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'Michigan Education Project' hopes to find solutions for Michigan's declining education system

‘Business Leaders for Michigan,’ a nonprofit representing the state’s top executives, announced the launch of the ‘Michigan Education Project,’ an initiative aimed at boosting K-12 school performance in Michigan. The study will examine what practices state education leaders in the United States have used, and how the state of Michigan can emulate their actions, in an effort to reverse Michigan’s declining education system.

“We’re concerned that student performance has not gone up at the pace that we see in other states,” President and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan Doug Rothwell said. “So we are trying to figure out, what are the ways that we can close that performance gap between what other states are able to produce, and you know, where we are today in Michigan.”

According to the nonpartisan education research and policy organization ‘Education Trust-Midwest’, Michigan’s fourth grade reading performance on a national level fell from 28th to 41st in the nation between the years 2003 and 2015. That report concluded Michigan is projected to fall to 48th in the nation by 2030 if the state does nothing to improve education. Which Rothwell says is what the Michigan Education Project is all about.

“Again, it’s all about our kids, it’s all about our future, I mean we are not going to be the prosperous state we want to be unless our kids can have the skills and education they need to fill what those jobs require,” Rothwell said. Business Leaders for Michigan said the results of The Michigan Education Project would be released in 2018.

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