As seen in The Detroit News
May 25, 2025
In a state where three out of every five fourth graders are not reading at grade level, Michigan’s policymakers and powerbrokers are on track to take a year off from trying to tackle this crisis at their annual confab this week on Mackinac Island.
Fixing Michigan’s flailing K-12 education system is not on the main stage agenda at the Mackinac Policy Conference, the Grand Hotel gathering that attracts business executives, state lawmakers and executive branch officials, education leaders and the heads of philanthropic foundations that have a vested interest in better achievement from Michigan’s public school system.
Developing talent for in-demand jobs and preserving the state’s vast research apparatus at public universities amid cuts in federal funding are two big, education-heavy issues on the official agenda this week at the Grand Hotel.
But fixing a K-12 school system that’s not graduating enough students who are prepared for college or the needs of the workforce? Not so much.
Strategizing on how to reduce crowded classrooms? Nope.
Building a consensus on how to make a public education system less reliant on taxes from ever-growing property values and the consumption of goods? Nada.