Senate Republicans believe that they can do better to improve the declining reading skills of children in the state, as about 5,000 students are projected to fail their respective reading benchmarks this year.
"Senate Republicans believe we can and must do better when it comes to teaching our kids to read," Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) said in an op-ed in The Detroit News. "Our children deserve better."
The state of Michigan’s third grade reading law was passed in 2016 with bipartisan support. This particular law does incorporate legitimate exemptions via judgment by parents and educators. However, Senate Republicans see these exemptions as exceptions, not the rule.
Shirkey writes that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is disregarding the law and may be essentially abandoning these students.
"...Gov. Gretchen Whitmer chose to use these children as a rallying cry to amass support from community leaders to help schools and parents circumvent our reading law," Shirkey wrote in the op-ed.
Shirkey says Senate Republicans are taking this issue "very seriously."
"We will be reviewing the third-grade reading law for ways to improve it," he wrote. "We will explore what can be done to minimize the number of children who are not promoted to the next grade. We will listen to educators and parents on how we can work together to accomplish what should be a non-partisan and universally aligned goal."
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