Michigan K-12 schools

About 7.5 percent of the state’s kids ages 12 to 15 have been vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving the state looking for ways to keep momentum strong.

With Michigan facing a widening teacher shortage, the state superintendent suggested a rule tweak with huge ramifications: waive the 150 hours of training ex-teachers are required to take to return to classrooms.

Michigan school superintendents are 95 percent white and less than 4 percent Black. And while teachers are 77 percent female, superintendents are 77 percent male. State leaders say it’s hard to find diverse candidates. Minority leaders see other factors at work.

The Mackinac Center argues schools are much better funded than typically is reported in the media.

Schools should be able to be creative with commencements, Republicans say. Democrats contend the restrictions on gatherings keep everyone safe.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says there’s a ‘sense of urgency’ to reopen schools following a year of halted learning because of the pandemic.

Michigan ranks 47th in the ratio of students to librarians, while studies show school library media specialists impact academic achievement.

Vaccinating Michigan teens and young adults will be key to lifting pandemic limits and reaching herd immunity. Health officials are scrambling to make COVID vaccines available to high school students, who are getting shots at far lower rates.

States that spend less on schools spend more on prisons. Coincidence?

Michigan schools must offer the annual standardized test, but, because of the pandemic, not all students have to take it. That could make the results less useful than normal.

A dinner among drivers and pre-K staffers forced quarantines just as students were set to return to school. It’s the latest example of the frustrating, sometimes futile efforts to keep Michigan schools open.

Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much. But a bipartisan group of former officials are promoting investments to help Michigan children.

Legislators need to put politics aside and pass a school budget, for the sake of Michigan’s children.

Even with most teachers vaccinated, many Michigan schools are struggling to stay open because of outbreaks among students and COVID community spread.

Even as the Centers for Disease Control urges Michigan to close down part of its economy to stop a dangerous COVID spike, residents seem done with restrictions.

Whitmer wants more vaccines from Biden and voluntary restrictions on activities from residents. But she resisted pressure from some health officials to respond to a flood of cases with new mandates.

Michigan schools must give the state standardized test, but fewer students might take it this year than normal. State education officials contend pandemic learning was too chaotic this year to yield an accurate portrait of student achievement.

State officials say they have no plans to order school buildings to close again because of the pandemic. But with COVID cases skyrocketing, some schools are going remote on their own.

Districts spotlighted in the audit couldn’t prove that new teachers had been assigned mentors or that teachers’ annual evaluations were based on a classroom visit — both of which are legal requirements.

Coronavirus outbreaks in schools increased after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed winter sports like basketball and wrestling to resume. Was it worth it?