- In her 2021 State of the State address, Whitmer said that COVID-19 “stole” in-person instruction from students and announced an advisory council to “promote comprehensive recovery” in schools.
- A full year later, many school districts such as Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Battle Creek and Lansing refused to fully reopen.
- As a result, Michigan students’ learning growth was stunted
- Preexisting disparities between minority students and white students grew.
- 40 percent of students failed to reach expected “growth targets”
- Students who attended school in-person performed better on standardized tests than students who were prohibited from in-person instruction.
- Michigan’s public schools lost 56,000 students since the pandemic began – disproportionately at the preschool and elementary grade levels.
- Detroit Free Press: “…There is still no clear answer to the question of where these students have gone…”
- The Michigan department of education allowed school districts to spend COVID-19 money on non COVID related expenses such as a food truck, playground equipment, the demolition of a school pool and metal detectors and x-ray machines.