spending time on other things that might be more within their scope of influence.

The second big thing is we really wanted to expand the table of people and institutions who are thinking about student attendance as part of their scope of work. Primarily schools are like the only institutions where we look to solve this issue. Lots of other institutions are maybe even in a better position to solve some of the root causes that are keeping kids from school … things like housing instability, things like transportation inequity, health inequity, you know, a lot of these things are really far outside what schools can do, and so looking to other institutions to see what they can do to improve conditions for student attendance seems like a really important move.

What will it take for school districts, Detroit in particular, or communities, to pull off what you’re recommending?

Lenhoff: It’s all the more difficult in the current political climate where schools are likely to have less funding, not more. There’s going to be a deemphasis on things like social welfare programs and affordable housing, and equitable transportation. Things we think can make a difference are in this current federal political climate going to be really challenging to pull off. What I would say now is that working closely with the nonprofit community, with the kind of local government agencies that you already have connections with that are maybe already trying to do things around youth programming or supportive work with families, and just trying to connect the dots with attendance. A lot of groups are already thinking about kids. They’re thinking about families with kids — how to better support them, how to increase employment opportunities, increase extracurricular engagement. All these things, we think could have a positive effect on attendance, and they might require a little bit of coordination on the school side.

Singer: If there are policymakers who are thinking, ‘What could we do now, knowing that we have an important role to play,’ it could make sense to even just try small block grants or pilot programs that can help schools try some creative things in partnership with community organizations or other state agencies. The same goes for philanthropy. Foundations might be able to play a role in just helping to pilot something that might be otherwise unattainable financially, like giving rideshare credits or experimenting with some new form of … transportation, or some kind of new health intervention or providing health services. If there’s a way to try them at a smaller scale and start to identify promising models that we could then expand to other places that would be a great opportunity.

There’s no lack of advocacy around tackling these issues in Detroit. But what role should or can the City of Detroit mayor’s office play, and how pivotal that involvement would be?

Singer: We have a mayoral race coming up, and I’d love to see the next mayor of Detroit both acknowledge this as an issue but acknowledge the roots of this issue in the right way. We’ve heard Detroit Superintendent [Nikolai] Vitti speak to this issue in terms of identifying the root causes of poverty and inequality and the long history of that. Public figures can play a really great role in helping to set the tone for how we think about these problems. And so hearing the mayor speak to the fact that the city and departments within the city need to play a role in the solution — because the problem lies in things like transportation challenges, health problems, financial strain on families, housing issues —would be a really great place to start.

Lenhoff: it’s likely to be a priority for any new administration focused on economic and neighborhood development, right, and trying to increase the population of Detroit, or at least stabilize it, those conversations by and large, you know, to the extent that I’m aware of them, largely don’t have have much to do about schools. Schools are not often at the table in those conversations about which neighborhoods we’re going to invest in, where we’re going to cite affordable housing, where we’re going to invest in new commercial activity. if you’re trying to make a walkable neighborhood, a school should be part of that calculus, that you should be able to walk to a local public school, and because it’s an important resource. The affordable housing piece is essential. You know, investing in affordable housing that is big enough for families and that’s near schools, right? I’ve heard folks talk about building affordable housing for families, and they’re like, one-bedroom units. What does a family actually need to live in a home over the long term and stay there?

Sarah, you mentioned that you know that there are some things that that schools have done that aren’t necessarily beneficial? What are some of those methods?

Lenhoff: Some of the big ones have to do with the punitive approaches to student attendance. We’ve seen some move to deficit thinking about family … leads to this dynamic where the school is maybe not trying to build a trusting relationship with a family so that they can (learn) what barriers they face. The book shows that it’s really time consuming to build strong relationships with families. But that can be the root of figuring out what’s going on and solving those issues. Instead, schools are spending a lot of time on things that maybe take less time, and maybe are less costly, but maybe don’t have the weight of building those strong relationships. One example is we see a lot of short-term, incentive-based approaches. Schools love incentives. They love, you know, they love to celebrate the kids, and they should. But there’s very little evidence that those sorts of things actually improve attendance.

What do you say to those who feel very strongly that there needs to be some kind of punitive consequence for chronic absenteeism?

Lenhoff: It’s ultimately a reflection of schools and districts getting to the end of their rope and feeling like they’re not able to fully solve this issue alone. But these are counterintuitive ways of solving the problem, because they erode the very things that are at the core of good attendance. So punitive approaches like court prosecution can erode school family relationships and weaken families, parents and students, ties to the district, that sense of belonging or engagement. You know, taking away social services is getting rid of resources that are crucial to actually enabling regular participation in school if a family has financial issues or some, some host of problems relating to those that cause them to miss school.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit and covers Detroit school issues. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school buildings will need $23 billion in repairs and upgrades

2025-03-20T20:03:57+00:00

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A first-of-its-kind report says Michigan’s K-12 school buildings need $23 billion of work over the next decade — a dire situation that some superintendents said should prompt urgent policy discussions at the state level.

A large chunk of that dollar amount, $10.9 billion, is for basic needs such as repairing HVAC systems and roofing.

“Students deserve to learn in schools that ensure basic safety, health, and wellness standards are met,” Kenneth Gutman, superintendent of the Oakland Schools intermediate school district, said during a media roundtable Thursday. The study, he said, “tells us we are a long way from our schools meeting those basic standards.

But Michigan does not provide direct funding to schools for facilities. Districts must seek voter approval for funds to improve buildings and make major repairs.

“We know what the facility needs are, and so now we have to decide as a state, what do we want to do?” Gutman said.

The study was completed by the School Finance Research Foundation, which was created after state lawmakers called for a comprehensive report on the true cost of meeting basic K-12 education needs. The foundation has previously released studies showing what it costs to educate students — and the prevailing inequities in Michigan’s school funding system. Some of its findings have already prompted action by state leaders, including a system created under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that provides more funding to districts for the most vulnerable students, including those from low-income homes, students with disabilities, and English language learners.

This is the first time this group or anyone else has done such a comprehensive study of school buildings in the state. It doesn’t include the state’s nearly 300 charter schools, though, in part because most of their buildings are privately owned. The study also did not include school district administrative buildings, athletic facilities, and other district-owned facilities that don’t provide direct instruction to K-12 students.

During Thursday’s roundtable discussion, superintendents of seven intermediate school districts across Michigan spoke of the facility needs.

In rural and northern Michigan communities, districts have had to defer maintenance work, because it is becoming harder for them to pass bond proposals to fund facility improvement projects, said Nick Ceglarek, superintendent of the Northwest Education Services.

Meanwhile, the costs of upkeep keep growing. “As school districts defer replacement of these key systems and patch them and patch them and patch them, that really just increases their operating costs and takes more money away from the instructional process,” said Steven Ezikian, executive director of the research foundation.

The facility problems create inequities, superintendents at the roundtable said, because school districts in wealthier communities with higher property values can afford to raise money to fix buildings through voter-approved bond proposals, while less wealthy communities struggle.

As part of the study, which was conducted over two years, the research team evaluated 2,534 buildings in more than 500 school districts to determine the cost of having them meet health, safety, and wellness standards, said Steven Tunnicliff, superintendent of the Genesee Intermediate School District.

Engineers studied 89 individual components of a school facility, including HVAC, ventilation, lighting, electrical, fire alarms, plumbing, fire protection, foundations, staircases, elevators, and kitchens, Tunnicliff said.

For the most part, Ezekiel said, schools “have been doing a good job maintaining their buildings. We’re not looking at situations, for the most part, where buildings are falling apart.”

But they encountered a handful of buildings that were over 100 years old, and a number of buildings that were built before 1970.

The big concern raised in the study is whether schools will be able to address their facility needs over the next decade. That may be particularly important given the potential cuts to federal funding. The Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress seem determined to reduce spending across the board, including funding that supports education. It’s still unclear, though, how much of those cuts schools will have to deal with.

“The question is, how can we continue to support and elevate the level of funding in Michigan to properly and appropriately educate each of our scholars across this great state,” said Daveda Colbert, superintendent of the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit and writes about Detroit schools. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Report: DPSCD among highest-ranked metro Detroit districts for teacher retention

2025-03-18T20:34:25+00:00

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A new report by Wayne State University researchers has found that the Detroit Public Schools Community District has a much higher than average rate of teacher retention compared to its peers in suburban school districts and city charter schools.

It’s a trend that probably would have seemed unthinkable during many years of state oversight of city schools, when the district struggled to staff classrooms and typically began the school year with hundreds of teacher vacancies.

The report, “Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Racial Composition,” was released recently by the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, or Detroit PEER, at Wayne State. Researchers noted in the report that while teacher recruitment and retention has become more difficult across Michigan, the Detroit district “has substantially reduced large annual teacher vacancies.”

The Detroit PEER report shows that DPSCD ranked at the 62nd percentile when compared to school districts in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties during the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year available. The ranking improved to the 92nd percentile when the comparison was with Detroit charter schools.

The district did particularly well in retaining Black teachers, where its ranking was at the 80th percentile compared to suburban districts and at the 92nd percentile for Detroit schools.

It’s unclear exactly why — a subject that will likely be addressed in future research topics, said Bianca Burch, the lead researcher on the report and research assistant at Detroit PEER.

Burch cited as possibilities the district’s increased teacher compensation, improved working conditions, and grow-your-own programs like the On the Rise Academy,

Burch said she and her team — which includes researchers Whitney Miller and Ben Pogodzinski — tackled the topic as part of the research organization’s ongoing look at issues related to how students are learning, how motivated they are to come to school, whether and how they’re being supported in school. That includes topics such as teacher shortages and how they’re affecting schools and students.

Teacher retention matters because, for one, it creates stability within schools. A 2021 Chalkbeat Detroit report found that when schools struggle with teacher retention, and turnover rates soar, student learning suffers. It also found that rapid teacher turnover was disproportionately affecting Black students and students in low-income communities.

There are some limitations with the state data PEER researchers used. Burch said more research is needed to not only understand why retention rates are high in the district, but also what role the use of uncredentialed educators — those who aren’t fully certified — may play in the data. She’s also curious why, even with the district’s ranking being as high as it is, it fluctuates from year to year. For instance, for the 2021-22 school year, the district was at the 76th percentile for the comparison with metro Detroit districts. The year before, it was at the 62nd percentile.

Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said she’s not surprised by the district’s ranking.

“Not only have we been retaining members but we’re also regaining many that left,” Wilson-Lumpkins said.

The Detroit district’s teacher retention has consistently been strong since the 2017-18 school year, the report shows. The year before, a legislative initiative ended emergency management and returned the district to local control. A new board with the power to oversee the district took office in January 2017, and in May the board hired Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who has made it a priority to increase compensation for teachers and instituted initiatives, such as mentoring and the grow-your-own program, designed to recruit and retain teachers.

Wilson-Lumpkins said that when emergency managers controlled the district from 2009 to 2016, many teachers left the district. That has changed as the district has sought to increase compensation so salaries are comparable to suburban districts.

She said that “having the stability and the continuity with an elected school board,” and the continuity of a superintendent has helped. She also credited the work of DFT leaders and members. Teachers, she said, are staying because they are passionate about their work.

“Our educators enjoy the students and the families that they serve. We are a very diverse district, students, and educators. And we don’t have to have a special initiative or special program to be a diverse district. That’s our demographic,” Wilson-Lumpkins said.

“People are wanting to work in a setting where you can grow, have representation, learn from one another with different perspectives, expand your empathy of different populations. It helps on both ends, not just for students but for us as educators.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit and writes about Detroit education. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Trump Education Department layoffs challenged in court by 21 state attorneys general

2025-03-13T21:13:01+00:00

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A group of 21 Democratic attorneys general has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration aiming to stop the mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education.

The lawsuit comes days after the department announced it would cut its workforce nearly by half by the end of the month, a massive reduction that the U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said is a first step toward eliminating the department.

The layoffs represent President Donald Trump’s hostility to the Education Department, which he recently called a “big con job” and has promised to eliminate. As a matter of law, only Congress can eliminate the department. McMahon said the staff cuts reflect her department’s “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” But such deep cuts could leave the department unable to provide the services it has previously performed.

That has raised deep concerns among parents, educators, and advocates, which the state attorneys general are highlighting in their lawsuit. The suit states, for example, that the layoffs this week have led seven regional offices of the department’s Office for Civil Rights — including in Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia — to “have been closed down entirely.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is among the 21 state law enforcement officials who filed the suit Thursday, said in a statement that the lawsuit’s purpose is to “stop the targeted destruction of this critical federal agency that ensures tens of millions of students receive a quality education and critical resources.”

The lawsuit says the layoffs “are an effective dismantling of the Department,” and that decision to make the staff cuts “leaves the nation rudderless to provide the necessary funding, support, and enforcement that all 1.4 million Michigan students rely upon,” Nessel said.

“It’s dangerous, reckless, and unacceptable,” Nessel said.

Other attorneys general who filed the lawsuit shared similar sentiments.

“This evisceration of the agency will harm Coloradans, undermine our education system, and create chaos,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “And it is plainly unconstitutional, as only Congress can lawfully dismantle the department that it created or shut down services it has required the federal government to fund.”

Nationally, Nessel said, U.S. Department of Education programs serve over 50 million K-12 students. In Michigan, the federal programs serve 1.4 million students. She noted that the 212,000 students with disabilities and the 681,000 Michigan students from low-income homes “are some of the primary beneficiaries of DOE services and funding.”

The lawsuit received support from Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice and Pamela Pugh, the president of the State Board of Education.

“The slashing of staff at the U.S. Department of Education is an attempt to circumvent the authority of Congress regarding the protections of vulnerable children,” Rice said in a statement. “It is an outrage that, if unstopped, [the cuts] would have profound adverse impact on children’s education and supports across the country, as cuts at the U.S. Department of Education foreshadow cuts to education funding for thousands of districts and millions of public school children across the country.”

School districts nationwide are already bracing for cuts to federal funding that supports schools.

Last month, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution that could mean 12 million students no longer automatically qualify for free meals. The resolution also calls for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to cut spending by $330 billion over the next 10 years, although Republican proposals to reach that number have focused on higher education.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said at a school board meeting Tuesday that education leaders are anticipating a 25% cut. But it’s unclear whether that will be an across-the-board cut to federal programs or cuts to certain programs.

Nevertheless, he told board members the district is already beginning to prepare for various scenarios. More than 30% of the district’s annual budget relies on federal funding.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot to be concerned about, but there are more questions than answers,” Vitti said.

Nessel and Weiser filed the lawsuit along with attorneys general for Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit names as defendants McMahon and Trump in their official capacities, as well as the Education Department.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

DPSCD to halt plans for special millage election in May

2025-02-28T21:16:20+00:00

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The Detroit school district is no longer moving forward with plans to hold a special millage election this spring, but the proposal likely will be on the ballot in 2026.

The board for the Detroit Public Schools Community District had voted earlier this year to place an operating millage on the ballot for the district in May, anticipating such a millage would be needed due to a dispute with state officials.

The millage would have replaced an existing millage operated under the former Detroit Public Schools, which exists solely to pay off millions of dollars in debt racked up during decades of mostly state control. That includes a nine-year-old, $150 million emergency loan from the state that the district had been set to pay off this month.

But Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said this week during a board finance committee meeting that the election is no longer needed this year because of new direction from the Michigan Department of Treasury.

The district’s original plan to hold a special election began because the Treasury Department had told the district that once it pays off the emergency loan, the DPS operating millage, whose revenue has been paying off that loan since 2016, would be eliminated. The department also said DPSCD would also need to ask voters to approve its own operating millage.

Now, instead of paying the loan off this month, the district will extend the payments through September 2026. The Treasury Department had suggested such an extended payment plan months ago, but during a court hearing in January, the district’s lawyer said DPSCD officials were concerned that the state would have the authority to change that schedule unilaterally once the district agreed to it.

That is no longer a concern.

“The District received direction from Treasury and the Attorney General in writing that the District controls the repayment timeline for the outstanding Emergency Loan (EL),” Vitti wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

A spokesperson for the Treasury department declined to comment Friday because of the pending litigation.

The pending litigation is a lawsuit DPSCD filed in December against the Treasury Department and State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks. The lawsuit addresses a broader question of whether revenue from the DPS operating millage can be used to pay off capital debt. The district believes it can, but Treasury has said no.

The DPS 18-mill operating millage, which is levied on businesses and other non-homestead property in the city, has generated revenue to pay off the loan. Revenue from a separate debt millage is being used to pay off $1.6 billion in capital debt as well as about $350 million in debt to the state School Loan Revolving Fund. District officials say that remaining capital debt can be paid off years earlier than scheduled — and save Detroit taxpayers millions in interest — if revenue from the operating millage can be used for the capital debt.

The lawsuit is being heard in the Michigan Court of Claims. State Judge Christopher Yates ruled earlier this month against the district’s request for a preliminary injunction. Vitti said he expects the judge to rule on the larger issue related to the capital debt within 60 days.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit and writes about Detroit schools and state education policy. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s high school graduation rate is nearly 83%, a new high for the state

2025-02-21T22:54:19+00:00

Michigan’s four-year high school graduation rate reached its highest level in 16 years.

It’s welcome news in a state where nearly 1 in 3 students is chronically absent, and test scores show many students remain below proficiency in English language arts and math.

Michigan’s four-year high school graduation was 82.83% in the 2023-24 school year, up slightly from the previous year and above pre-pandemic numbers, according to data released Friday by the state Center for Educational Performance and Information.

The Class of 2024 entered high school in 2020 as the pandemic altered the way schools delivered instruction.

To calculate the graduation rate, the state uses a model that measures the time it takes for ninth grade students to earn a high school diploma. That formula has been used since the 2007-08 school year.

Michigan’s high school dropout rate slightly lowered as well, at 7.68% for the Class of 2024, compared with 8.13% the previous year.

Some students take longer than four years to graduate, including those in early middle college programs who take five years but leave high school with a diploma and an associate degree or other advanced certificate. The state also publishes five- and six-year graduation rates.

It’s not clear yet how Michigan’s graduation rate compares nationally. During the 2022-23 school year, the national rate was 87%. A rate for the 2023-24 school year isn’t available.

Superintendents told Bridge Michigan and Chalkbeat they are providing students with ways to recover learning or credit through after-school tutoring, virtual classes, and summer school. They say these efforts are paying off based on improved graduation rates.

How one district improved its rate

Ecorse Public Schools, just outside of Detroit, had a four-year graduation rate of 74.81% in the 2023-24 school year, a jump of 14 percentage points from the 2022-23 school year and nearly 8 percentage points higher than it was before the pandemic.

For three years during the pandemic, many high school students at Ecorse attended tutoring sessions two days a week after school. That tutoring, which was mandatory for some, meant the school day was extended for two hours. Teachers were paid more to stay late, and the district provided transportation home for students, a key feature given many students are bused in from Detroit. Federal COVID relief money paid for that investment.

The gains, Ecorse Superintendent Josha Talison said, validate the work of the district’s staff, who “were really on the kids,” to make sure they were learning and getting the help they needed. Talison said the improvement also “shows how we spent the money in an effective way.”

The district over the years has overhauled its curriculum and instruction across all grades and subjects, working to increase academic rigor and support for students.

“If you’re going to do things transformationally at the high school, it has to start at the kindergarten level,” Talison said.

That federal money is now gone, and the district has focused its efforts on providing a “myriad of supports for our high school students” within the regular school day.

The district enrolls 1,150 students, more than 80% of whom are eligible for a free- or reduced-price lunch and 42% of whom live in extreme poverty.

“We’re working very hard to make sure our student’s zip code doesn’t dictate,” how well they can achieve, Talison said.

From the highs in Marquette to the lows in Flint

Here’s what the rates looked like in several other Michigan districts:

Airport Community Schools in Monroe County had a four-year graduation rate of 86.36%, up from 79.82% the previous year and similar to the 86.27% pre-pandemic rate. The dropout rate was 9.09%, compared to 16.06% the previous year and 6.01% pre-pandemic.

Detroit Public Schools Community District had a four-year graduation rate of 78.09%, up from 74.26% the previous year and 75.84% pre-pandemic. The district’s dropout rate was 16.15%, a slight decrease from the previous year but well above the pre-pandemic rate of 11.71%.

Flint Community Schools had a four-year graduation rate of 44.55%, up from 35.03% the year before and well below the pre-pandemic rate of 64.85%. The district’s dropout rate saw a small decrease to 33.66%, from the 34.46% rate the previous year. But it has soared since the pre-pandemic rate of 19.8%.
Grand Rapids Public Schools had a four-year graduation rate of 82.53%, up from 82.39% the previous year and 76.2% pre-pandemic. The district’s dropout rate was 10.37%, up from 7.48% the previous year but in line with its pre-pandemic rate of 10.34%.

Kalamazoo Public Schools had a four-year graduation rate of 75.31%, up from 65.85% the previous year and above the pre-pandemic rate of 73.44%. The dropout rate was 10.48%, down from 16.27% the previous year but up from 8.89% pre-pandemic.

Marquette Area Public Schools had a four-year graduation rate of 91.22%, up from 87.4% the previous year and 84.48% pre-pandemic. The dropout rate of 1.15% was similar to the previous year and lower than the 4.14% pre-pandemic rate.

Getting students ‘across that line’

The stakes are high.

“In today’s world, if you don’t have a high school diploma, it’s just awfully hard to get ahead and not live in poverty,” Traverse City Area Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner said.

His district offers traditional high school with an early middle college option and an alternative high school where students who have fallen behind on credits or need a smaller learning environment attend.

At the alternative high school, the district is trying to improve the graduation rates by offering online courses that allow students to take more than their typical courseload. The district also offers summer school and dual enrollment options where students can earn both college and high school credit at the same time.

The alternative high school had a 25.64% four-year graduation rate and a 47.89% six-year graduation rate. The district graduation rates were 88.45% and 91.62%, respectively.

VanWagoner said it’s important “now more than ever” to ensure staff is working to build relationships with students, citing that many are homeless.

At Lansing School District, Superintendent Ben Shuldiner credited teachers, principals, and graduation support specialists for creating a sense of trust with students. He said the district’s 5.04% dropout rate — a significant drop from 17.35% in 2020-21 school year — showed students are staying connected to their school even if they are unable to complete their degree in four years.

The district’s four-year graduation rate was 88.34%, up from 62.1% during the 2020-2021 school year.

Bridge Michigan previously reported that Lansing district leaders monitor student data closely, have protocols for following up with students and parents when students miss school, and offer multiple ways for students to make up missing credits.

For VanWagoner in Traverse City, the goal is “get kids across that line and with some additional experiences” as employers’ jobs demand more skills than a high school diploma represents.

Role of career, other education programs

State Superintendent Michael Rice credited career technical education and other programs as reasons for the increased graduation rate.

“These rigorous secondary school programs — CTE, dual enrollment, early middle college, advanced placement, and international baccalaureate — contribute to improved graduation rates by engaging students deeply in learning,” Rice said in a statement. “When students are exposed to courses of study that interest them, they are more likely to graduate — and at the same time are preparing for rewarding careers.”

Not all students have the same rate of success. The four-year rate for students from low-income homes was 73.12%, while it was 60.97% for students with disabilities, and 59.53% for students experiencing homelessness.

Graduation and dropout rates do not add up to 100% because the state also considers students who receive a special education certificate of completion, earn a different certification, age out of special education services, complete a GED, and those who are still in school working toward a high school diploma, according to an explanation of the model from the state Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

The Detroit district offered gift cards for perfect attendance. 4,936 students have earned it.

2025-02-18T19:11:39+00:00

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Nearly 5,000 Detroit high school students have earned at least one $200 incentive for perfect attendance since early January.

High school students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District can earn $200 gift cards for each two-week period in which they have perfect attendance, from Jan. 6 through March 21.

There have been two cycles so far for which students have received the gift cards and, in addition to the 4,936 students who had perfect attendance in at least one of two-week periods, 2,028 have had perfect attendance in both cycles, according to data Superintendent Nikolai Vitti shared with Chalkbeat this week.

The attendance incentive is aimed at improving attendance in the district, where two-thirds of nearly 49,999 students were considered chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year. The incentive is among a number of efforts the district has employed over the years to create an attendance-going culture among students. The district has invested heavily into attendance agents to improve attendance and this school year announced that students with extremely high rates of chronic absenteeism will be held back a grade at the K-8 level and required to repeat classes at the high school level.

The number of students earning the perfect attendance incentive is a fraction of the nearly 15,000 high school students in the district, leading one school board member to question last week whether the incentive is working. But Vitti said he is encouraged that the program is getting more high school students to class and resulting in a small decrease in the chronic absenteeism rate for high school students. He said the district and board will have to evaluate the program’s success at the end of the school year.

Chronic absenteeism has been one of the district’s biggest challenges for years. The chronic absenteeism rate has declined, from a high of nearly 80% at the height of the pandemic, when quarantining rules meant many students missed school because of COVID exposure. But last school year’s much lower chronic absenteeism rate of 66% still means it is difficult to have consistency in the classroom and improve academic achievement.

Students in Michigan are chronically absent when they miss 10%, or 18 days in a 180-day school year. Statewide, 30% of students are considered chronically absent, compared to 23% nationally. A recent education scorecard cited the state’s rate as being a factor in students’ slow academic recovery from the pandemic.

Here are some of the highlights of the students who’ve received the incentive so far::

3,473 students had perfect attendance during the first cycle.
3,492 students had perfect attendance during the second cycle.
About 10% already had perfect attendance.
About 4% were considered chronically absent at the time the incentive began.
About 16% had missed 10% of the school year at the time the incentive began.
About 25% had missed 5-10% of the school year.
About 44% had missed 5% or fewer days in the school year.

At a Detroit school board meeting last week, Vitti said the statistic showing that just 10% of the students who earned the incentive already had perfect attendance is an indication that “this is not just rewarding those that have already been going to school.”

Board member Monique Bryant questioned what school leaders are doing to promote the incentive to students who haven’t earned it.

Bryant suggested that data Vitti shared at the meeting showing that chronic absenteeism is down by 5 percentage points for high school students since the incentive began is an illustration that most students aren’t rising to the goal of the incentive.

Vitti responded that it depends on how you look at the data.

“Right now, chronic absenteeism at the high school levels improved by five percentage points,” Vitti said. “That means that 700 high school students are not chronically absent where they were last year. I’d also say that at least on the 97th day, our chronic absenteeism at the high school levels is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic.”

The question for board members to decide at the end of the school year is whether the incentive “is the right investment with other challenges that we have districtwide,” Vitti said. “But I think the data is suggesting it’s working for many students … but not all.”

Board member Ida Simmons Short urged the district to survey students to learn more about what is preventing them from coming to school.

The causes of chronic absenteeism are numerous and include physical and mental health reasons, lack of transportation,and lack of affordable housing. Most of them tie back to poverty. Vitti specifically cited transportation, because half of the students in the district don’t attend their neighborhood school and the district doesn’t provide school bus transportation for high school students, who must take city buses to get to school.

“Sometimes they’re unreliable, they’re late, they’re too far away from where the child lives,” Vitti said.

Vitti said traditional school bus transportation for high school students “was decimated” under emergency management and it could cost between $50 million and $100 million to bring that level of transportation back.

Another factor, Vitti said, is that for some students, school isn’t relevant. Middle and high school students, in particular, “struggle to understand, ‘why am I going to school every day? How is this connected to what I’m going to I need to know for life.’”

Mi’Kah West, a Cass Technical High School student who serves as a student representative on the board, said that when talking to other members of the District Executive Youth Council last week, many said students overall are excited about the incentive.

One thing that stuck out, she said, was council members saying they heard students in the hallways or on social media saying they were coming to school because they want the money.

“And, while we don’t want to just say we want to come to school for the money,” West said, “I think it’s important to see that students … may have stayed home because they don’t want to come to school, but they’re willing to come to school now.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

DPSCD board members: Use vacant school buildings to provide shelter, housing for homeless families

2025-02-12T22:20:39+00:00

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After two children likely froze to death while sleeping in a van, some school board members said Tuesday night that they want the Detroit school district to do more to ensure students and their families have safe housing.

Board member Ida Simmons Short questioned whether the Detroit Public Schools Community District could use federal funds to house families experiencing homelessness in hotels. The conversation later turned to whether the district could use its vacant school buildings to provide safe housing, given the challenges families face finding available shelter beds.

Some board members specifically asked Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to look into working with local developers to renovate closed schools and turn them into affordable housing or shelters to house families who are homeless.

“I just want to make sure we’re doing everything we need to do because the last thing that I want is for these children to end up dying somewhere because we didn’t do all we’re supposed to do,” said Short, who was elected to the board in November. “I’m not saying we’re not doing it. We need to make sure.”

The children, their mother, and three siblings had been experiencing homelessness and were sleeping in a van in the parking garage of a Detroit casino, according to news reports of their Monday deaths. The children who died were ages 2 and 9. News reports indicated the 9-year-old attended school in Ecorse Public Schools. But it appears he was enrolled in DPSCD during the last school year.

Vitti said during the meeting that a preliminary review found that the 9-year-old “was at one time enrolled in DPSCD and that there was a request for homeless services. There was an attempt to reach the parent, and that attempt failed, probably because of a disconnected phone.”

The district also has documentation that “the school had reached out to the parent about attendance and enrollment. This was back in the spring of last school year.” He said there is no evidence so far that the district or school “dropped the ball” on providing support services to the family or the student.

Schools in Detroit, both district and charter, have long struggled to identify students who are struggling with homelessness, but DPSCD has made significant progress in recent years. The district had identified 685 students as being homeless during the 2017-18 school year. Today, that number is 3,182, Vitti said.

That number, though, falls far short of reality, Vitti said. Researchers have estimated there are between 7,000 and 14,000 students experiencing homelessness in the city.

Vitti said the district works to ensure students whose families are homeless can enroll in the school that is closest to whatever shelter they may happen to be living in, or wherever they want to enroll in school. He said the district provides gift cards, transportation, coats, and other necessities.

But some parents shy away from letting school officials know they are dealing with housing insecurity.

“Our greatest challenge is the stigma” associated with being homeless, Vitti said.

LaTrice McClendon, the board vice president, asked Vitti whether the district has warming centers, and what it is doing to provide warm environments for students who need it.

Vitti replied that the district doesn’t have warming centers. It would require security and other extra resources “that we’re not funded to provide,” he said.

He said the district can explore opening warming centers if the board wants, but noted that there are liability issues and that taking on such a responsibility would take away from the district’s main function of educating students. He said it would also move into “a territory that the city of Detroit has to own and take responsibility for.”

The district, he said, connects families who are experiencing homelessness with resources provided by the city, as well as nonprofit and charitable organizations. He said he can share that list with board members.

“We’re in a crisis with 3,182 homeless students that we know of,” board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said. “And respectfully, just punting to the city, who I know don’t have adequate shelters for families, it’s almost like we’re turning a blind eye and saying we’re giving a list.”

She suggested that the district open up opportunities for local developers to turn any of the district’s closed school buildings into affordable housing.

“I don’t foresee us running shelters, but I do believe that brokering a partnership with the city of Detroit and/or other organizations to allow these facilities to be utilized and attract perhaps even federal funding for the development” is the way to go, Gay-Dagnogo said.

Vitti said that when the district was developing its current facility master plan, there had been discussion about turning vacant buildings into shelters.

“The challenge was the cost,” Vitti said. “We’re talking about $30 million at the minimum to renovate an abandoned building in a way that would meet code for housing purposes.”

Vitti said he is open to working with local developers to take on vacant school buildings for the purpose of providing housing or shelter. Board members Tuesday night discussed the need to make it known to the community that the district would entertain such offers.

Short said she wants the district to be even more proactive.

“Rather than us wait for people to come to us, we have got to go to them. The homeless population is, as you said, Dr. Vitti, going to continue to grow,” Short said.

“It’s important for us to take the lead and for us to approach some of these homeless shelters. If they need space, why not lease them our building or give it to them for a dollar? I really don’t care. As long as we provide a place for our kids and their families to be safe.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan advocates present ‘united front’ against dismantling of U.S. Department of Education

2025-02-10T21:01:12+00:00

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A cross-section of Michigan advocacy groups and individuals that included State Superintendent Michael Rice vowed Monday to push back against the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

“We’re a united front in Michigan and we’re not backing down,” said Molly Sweeney, director of organizing for 482Forward, an education justice advocacy group based in Detroit.

President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, prompting increasing concern in recent days. Those who spoke during a Monday press conference said they are concerned that dismantling the department could pave the way for funding that helps the most vulnerable students — including students with disabilities and students from low-income homes — to be cut or eliminated.

Rice said he doesn’t expect the department to be eliminated because “such a decision would require an act of Congress, and the votes aren’t there.”

The bad news, he said, is that he expects the administration to try to cut programs.

“The issue will be that the president, in his assault on the U.S. Department of Education, is in fact threatening the programs and protections of our children and by extension, our children themselves.”

In addition to the concerns about funding potentially being cut for students with disabilities and students from low-income homes, Rice also cited concerns about English language learners, students experiencing homelessness, and migrant students.

Rice was joined at the conference by Rachelle Crow-Hercher, co-executive director of the Michigan Education Justice Coalition. She spoke about her two children, both of whom have received special education services.

“Both of my children are flourishing because of the special education speech intervention they received from their public schools,” Crow-Hercher said. “My concern continues to be for the civil rights of all children that are protected by the Department of Education. My other concern is that without funding, special education services will cease to exist for families like mine.”

Those who spoke Monday said they are launching grassroots efforts to mobilize residents across the state and contact state and congressional lawmakers. The goal is to stop the Trump administration’s efforts. The leaders spoke Monday, just days before Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, undergoes confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate.

“We’re all uniting against the destruction of our public schools that’s really happening before our very eyes,” said Imani Foster of 482Forward. “Today, we are going to call on our congressional delegation to stand up and to fight back against policies that we know would hurt Michigan students.”

Sandra Duhkie, president of the school board for Ferndale Public Schools, said she has a petition signed by 60 board members from across Michigan that she intends to deliver to Michigan’s congressional delegation asking them to protect the federal education department “and safeguard our democracy.”

The Trump administration has already targeted transgender students, issuing an order calling on schools to bar transgender girls from playing on female sports teams. Trump also has said he wants to withhold funds from schools that teach about gender identity.

“What our community, and especially transgender young people and their families have endured in the first 20 days of this administration is nothing short of some of the eeriest, both dystopian sort of themes one could read even in a novel,” said Emme Zanotti, director of advocacy and civic engagement for the Equality Michigan Action Network, which advocates for LGBTQ+ residents.

Since Trump issued an order halting funding for gender-affirming care, she said, kids have lost access to “essential, evidence-based gender-affirming health care,” and clinicians and providers are reaching out because “they’re terrified and they know what will happen if they can no longer provide the services to these young people and adults.

“It’s simply chaos and confusion,” Zanotti said. “And what’s happening with education and public education is no different.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer: Schools should be required to inform parents about ineffective curriculum

2025-02-10T15:51:39+00:00

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s education budget proposal for the 2025-26 school year would require elementary schools to notify parents if they are using a high-quality curriculum to teach students.

It’s one of the initiatives in her budget proposal, introduced Wednesday to the Michigan Legislature, that requires schools to be more transparent with parents about how their children’s schools are performing.

Her proposal also includes an increase in state per-pupil funding for schools, as well as increases in funding for early childhood programs, at-risk students, and career and technical education programs, and to increase funding for districts that follow best practices.

The parent transparency efforts are a key part of the governor’s hopes. The recommendations come on the heels of the state’s disappointing scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, a national exam given to a representative sample of students in each state. The scores released last week show Michigan students aren’t making much progress academically.

“By providing this information to parents, buildings using less-than-effective curriculum will be held more accountable,” the proposal says of the parent notices.

Schools serving students in grades kindergarten through five would have to mail parents a report if their curriculum isn’t “evidence-based” and include a “plan for how and when the district will implement more effective instructional practices.” It was unclear Wednesday afternoon who would determine what is considered evidence-based and how they would make that determination.

Several other parent transparency efforts include:

Parents would also have to be notified if their children’s schools fall in the bottom 5% academically among schools statewide on the state’s accountability system, or if subgroups of students — such as students from low-income homes — perform near the bottom of academic rankings. “Districts will be required to outline a plan to remedy this situation as well as a mechanism for parental feedback,” the proposal reads.
Districts would have to send a report to parents showing how they are spending money provided by the state for at-risk students. The report must show how the districts will “equitably target those dollars toward highest need schools,” and what evidence-based interventions are being used.
School boards would need to have a discussion and provide time for public input on how it will enhance parental engagement, on school academic outcomes, on improvement on benchmark and state exams.
Districts would be required to add a link on the main page of their website that links back to the state parent dashboard, which is aimed at giving parents information to gauge how their children’s schools are performing.

Here are some of the governor’s other education spending proposals:

The minimum per-pupil grant for Michigan schools would increase by $392 dollars, to $10,000 per student. Online cyber schools that operate virtually 100% of the time would receive 20% less than that amount, or $8,000 per student.
The state would increase by 4.1%, or $94 million, the amount of money targeted at students who are considered at risk, students with disabilities, and English language learners. It also includes increased payments for students enrolled in career and technical education programs, students enrolled in rural and isolated districts, and for intermediate school districts.
The state would continue to invest in providing its PreK for All initiative. That includes increasing the per child allocation by $392, to $10,577. The proposal also includes allocating $25 million in start-up grants for new providers and classrooms.
The budget would also provide increased funding for literacy supports, mental health, teen health centers, and before- and after-school programs.
A proposed $232 million for districts that implement best practices and high impact tutoring. It’s unclear what those best practices would be, but the proposal said it would be a “pre-defined list” of best practices.

Correction: Feb. 10, 2025: This story was corrected to note that full-time cyber schools would receive 20% less than the $10,000 per pupil all other K-12 schools would receive.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Judge hands a loss to DPSCD on a key motion in its lawsuit against the state

2025-02-06T19:56:27+00:00

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A state judge has ruled against a preliminary injunction sought by the Detroit Public Schools Community District, delivering a setback to the district in a lawsuit it filed against the Michigan Department of Treasury late last year in a dispute over millage revenue.

Judge Christopher Yates rejected the motion Wednesday in the suit against the department and State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks. Barring the final outcome of the suit, that means the Treasury Department’s interpretation of state law — that limits the district’s ability to use operating revenue to pay off capital debt — will stand.

It also means that once the district pays off a $150 million emergency loan from the state next month, the state will no longer have to fill a funding gap for DPSCD, and the district will need to ask city voters for a millage that will allow it to collect tax revenue.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti called the ruling “disappointing” and said it forces the district to either move forward with plans for a new property tax vote or “at least prepare for one.”

Yates still must hear arguments on the state’s motion to dismiss the case, as well as the larger issues in the case.

The lawsuit stems from a 2016 legislative intervention that resolved a massive debt crisis in Detroit Public Schools. Lawmakers created a new district, DPSCD, to run the day-to-day operations of district schools. DPS remained intact only to collect millage revenue and pay off about $3 billion in debt, using an operating millage and a debt millage.

The restructuring meant DPSCD would not receive revenue from local property taxes, and the state has filled in that funding gap ever since.

Now, nearly nine years later, DPS expects to pay off a $150 million operating loan from the state. Because property values have increased in the city, that loan is being paid off 18 months ahead of schedule.

The dispute comes because now, with the emergency loan close to being paid off, DPSCD officials want to use the operating revenue to accelerate the schedule by which it is paying off a remaining $1.6 billion in capital debt as well as about $350 million in debt to the state School Loan Revolving Fund. A separate debt millage has been paying off the capital and revolving fund debt, but district officials say that adding revenue from the operating millage would allow DPS to pay off that debt years earlier than expected, saving taxpayers in interest costs.

The Treasury Department, however, told the district that state law does not allow for operating millage to be used to pay off non-operating debt and, once the emergency loan is paid off, DPS can no longer collect the revenue.

With the loan pay-off, the state also would stop filling the funding gap for DPSCD. Ultimately, that means DPSCD would need to ask voters to approve its own operating millage.

Unable to reach an agreement, the district sued the state in late December.

The district sought a preliminary injunction to require the state to continue making payments to DPSCD and permit DPS to continue levying the operating millage while the case is being heard.

But Yates, in his ruling on the injunction, said he must deny the request “because the plaintiffs have not established a likelihood of irreparable harm.”

During oral arguments held before Yates on Jan. 29, he told the attorneys in the case that his ruling on the preliminary injunction would be based on the standard criteria of whether there was irreparable harm, the balancing of harms, the likelihood of success of the lawsuit on its merits, and the public interest.

But he said that “absent irreparable harm, there’s really no basis at all for granting an injunction.”

Scott Eldridge, the lawyer for DPSCD, argued at the Jan. 29 hearing that if the judge granted the injunction and the DPS operating millage was used to pay off other debt, the district and its taxpayers will be able to “avoid hundreds of million dollars in unnecessary interest payments.”

But Assistant Attorney General David Thompson, who represented the Treasury Department, said the state offered to allow the district to extend the payments on the emergency loan until September 2026 by making interest-only payments.

“To the extent that there is any purported harm … it’s a harm they’re inviting upon themselves,” by electing not to extend the payment schedule, Thompson said.

Yates, in his ruling, said the plaintiffs “have not shown such hardship is imminent or that it satisfies the standard for irreparable harm, i.e., that is ‘certain and great,’ and ‘actual rather than theoretical.’”

If DPSCD opts to hold a millage election this year, it would come within a year of voters having voted to renew the existing operating for DPS. That proposal won with 77% of the vote and allowed the old district to levy the full 18 mills.

Despite the setback in the lawsuit, Vitti said “we are still optimistic that the question related to DPSCD having to tax locally before the entirety of the DPS debt is paid will be ruled in our favor based on existing state law.”

Vitti said the district will now have to decide whether to hold a special election in April or May, which would cost the district $1 million, or wait until the August primary.

The district’s school board in January approved authorizing a special election in May to decide on an operating millage. They have until Feb. 10 to formally place it on the ballot.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Attendance down Monday at Southwest Detroit schools as students protest Trump immigration policies

2025-02-04T21:39:58+00:00

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Attendance was down dramatically Monday at several Detroit schools in Southwest Detroit as immigrants and allies banded together to protest Trump administration policies and send a message about their contributions to communities.

Monday was Day Without Immigrants, a demonstration recognized across the country that led businesses to close, students to skip school, workers to skip work, and people to refrain from shopping.

The demonstration happened at a time of great uncertainty for many communities as the Trump administration steps up immigration raids. Last month, Trump ended a long-standing practice of treating schools and child care centers as sensitive or protected locations. That has created fear that federal agents will show up inside schools and prompted district leaders to develop or reinforce policies that spell out what school staff are to do if they show up.

The attendance declines are an indication “we’re all mad and sad and there’s so many mixed emotions about all the stuff that is happening,” said Cindy Gamboa, a Detroit parent and member of 482Forward. “We’re using the power we have in our control. And that means we’re not going to hold back on not participating, so society understands the contributions our community makes.”

At Academy of the Americas at Logan, a dual language immersion program that serves lower elementary and preschool students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, just 7% of the students attended school Monday, Chrystal Wilson, spokeswoman for the district, said. The school enrolled about 500 students during the 2023-25 school year.

In a separate nearby building, just 18% of the students who attend Academy of the Americas in grades 4-12 showed up for classes. Enrollment is a little over 800 students.

Meanwhile, at Western International High School, which enrolls nearly 2,000 students, 32% of the students attended school.

All three buildings are located in Southwest Detroit, which has a large concentration of immigrant students.

“Schools in Southwest all had low student attendance, but all schools stayed open,” Wilson said.

Many of the schools were below the 75% threshold the state requires for a school day to count for state funding purposes. It’ll be clear until later in the school year whether the day will need to be made up at the schools that dropped below 75% attendance.

Gamboa, whose son attends Detroit Cristo Rey High School, said the private school also had a large number of students absent on Monday. Her son, a senior, was among those who recognized a Day Without Immigrants and skipped school. She has a younger daughter who attends a DPSCD elementary school that she said didn’t appear to have had a significant attendance drop.

“We have undocumented people in our family,” Gamboa said. “We know the terror that comes with having a target on your back. We’re in times when a lot of stuff just feels overwhelming and there’s not much we can do when it comes to Donald Trump and his hatred that he’s trying to target against our community. This is one thing we can do. They can’t take our voice. They can’t take our buying power.”

Heidi West, an English language arts and Spanish teacher at Academy of the Americas and an activist, didn’t go to work Monday to show solidarity with the families at the school, where Trump’s policies have created “fear, anxiety, confusion,” she said.

“It’s stressful. It’s hard to continue to teach in an environment when you know there’s a lot going on with students and their emotions. But we continue to teach. We continue to do what we have to do,” West said.

Across Michigan, schools that educate immigrant students are grappling with ensuring their students feel safe coming to school. Despite the Trump policies removing the protected status from schools, more than a few districts have made it clear that federal immigration agents are not welcome in their schools.

The Detroit district has had a policy in place since 2019 that bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Border Patrol agents from entering its schools without a judicial warrant. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said last week that the district would begin training key school staff this week on what to do if ICE agents show up. He also said that if parents are afraid to send their children to school in person, they can opt to enroll them in the district’s virtual school.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Vitti: Immigrant families fearing ICE can opt for virtual school

2025-01-30T00:29:26+00:00

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Immigrant parents who are scared to send their children to school in person could enroll them in a virtual program run by the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board committee meeting Wednesday.

“The virtual option is there for any family, not just those that are fearful,” Vitti said during a meeting of the DPSCD school board finance committee.

Advocates have pushed for such an option in Michigan districts as concerns about potential federal immigration arrests have left families in fear about sending their children to school. The Trump administration last week ended the decades-old practice of treating schools and child care centers, along with churches and hospitals, as “sensitive” or “protected” locations.

Across Michigan, those who support immigrant families have been working with schools and urging them to take steps to keep students safe. Last week, Chalkbeat reported that the Michigan Department of Education had issued new guidance to schools to help them address the concerns related to potential immigration arrests at schools.

The Detroit district allows students to enroll in the virtual school at the beginning of the school year and/or at the beginning of the second semester, Vitti said.

The second semester has already begun, but enrollment can be extended “if families feel that’s the most comfortable way for their child to be educated in light of what’s happening.”

The online option was among the topics Vitti addressed during the meeting that were related to immigration and executive orders President Donald Trump is expected to issue that could have a big impact on K-12 schools. The previous day had stoked concern across the nation because a Trump order, which was rescinded Wednesday afternoon, would have blocked funding for a number of federally funded programs.

In addition to the online option, Vitti told board members that he would send out either Wednesday or Thursday, “very specific guidance on how to address ICE if they come to the building.”

At the beginning of next week, Vitti said, the district will start training principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, attendance agents, and security guards.

“We’re going to start with those employee groups because they’re really going to be on the front lines of this,” Vitti said. Eventually, all staff would be trained.

Community activist Helen Moore implored the school board to do what it needs to do to ensure students are protected.

“When they come after us… How are we going to save our children?” she asked.

Another Detroit resident asked how the district would respond if ICE does show up to a district school. In previous meetings, Vitti has pointed to a policy the board adopted in 2019 that outlined how it would address such visits and said that policy still stands.

On Wednesday, he provided more information. Most schools have buzzer systems that visitors must use to access a building. If an immigration official is able to enter a building, “the administration will ask and be trained to ask for a warrant,” Vitti said.

The district’s policy specifically states that a judicial warrant would be required and the offices of the district superintendent and general counsel would have to process any request for entry into a school.

Vitti also noted that the district is within its legal rights to consider areas within school buildings as off limits.

“Parking lots are public. The streets are public. When you try to get into a school, that is considered private and you need a warrant to get in. We believe it’s within the scope of the law.”

Vitti also addressed the uncertainty surrounding some Trump initiatives. The biggest fight, he said, will come with next year’s budget.

“Right now, what we’re reading … is that stipulations on receiving federal funding will be linked to not having diversity, equity, inclusion programs, not having critical race theory programs, not discussing or advocating for gender identity type of programming,” Vitti said.

“The question is, can you do that legally? And I think that’s what we’re going to have to face throughout this Trump administration. Is the President going to say things, and are they really lawful, and can they be implemented without Congress' approval?”

That will require the district to “manage the chaos that will occur and the anxiety that will occur with the messaging,” Vitti said.

The uncertainty “creates a negative domino, ripple effect in the community and in the district, because it’s either linked to people’s jobs or it’s linked to programs and services for children.”

He vowed to respond to the community, perhaps through regular engagement sessions, to address what might come.

“The more we talk, we communicate directly, we can limit some of the anxiety.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org

Detroit NAEP scores show many learning challenges and some improvement

2025-01-29T05:05:00+00:00

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Detroit school district fourth graders saw improvement in their math scores on a rigorous national exam, but overall performance showed no significant gains in other categories and left the district where it has been since 2009: at the bottom of other large districts.

Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which was given to a representative sample of fourth and eighth grade students in each state in reading and math, were released on Wednesday.

The national picture was not good and showed student achievement “has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and so the struggle continues,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said during a media call Tuesday. The lowest performing students are struggling, particularly in reading, she said, and are reading at “historically low levels.”

Carr cited chronic absenteeism as a likely reason schools across the nation aren’t seeing significant improvement in reading and math.

In Detroit, the improvement in fourth grade math was tempered by the large number of students who performed poorly on the exam. Just 7% were considered proficient or above. In eighth grade reading and math and fourth grade reading, only between 4% and 6% of students were proficient or above.

There was a sliver of encouraging news: District students saw more overall improvement on the exam in some areas compared to Michigan, where the overall results showed no significant improvement.

Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a news release Wednesday that the eighth grade reading and fourth grade math results reflect the improvement the district has seen on all state assessment results over the last two years. But he noted that DPSCD still has work to do when it comes to improving its test scores.

“Clearly, the declines we saw in fourth grade reading were due to online pandemic literacy instruction, but at the same time, the improvement in eighth grade reading speaks to the district’s systemic improvement when considering that those same students overcame the pandemic through the exposure to literacy grade level content since third grade,” Vitti said.

Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, said the Detroit results should be looked at in context of how the state performed overall. He was encouraged by the district’s improvement and said the results show the district in most categories is closer to its pre-pandemic performance levels than the state is. Neither has surpassed performance prior to 2020, when the pandemic disrupted learning in schools nationwide and had a particularly harsher effect on students in urban areas.

Still, Detroit student performance is well below state and national averages. In order for the district to be on par with state performance overall, he said, “they’ve actually got to grow better or grow faster. He noted that it can do that by continuing the investments it has made..

The district has worked to improve its curriculum, eliminate teacher shortages, hire academic interventionists to provide help to struggling students, and get more students attending summer school, among other things.

“The district has shown that when those investments are made, and they invest so wisely, which they appear to have done,” they will pay off in improved achievement, he said.

Here’s a brief look at how DPSCD students performed on the NAEP:

The average score for fourth grade math was 200, up from 194 in 2022, an increase that was considered statistically significant. Of the students who took the exam, 7% were considered proficient or above compared to 37% in Michigan, 33% for large city districts, and 39% nationally.
The average score in eighth grade math was 237, down from 238 in 2022, a change that was not considered statistically significant. Of the students who took the exam, 4% were considered proficient or above, compared to 24% in Michigan, 23% for large city districts, and 27% nationally.
The average score for fourth grade reading was 174, down from 176 in 2022, a change that was not considered statistically significant. Of the students who took the exam, 5% were proficient or above compared to 25% statewide, 26% for large city districts, and 30% nationally.
The average score for eighth grade reading was up from 227 to 229, a change that was not considered statistically significant. Of the students who took the exam, 6% were proficient or above compared to 24% statewide, 26% for large city districts, and 29% nationally.

In 2009, the Detroit school district volunteered to become part of NAEP’s Trial Urban District Assessment, which analyzes results for more than 20 of the largest districts in the nation. Since then, the district’s performance has landed at the bottom, though it’s complicated to compare the results among the large districts because the demographics are different.

Vitti acknowledged DPSCD’s rank at the bottom of the TUDA districts in the news release, calling it “the elephant in the room.” But he said the gap between the district and the state narrowed in each tested area, with each district performing slightly above DPSCD in three of the four tested areas.

“We are undoubtedly improving. We are committed to accelerating and scaling that improvement by overcoming the challenges of chronic absenteeism,” he said. “It’s evident that students missing less than 18 days of school are three to five times more likely to be at and above grade level performers in our district.”

Carr’s mention of chronic absenteeism being a factor is particularly relevant in Detroit, where 66% of district students were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year. A student is chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of a traditional 180-day school year. The Detroit district’s rate has improved in the last few years but remains high. Chronic absenteeism not only affects students but makes it difficult for schools to improve.

“We should care because the lower performing students are more likely to be absent,” and because students can’t learn if they’re not in school, Carr said of the national results.

Emma Howland-Bolton, a fourth grade teacher at Thirkell Elementary-Middle School, hadn’t seen this year’s results Tuesday, but said she is critical of standardized tests like the NAEP, saying there are other ways to track student performance such as through assignments and projects with their peers.

“The fact that districts are still reliant on standardized testing to tell us anything meaningful about student growth and learning is disappointing because we have so much research about why those metrics by themselves are not really a useful measure of anything,” she said. “Standardized testing serves people who make standardized tests. It serves people who make curriculums that teach standardized tests and it serves test prep, but it doesn’t serve students.”

Howland-Bolton would rather see DPSCD administrators focus on students’ social and emotional well-being, such as making sure kids have a nutritious lunch, time allocated during the school day for recess, and access to a school library.

She added that in countries like Canada and Finland where there’s less standardized testing or none at all, students perform better.

“Amazingly, when you focus on meeting student needs, they perform well on tests,” Howland-Bolton said. “If you focus on test taking as being this end-all, be-all thing and ignore student needs, they actually perform worse on their tests, and we see that in our test scores.”

Imani Foster of 482 Forward, a local nonprofit focused on educational equity, also said that the district shouldn’t use standardized tests as the only indicator of how students are performing in school. More needs to be done at the state level to improve literacy rates, she said, such as more funding and sharing resources across school districts.

Another factor that needs to be addressed in both the reading and math NAEP tests is ensuring that students can comprehend the questions and that the questions use vocabulary they understand.

“It’s not just reading, but being able to comprehend and being able to do deductive reasoning,” Foster said.

She added that DPSCD can improve test scores by reducing class sizes for students who need more support, having students attend summer school to combat learning loss, and by lowering the chronic absenteeism rate.

“If we have kids not coming to school for the majority of the year, of course they’re not prepared to pass the test. Of course they feel they’re left behind and anxious and don’t have everything they need.”

She agrees with Howland-Bolton that childrens’ physical, social and emotional needs have to be met, such as eating breakfast and lunch and making sure schools are a safe environment.

“We have to change the narrative around education and the value of it in our city and in our state,” Foster said. “We don’t make students feel like they are the most important part of our society, and they absolutely are.”

It’s also important for people to understand the challenges facing districts like Detroit, Hart said.

“Detroit is highest in the nation for families that are not just in poverty based on free and reduced price lunch, but in more abject poverty,” Hart said.

“They didn’t get there overnight as a city, and turning that around is going to take some time, but they’re clearly doing it. And so for the community, understanding that it took decades for us to get to this place, and it’s going to take time to pull our district and our citizens and our children out of it, but clearly they’re making progress.”

DPSCD Board President Corletta Vaughn also noted the district’s progress, especially compared to when it was under emergency management.

“No one thinks we have arrived, but we are closer than we were before this school board and superintendent assumed the responsibility to rebuild a school district that was devastated by emergency management and ineffective leadership,” she said in the news release. “Our updated strategic plan, coupled with strong leadership focused on continuous improvement and an improved climate and culture for our employees, parents and students will ensure the upward trajectory we continue to see.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Whitmer signs school safety legislation into law

2025-01-22T19:11:03+00:00

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed legislation on school safety that was introduced after a deadly shooting that killed four students at Oxford High School but took lawmakers more than three years to approve.

The bills Whitmer signed Wednesday were among 19 that are focused on making public schools, homes, and communities safer, she said. The school-related bills would require schools to have a behavior threat assessment and management team, create a new state commission on school safety and mental health, and add new rules to make sure schools are able to respond effectively to safety threats.

“Each of these bills build on my administration’s commitment to protecting Michiganders and their families,” Whitmer said in a news release.

The Michigan legislature gave final approval to the bills during its lame duck session in December.

Other education-related bills approved during the lame duck session and signed last week by Whitmer require Michigan charter schools to publicly post average teacher salaries and schools to allow Indigenous students to wear traditional regalia to graduation ceremonies.

Whitmer’s signatures were praised by a group that pushes for school safety reform, but they said the fight isn’t over.

“Although Lansing’s incoming political landscape will pose new challenges for us, we’re not going anywhere,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “The state has seen what is possible when it comes to addressing this crisis, and our Michigan moms and students are in it for the long haul.”

The school safety laws will:

Require every public school to have a behavior threat assessment and management team that would monitor students for concerning behavior. Students identified as struggling will receive a plan for support.
Require the Michigan State Police to create standardized terminology for use during school emergencies. All schools and districts in the state would also be required to adopt that terminology, which supporters say would create less confusion during crises.
Require the MSP to make training available to schools on how to use threat assessment materials.
Makes school threat assessment teams responsible for educating the school community about the warning signs indicating someone might pose a threat of physical violence.
Mandate that the Michigan Office of School Safety notify district emergency and safety managers of any tips regarding potential threats to schools in its system as soon as possible or within 24 hours. Local law enforcement would also have to be notified within that time frame.
Create a permanent School Safety and Mental Health Commission in the Michigan State Police department. The existing commission, which was created in 2022, focuses mostly on physical security threats. That commission will be phased out for a new one that will include education, school safety, and mental health experts.

Whitmer also issued an executive order Wednesday related to the School Safety and Mental Health Commission aimed at ensuring the group includes critical viewpoints and voices. The executive order requires that the commission include:

One member who is a prosecutor.
The director of the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential.

Her order also gives voting rights on the commission to ex officio members of the board, including the directors of the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, MiLEAP, and Michigan Department of Education.

Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Hannah Dellinger contributed reporting.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

DPSCD board backs off proposal to eliminate virtual public comments at meetings

2025-01-16T22:00:00+00:00

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The Detroit school board is backing off a proposal that would have eliminated the opportunity for residents attending meetings online to make public comments.

The board twice delayed voting on the proposal in 2024, saying they wanted to hear from the public. What they heard was largely negative.

“After much public feedback, the policy to remove virtual comments will not come back on the agenda for Board Approval,” Corletta Vaughn, a board member who was elected the board’s president Tuesday, wrote in an email to a constituent who urged board members to abandon the proposed policy.

“Please know that we’ve listened and took seriously the long-term liability and impact this removal might have on our constituents,” Vaughn wrote.

Instead of getting rid of virtual public comment, Vaughn said the board would be exploring ways to make the virtual meetings, including commenting, more user friendly.

Meeting attendees have long complained about the virtual meeting process. It’s relatively easy to watch the meetings online, either on the district’s website or YouTube channel. But it’s often difficult to hear some speakers, especially those with soft voices. And online attendees only see a far away video of board members and district officials sitting on the stage of various school auditoriums (the meetings rotate from one school auditorium to another). Knowing who is speaking can be difficult because faces are so distant.

Attendees have also complained about the difficult process of making a public comment, which requires watching the meeting on one screen and signing into a Zoom webinar on another.

Meanwhile, there are sometimes virtual glitches, as occurred Tuesday when there was no virtual public comment because of technical difficulties.

Vaughn said in the email that the systems being used “are out of date and cumbersome.” She said it is her priority to improve the quality and accessibility of meetings.

“These changes will include visibility, improved sound, close captions, interpreters for our non-English speaking constituents, and a much more accessible way to make public comments seamless and engaging.

“This discussion has already begun with our media team leaders, and with a timeline of no more than 90 days to secure additional staff and resources, there will be intentional changes that the community will see and enjoy.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

DPSCD to get $70M reimbursement from FEMA for COVID testing expenses

2025-01-16T20:41:11+00:00

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The Detroit school district is getting a $70 million federal reimbursement for some of the costs associated with testing students and staff for COVID as part of its response to the pandemic.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the reimbursement this week, saying in a news release that the Detroit Public Schools Community District is being reimbursed for its efforts “to keep kids safe and continue the critical services that they provided to so many Detroit families during the pandemic.”

The district contracted with LynxDX to provide COVID testing for students and staff during the pandemic. Testing was a requirement to attend school in person for a time because surging COVID rates were causing schools to shut down and students to attend online.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an email that COVID testing programs initiated by school districts were eligible for reimbursement by FEMA. The district began the reimbursement process in December 2022, Vitti said.

The district initially planned to use federal COVID relief money to cover the costs of the testing. In his email, Vitti said, “The COVID testing program costs were shifted to District general funds, so that they would be eligible for FEMA reimbursement.”

Once the money is sent to the district, officials will have to determine how to use it.

“It’s one-time funding so we will continue to use fiscal discipline and use it for one-time purposes such as continuing facility upgrades or a way to protect initiatives such as contracted nursing or mental health support for students if state grants in these areas are eliminated,” Vitti said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district’s new attendance incentive draws more students to class

2025-01-15T22:01:54+00:00

A new attendance initiative in the Detroit school district that is luring high school students to the classroom with promises of $200 gift cards for perfect attendance is off to a promising start.

At a school board meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti reported that 1,800 more students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District have had perfect attendance since they returned from the winter break than at this time last year.

Students can earn the $200 gift cards for every two-week period they have perfect attendance through March, with the potential to earn as much as $1,000.

It’s of course too early to fully evaluate the program. The first two-week cycle began Jan. 6 and runs through the end of this week.

“But right now, the incentive is working,” Vitti said. He said he believes the increase in perfect attendance is due to the incentive.

The incentive is one of two new efforts aimed at improving attendance in the district, where 66% of the students were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year. In November, Vitti announced new guidelines that would mean students who miss a significant number of days of school could be held back in grades K-8 and required to repeat classes or take credit recovery classes at the high school level.

Students are considered chronically absent in Michigan if they miss 18 days in a typical 180-day school year. Research is mixed on whether incentives are effective, and some experts worry that they potentially ignore the often insurmountable at-home challenges, much of it related to poverty, that prevents students from coming to school regularly.

This is the second program launched this school year that offers financial incentives for students. The district is also paying students up to $2,000 to attend literacy tutoring sessions.

The board heard from a parent who shared how the attendance incentive is motivating her son.

“I have a senior this year,” said Melissa Redman, a frequent commenter at school board meetings. The program, she said, has given him “willpower to get up and go to school because he wants to earn the money for the attendance program.”

“The paid incentive is very popular and a long time coming,” Vitti said, responding to a board member’s question about the potential of trying a similar incentive to get students to attend summer school. He said he’s been talking about paid incentives for students for years.

“I’m excited personally that we’re finally doing it,” Vitti said.

It’s unclear how much money it will cost for the program. But Vitti said Tuesday that the district is using interest money earned from money set aside in the bank for future facility projects.

“As we wait to complete projects, that money is in the bank. It creates interest. It gives us a lot of flexibility.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s treasury department asks judge to toss DPSCD lawsuit

2025-01-14T20:44:52+00:00

The Michigan Department of Treasury is asking a state judge to dismiss a case filed by the Detroit school district, saying the harm claimed in the suit hasn’t occurred, so the lawsuit has no merit.

The treasury department also says the district is suing the wrong party.

Those are the key arguments the treasury department made in a Jan. 10 response to the lawsuit filed by the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The suit centers on a difference of opinion between the school district and the treasury department over revenue from an operating millage that has been used to pay off an emergency loan since 2016.

That was the year Michigan lawmakers created a new district, DPSCD, to operate schools and left the debt-ridden Detroit Public Schools in place to collect millage revenue. That revenue has been paying off debt that had left DPS and its schools in financial crisis for years, much of it while state-appointed emergency managers controlled the district. Since 2016, the state has filled the gap left by the loss of revenue from the operating millage.

Now, with the emergency loan expected to be paid off in February, 18 months earlier than scheduled, the district wants to use the operating revenue to accelerate the schedule by which it is paying off a remaining $1.6 billion in capital debt as well as debt to the state School Loan Revolving Fund. A separate debt millage has been paying off the debt, but district officials say that adding revenue from the operating millage would allow DPS to pay off that debt years earlier than expected, saving taxpayers in interest costs.

The district’s lawsuit, filed Dec. 20, alleges that the treasury department told the district that the operating millage revenue can’t be used to pay off the capital and revolving fund debt. It also says that once the emergency loan is paid off in February, DPS can no longer levy the operating millage, and DPSCD would have to ask voters to approve a new operating millage. Meanwhile, the district says the state would cease providing the district with local operating revenue when the load is paid off and DPS no longer has an operating millage.

At a meeting tonight, the Detroit school board will consider a proposal to place a millage proposal for DPSCD on the ballot in May.

The treasury department hasn’t commented on the specifics of the case. Here is an overview of the treasury department’s response to the lawsuit

The case isn’t ripe for adjudication, the state says

An essential argument from the state is that the lawsuit isn’t “ripe.” A case is ripe if the claims made in it haven’t happened. The DPSCD lawsuit is centered on what it says could happen based on conversations with treasury officials.

“There is no actual controversy and Plaintiffs have not articulated a particularized or cognizable injury, but instead only a hypothetical, contingent, contingent, or anticipated one that may not occur,” the treasury response said.

“This is because DPS is still collecting the operating millage assessed … and the State is still providing a per pupil foundation allowance backfill for [DPSCD].”

The response also notes that the treasury department proposed a new schedule to pay off the operating debt that would allow DPS to make smaller payments and extend the final payment to Sept. 1, 2026, instead of the district paying it off next month.

“DPS is electing not to pay according to this schedule without explanation in its Complaint or its Motion for Preliminary Injunction.”

DPSCD named the wrong parties

The treasury doesn’t have “the authority to adjust the state’s foundation allowance payments or prevent DPS from levying an operating tax,” the response says.

Instead, the response says, Michigan courts “have routinely found that only the Legislature has authority to authorize appropriations.”

DPS can’t use operating millage revenue for non-operating debts

State law allows school districts to levy up to 18 mills on non-homestead property for “school operating purposes,” and though the Legislature doesn’t define that term, treasury officials say in the response that “by its plain meaning and context, it pertains to funds used to support a school district’s day to day operational expenditures, such as facility maintenance, utilities, supplies, textbooks, vendor payments, educational programs for students, and staff compensation, to name a few.” It does not include the repayment of DPS’s long-term capital improvement debt.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Can financial incentives and holding students back improve attendance in Detroit?

2025-01-10T23:07:29+00:00

The Detroit school district is employing some new methods in its fight to improve attendance, including paying students up to $1,000 each for perfect attendance and holding back students with extremely high rates of chronic absenteeism.

The new initiatives will add to work the district has had in place for years, much of it centering around attendance agents whose job is to improve attendance, connect with families of absent students, and provide resources families need to prevent absenteeism. That work has led to decreases in the rate of chronic absenteeism.

Incentives and negative consequences for repeated absences aren’t particularly new, though there is mixed research about their effectiveness and some experts worry that they potentially ignore the often insurmountable at-home challenges, much of it related to poverty, that prevents students from coming to school regularly.

Students are considered chronically absent in Michigan if they miss 10%, or 18 days, in a typical 180-day school year. In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, 66% of students were chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year, down from nearly 80% at the height of the pandemic in the 2021-22 school year.

The still high rates impact efforts to improve academic performance in the district, leaves absent students far behind, and affects learning for all students.

Here is what the district is doing:

The district launched “Perfect Attendance Pays” this month, allowing high school students to receive a $200 gift card for each two-week period in which they have perfect attendance. The first two-week period began Monday and runs through Jan. 17. The final two-week period runs from March 10-21. Students who have perfect attendance in each of the five periods will earn up to $1,000 in gift cards. Students must be in class for every hour of the day in order to have perfect attendance. Detroit one million first reported on the incentives in December.
The district previously announced a new grade promotion policy. Students in grades K-8 who miss 45 or more days over the course of the school year may be required to repeat the grade. High school students who miss 23 or more days of a single course in a semester will need to retake the course or enroll in credit recovery.

Schools for years have provided incentives throughout the year to promote attendance, particularly on the two important days in the year when student enrollment counts are used to determine how much state aid districts will receive. In the Oakland Unified school district in California, students who were severely chronically absent were paid $50 each Friday if they attended school each day that week. That program differs from what Detroit is doing because it was targeted only at students who were struggling to attend school.

Also, state law allows students who are persistently absent from school to face penalties through the county court system. Parents also can face charges, and those who receive public assistance can have that money revoked if their children aren’t attending school.

In both instances, the district cited the need to improve attendance as part of the reasoning for the two initiatives.

“Consistent attendance is an essential part of students’ success and we know that when District students miss less than 18 days of school in our District, they are 3 to 5 times more likely to be at and above grade level in reading and math and to be college ready as defined by the SAT,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a letter to families.

Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, president of the Detroit school board, told the audience at a December meeting that students who end up being held back won’t be surprised because they will be communicated with throughout the process about their risk.

“This is not meant to be punitive. However, we are trying to foster accountability and enforce a set of excellence and standards with our young scholars,” Peterson-Mayberry said. “We know that there are extenuating circumstances, and so those will be dealt with on a case by case basis, but we have to make sure people understand the importance of being in school every day.”

Vitti declined an interview and didn’t respond to questions that were sent at the district’s request on Monday.

Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, said it is important to assess interventions that offer incentives or retain kids “in terms of how do they actually address the underlying reasons that are causing students to miss school. Any intervention is more likely to work if this is the case, and less likely to have an impact if that is not the case.”

Students appreciate the financial incentive

Raymond Kennedy, a senior at Davis Aerospace Technical High School, said he’s excited about the new initiative, and the gift cards are a positive incentive for his peers.

“It’s something I’m grateful for,” the 18-year-old said. “It will get a lot of people to come to school.”

Kennedy said due to family circumstances, he usually goes to school four days a week. However, Kennedy said when he’s in class, he’s there on time and is able to catch up on his schoolwork. Knowing that he can get awarded with a $200 gift card every two weeks will make him more willing to come to school for the full week, he said.

Meanwhile, Bavion Buford, 18, makes sure to be at school every day. The senior agrees that the incentive is a good idea, saying it could be a way for students to transport themselves to school when parents are unable to drop them off and pick them up.

“If they miss a day of school because they couldn’t get a ride, now they have the money to get themselves to school,” Buford said.

Kennedy said the program could also be beneficial for elementary and middle schools students if the program were to expand.

“I know some middle school and grade school parents have trouble getting them to school or from school, so I know if you use the gift card for an Uber or a Lyft, you’ll be able to have a guaranteed ride for your kids to school,” he said.

Like her students, Davis Aerospace Principal Michelle Davis is hopeful about the perfect attendance plan. The school has a 94% attendance rate, while the rate of chronic absenteeism is 30%. She said she supports any incentive that will push more students to come to school daily.

“A lot of the kids have extenuating circumstances like Raymond, so it would give them more of an incentive to come,” she said. “It’s an amazing opportunity for the kids.”

Davis added that while it’s important for the district to find alternative ways to get students to attend school, it’s also important for schools to create a welcoming, child-centered environment and be committed to excellence.

At Davis Aerospace, for instance, staff members offer students cups of hot chocolate during the winter and a hot breakfast throughout the school year when students arrive in the morning. And teachers are there to help encourage and uplift the students, Davis said.

“We believe that whatever children need in this building is our responsibility, but more than our responsibility, it is our pleasure to give it to them,” she said. “We have a high attendance rate because we are totally student-centered and we believe that if you create that space for students, then they’ll come.”

Studies show incentives have small effect on attendance

Still, studies on attendance incentives haven’t shown such policies to be a game changer.

The Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research in 2021 published a brief on the issue that highlights what researchers have found about the effectiveness of incentives: their review of research has found a small effect, if any, and one major study found negative consequences.

The report drew from PEER’s own interviews with Detroit families.

“Incentives do not necessarily address the contextual factors that are demotivating,” the report said. “For example, one east side parent we spoke to explained that her son takes DDOT to school, and that repeated instances of missing the bus (along with unsafe conditions and too-far distances to walk) have changed her son’s behavior around attendance. He does not see the bus as reliable, and that influences his decision to attend school on some days. Motivation may play some role in missing school for this student, but it is not clear whether incentives would increase his attendance, absent other interventions that changed his relationship with the bus.”

Chronic absenteeism is a national problem for the nation’s public schools. The pandemic, with the quarantine policies that kept students out of school for days and the long stints of at-home learning, worsened the problem. Like in Detroit, rates have begun to improve. But there are some lingering effects from the pandemic.

“There is some sense that kids and families don’t necessarily, especially post pandemic, recognize why showing up to school in person every day matters,” said Chang, of Attendance Works. “That’s connected to a number of challenges. One is that we put kids online for two years and said now you have to show up in person. That’s a little hard.”

She also wonders whether parents are receiving the message of the importance of daily attendance. The academic argument is strong. But parents also need to understand that the social development skills students develop when attending school daily is also crucial.

“I think sometimes people think that by saying there are consequences, or I’m going to incentivize, it helps to convey that showing up is important. I don’t know what the evidence is that that actually serves to convey that.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.