Traverse City Record-Eagle, 9/18

Opinion: Fix the damn schools, Michigan

By Mike Addonizio

Mike Addonizio, professor of education economics and policy at Wayne State University, opined about the challenges of school funding in Michigan as the governor and legislative leaders haggle over the 2020 budget. Addonizio wrote: "While these budget talks appear to center on our urgent need for increased road funding, the important matter of school funding seems to have been relegated to a lower priority. This is bad news for Michigan's future prospects and will only continue our current years-long educational slide and economic underperformance." He points out that a recent MSU report recently revealed that between 1995 and 2015 Michigan was dead last nationwide in K-12 revenue growth and 48^th in per-pupil terms. According to a 2017 Brookings-UM study, in 2015 Michigan ranked 41st in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math proficiency, and dead last in proficiency growth since 2003. "Our current educational deficits and crumbling infrastructure are not the inevitable consequence of a faltering economy. They are the result of deliberate policy choices to keep taxes and public investment low. Michigan has the resources to "fix the damn roads" and adequately invest in our public schools, providing real educational opportunity to all our children. We now need to summon the political will to do so."