<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655492822725,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000172-3377-d6df-ad7a-3fffec390000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655492822725,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000172-3377-d6df-ad7a-3fffec390000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55492813", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"977856"} }); ","_id":"00000181-730f-ddb6-a5eb-7b3fbc790000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedMichigan Democrats fought to keep students out of classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they are fighting to prevent families from being able to choose which school their students attend.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state’s Board of Education are opposing a ballot initiative that would allow more than 1 million students to attend a school of their choice. Whitmer previously vetoed the proposal after it had been passed by the state legislature. Children should be stuck in failing schools based on their ZIP code, according to Michigan’s Democratic administration, because otherwise, the state would lose government revenue.
During the pandemic, Whitmer closed schools and shut down youth sports in defiance of the data showing children were not at serious risk from COVID-19. In August 2021, Whitmer was asking high schools and youth sports to shut down. Whitmer also declined to fight to push schools to return to in-person learning, as schools in Flint, Michigan, and Detroit continued to go remote earlier this year. At the end of last month, an elementary school in Dexter, Michigan, closed because of COVID-19.
Students who were forced into “virtual learning” learned far less than students who were able to go to school in person across the country, and that phenomenon was no different in Michigan.
Of course, it is no surprise that state Democrats want students and their families to have less say in schooling. The Michigan Democratic Party admitted as much earlier this year, dismissing the role of parents in their children’s education and claiming that if parents don’t like that, they can send their children to “a hand-selected private school at their own expense.” Only rich families should be able to decide where their children go to school, according to Whitmer and Michigan’s Democrats.
So, what is the big issue that the Democrats are focusing on in schools? If you ask Attorney General Dana Nessel, it might just be “a drag queen for every school.”
COVID-19 exposed the Democratic Party’s failures on schools and education as Democrats across the country fought openly to give families less say in their children’s education. Were this proposal to make the ballot in November, Michigan voters would be able to bypass the Democratic Party’s stranglehold on education.
Better yet, they could simply replace Whitmer herself.
