Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sounded the alarm on Michigan’s literacy crisis during a speech, saying that tackling it would be her top goal as she enters her final year in office.
“In the 12 months I have left as governor, literacy will remain my No. 1 priority,” she said in a Dec. 15 speech that capped a Michigan Literacy Summit held at the Michigan Science Center.
No person or party bears the blame for Michigan students’ reading performance, Whitmer said, but she told the audience of education leaders and administration officials that solving it will require coming together. “Literacy is not a partisan issue. It’s not just a public sector problem. It’s an all-hands-on-deck crisis,” she said.
Too many students can’t read at grade level, she said. That’s a problem for Michigan, Whitmer said, who called literacy “a cornerstone to any state’s success.”
Third-grade M-STEP reading scores — third grade is often regarded as a pivotal turning point in learning to read — have declined nearly every year for a decade. Tests taken in spring 2025 showed more than 60% of third graders did not score proficient on the test: 38.9% scored proficient or advanced on the tests taken in the spring, compared with 39.6% in 2024.
Whitmer blamed disinvestment, changing education policy aims, the COVID-19 pandemic and addictive technology competing for students’ attention.
State policymakers have been on a campaign to try to reverse the decline. Whitmer in 2024 signed legislation to strengthen literacy instruction, aimed at better identifying students with dyslexia and aligning instruction with the science of reading, the body of research that shows how children learn how to read. Whitmer championed this policy and others, such as free preschool, as critical education measures.
But she called for additional steps, including funding for local libraries, extra support for families, training support for educators and extra support for students who need the most help. While she didn’t dive into specifics, she promised to detail her proposals in her State of the State speech next year and budget proposal.
Whitmer’s call for action on literacy comes as partisan rancor in Lansing has reached a kind of fever pitch after House Republicans took the unprecedented step of voting against carrying over $645 million in unspent funds appropriated in the previous state budget crafted by Democrats.
Meanwhile, after Whitmer has spent the year urging lawmakers in the divided Michigan Legislature to work together, her latest push appears poised to fall short. As part of the state budget deal, legislative leaders made an agreement with Whitmer to pass economic development legislation before the end of the year, according to a news release from the governor’s office. But the clock is ticking, and it’s unclear lawmakers will deliver on that promise.
Still, Whitmer, in her literacy speech, repeated a favored refrain that “in Michigan, we can do hard things.”
Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer names literacy as top priority for final year in office
Reporting by Clara Hendrickson and Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
