LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The president of the state’s biggest teachers’ union blamed “decades of divestment” and a teacher shortage on the poor academic performance in the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Grades for the nation’s report card.

The NAEP is referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card” and Michigan’s disappointing performance set off alarms among many educational organizations.

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Chandra Madafferi, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) president, stated Feb. 10, “This decline didn’t happen overnight. Although our governor has invested record levels of money back into preK-12 education, it has not fully corrected decades of divestment in our schools.”

She continued: “Inadequate funding for public schools drove low wages and loss of rights for teachers and school support staff, directly contributing to the educator shortage.  Students ultimately paid the price. When we don’t have enough high-quality educators working in our schools, the result is less individual attention, lower test scores and graduation rates, and fewer students who are prepared for college or the workplace.”

Madafferi’s comments demand scrutiny.

An 18-year-old senior in high school today would have been in the K-12 system by about 2011-12.

Since then, the state dollars devoted to Michigan’s K-12 schools have increased from $17.86 billion in 2011-12 to $20.64 billion in 2024-25, when adjusted for inflation. That means there has been an additional $2.78 billion injected into the K-12 school system, a 15.5% increase when adjusted for inflation.

As for a teacher shortage, according to the state of Michigan, there were 1,589 more teachers and 152,273 fewer students from 2011-12 to 2023-24.

More money. More teachers. Fewer students.

Madafferi said the state doesn’t have enough “high-quality educators” working in our schools.

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That is not what teacher evaluations have reported, something the MEA has negotiated over in recent years. Local school districts have given their teachers high marks.

In 2023-24, 43% of all teachers statewide were rated as “highly effective,” the highest of four teacher ratings. There were 56% of all teachers that were rated as “effective,” the second-highest rating. The remaining 1% were given ratings of “minimally effective.” Just 169 teachers statewide were found to be “ineffective,” a size so small it rated as 0%.