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MI Candidates for Gov Say Education is a Top Priority ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - One out of every four Michigan students fails to graduate from public high school with their class, according to the Michigan Department of Education. And those students who do graduate, in some cases, still can't read. Politicians say they have a plan to fix that.

All seven candidates - democrats and republicans - promise that if they become the next Governor of Michigan, education will be a top priority:

MIKE COX: "The next Governor has got to focus on short term economic problems and then creating long term economic security, and education is certainly part of that task."

RICK SNYDER: "I don't think we're focused enough on the kids' education and helping our children succeed."

VIRG BERNERO: "Enough is enough. Let's make education the top priority in Michigan."

They also talk about how crucial it is that money intended for schools actually makes its way to the classroom.

Republican candidate Mike Bouchard says one way to fix that is to consolidate services among school districts:

"So for example one of the things I suggest is we take transportation, food service and janitorial and competitively bid it on an ISD, intermediate school district or at least a county wide basis. By most estimates that would save a quarter billion dollars."

Bouchard's not alone. All the other candidates - both republicans and democrats - call for some type of consolidation of services in order to get more money into the classroom.

The candidates also agree that there needs to be more focus on investment in early education. But Democratic candidate Andy Dillon takes it one step further:

"Maybe we should look at a pre-K to 14 curriculum as opposed to just K12," says Dillon. "And another thing I'm open to looking at is the calendar. We have this agrarian calendar that has kids off for two, three months; September and October are refreshing what they learned the prior year because they forgot it over the summer. It'll be controversial, but if we're serious that education is the key to your future, let's not be afraid to change it so that it works for them."

On a test commonly referred to as the nation's report card, Michigan's 4th graders ranked in the bottom half for math and reading. And in Detroit, scores for the city's 4th and 8th graders were not only the worst in the nation. They were the lowest scores ever recorded in the history of the test. So everyone agrees that something needs to be done about that.

But Deborah Ball isn't sure what's being proposed by the candidates is enough. Ball is Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan:

"There's only so much that a Governor or policy makers can do by re-framing standards, policies for graduation, [and] allocating funds, if we don't support teachers and their skills and knowledge."

She says that's a big policy gap. The candidates talk about funding and revenue streams, but they don't talk about how to improve the way teachers teach kids:

"And," Ball adds, "the state could decide to be much more proactive in delivering that kind of systematic professional training for beginning teachers and ongoing development for experienced teachers."

But more state government involvement is the last thing Republican candidate Pete Hoekstra wants:

"Over the last decade, what we've seen is the control of education move from the local level from parents, moving to the state, moving to Washington," explains Hoesktra. "Exactly the wrong way to improve the quality."

But some other Republicans disagree. Candidates Tom George, Mike Cox and Rick Snyder, along with Democrat Andy Dillon are all in favor of the state's new Race to the Top legislation, which calls for sweeping education reforms like more charter schools, and tying teacher pay to student performance, all for the chance to get a big chunk of money from the federal government.

Dillon and the five Republican candidates also have in common the push for a state-run health insurance plan for teachers. The Republicans also say teachers should take a cue from the private sector and forgo big collective pensions for individual 401ks.

Democratic candidate Virg Bernero, who has the endorsement of the state's teachers union, says no to the state-run health care plan, the 401k idea, the federally mandated reforms. Here he is at a teachers rally in Lansing:

"I don't know about you, but I am tired of the flavor of the month education reform. How about we get the politicians out the way and let teachers teach!"

So you've got seven candidates who all say education is key to rebuilding Michigan. They agree that early education is a must, more money needs to go directly to the classroom, and more Michigan students needs to graduate from high school. Whether that's through more local control or government mandates is what sets them apart.

Contact Jennifer Guerra at guerraj@umich.edu
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