MI Education: Not Much Bang For The Taxpayer Buck

How would you feel if you dropped $50k on a brand new Lexus, but when they brought it out it was actually a rusty 2012 Kia? Yeah, we'd be less than thrilled, too. But that's what's happening with Michigan's education system right now - taxpayers are paying gold-plated prices and getting rust in return. A new report should be sounding alarm bells all across the state with one inescapable fact: more money ain't getting it done!

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Here are Five Fast Facts on Michigan's underperforming education system:

1. 📈 Spending Is Way, Way Up - Michigan's spending per student jumped nearly 18% since 2020, more growth than any state except California. Now they're shelling out almost $22k per kid (up almost 30% since 2002, even when adjusted for inflation). That's enough to impress a kangaroo! 

2. 📉 Test Scores Are... - Test scores are also way, way up! JK, unfortunately. They're actually terrible. 😞 For example, over 45% of fourth-graders and about 35% of eighth-graders are scoring "below basic" on national reading tests. Bang for the buck? More like fizzle with no sizzle.

3. 😣 Teacher Pay Is... - But at least teacher pay is way, way up, right? Ah, no. Teacher pay is also dropping like a rock - the average salary dropped 6.4% since 2020, and since 2002 it fell close to a whopping 22% (even when adjusted for inflation). 🤦

4. 🤯 The Black Hole - A huge chunk of the cash (over $6,200 per student) goes to pension debt and benefits. That's like buying a fancy new car but spending most of the price on super-expensive insurance nobody sees.

5. 💨 Kids Are Bailing - Worse yet, enrollment dropped over 4% since 2020 and a crazy 17% since 2002, making Michigan one of the worst states for keeping students (48th-worst, to be exact). Um, where are they going??

🔥Bottom line: So Michigan schools are basically a worst case scenario - sucking up increasingly huge amounts of taxpayer money, delivering bupkiss for results, and not even paying teachers well along the way. It's time to stop throwing money at our schools like confetti at a party, and start spending smarter with more accountability on each and every dollar. Can we please find some adults in the room to fix this so our kids don't continue to suffer from decades of poor decisions?

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What do you think can be done to fix education?

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