The Michigan House of Representatives passed parts of a Republican-led education plan this week.
The bills would require school districts to post links to performance data on their websites and allow high schoolers to dual enroll at trade schools instead of just colleges and universities.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall said the legislation is a step forward for education in the state.
“We're talking about ways to improve our curriculum, you see consolidating services to put more money in the classroom. We want to bring transparency and accountability back to education when you have a website that people can find, because they're told about it,” Hall said Thursday.
The state already has a website where you can track and compare school data, but Hall has complained he doesn’t believe it’s accessible enough.
Democrats voted for part of the package. But they still say some bills in it are “regurgitations” of things already done.
“These are bills that just are not well thought out, the work has not been put into them. There may be potential to work there to get them to a good place, but a lot of them seem like they're just thrown together to just say that we’re doing something to help education when really we’re not,” Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) said Thursday.
Part of the package, like legislation to ease requirements for becoming a teacher in certain cases, has already passed the House. Other parts, like an effort to change how members join the state board of education haven’t yet seen a vote.
