Superintendent Michael Rice last week told members of the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee that lawmakers should “freeze” students in schools, even those that refuse to open or to meet their unique educational needs this fall, in order to “mitigate” enrollment drops in schools that local leaders choose to keep locked.
Rice is attempting to hold your kids hostage in school districts, and to keep them from reaching for educational lifelines offered by other schools and other districts more focused – or focused at all – on student needs.
GLEP is fighting back, challenging Rice’s disastrous position, and we’re pressing the Governor and key House and Senate leaders to publicly reject his plan.
Our kids deserve better than closed schools. They deserve better than science-denying bureaucrats who refuse to follow the data, doctors and the CDC who say it’s more dangerous to keep buildings closed than to open them. Our kids deserve better than Michael Rice.
The state does not have the right to “freeze” your children in a school district, or to lock them out of an education this fall. Together, we’re delivering that message loud-and-clear.
“Under the plan, schools would be required to offer in-person learning to students in grades K-5 — with plastic or plexiglass partitions to separate their desks. Schools would also have the option to build virtual learning days into their regular schedules after the pandemic.”
For months, bureaucrats in Lansing and in districts across the state have refused to plan seriously for a return to learning this fall, while Michigan kids fall further behind after months of missed education this spring.
Governor Whitmer, Superintendent Rice and bureaucrats in Lansing have made it clear – they’re more interested in scoring political points with teachers’ unions than in educating Michigan kids this fall.