KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – School officials say once the COVID-19 crisis eases, the future for public education in the state is still pretty grim unless changes are made.
Kalamazoo Public Schools Operation Director Jim English says Michigan schools are underfunded, and while the Governor is proposing increases, other states are investing a lot more in their kids.
He says enrollments have been declining for a while because people are having fewer babies, but he says the decline in students at Michigan’s teacher colleges has dropped at a far faster rate, a problem now that will only get worse.
Kalamazoo Public Schools administrators are proposing to beef up courses that will introduce students to teaching as a profession, and to begin those courses for the first time in the middle schools this coming year.
KPS Board of Education President Patti Scholler-Barber blames the State Legislature for cutting pensions, underfunding schools, and demeaning public education.
40,000 Michigan public school students who were expected to return to class this fall did not show up, and school officials say they are trying to figure out where that 3% went.
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