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Essential education reporting in Detroit

These are the big Michigan education issues we’re watching in 2023

By  Tracie Mauriello Tracie Mauriello and  Koby Levin Koby Levin
 
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A student smiles sitting at a desk in a brightly lit classroom

Some districts are betting that tutoring programs like this one in Ecorse will help students accelerate their learning after test scores fell this year.

Sylvia Jarrus for Chalkbeat

COVID may no longer be forcing schools to shut down, but its effects on students, teachers, parents, and administrators will linger into 2023.

Issues related to the pandemic figure in nearly every one of the top education issues for 2023. So do issues related to a power shift in Lansing, where Democrats will hold the governor’s office and control the Michigan Legislature for the first time in decades. This shift, thanks to a blue wave in the November general election in Michigan, could produce big changes on issues such as charter school transparency, the state’s third-grade retention law, and school funding.

“This is a legislature that could do a fair bit in a bipartisan fashion, because I think most of (what we need) is not partisan,” said state Superintendent Michael Rice, recently. “I think much of this is common sense.”

Here are the topics we’ll be closely following:

Chalkbeat Detroit bureau chief Lori Higgins contributed to this report.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

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