Navigating the Crossroads: Critical Education Policy Issues and Pathways to Progress

Michigan, like many states across the nation, stands at a crucial juncture in its educational landscape. Lingering effects from the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed and exacerbated existing inequities, demanding innovative and decisive policy interventions. While challenges persist, recent policy shifts signal a growing commitment to improving teaching and learning, offering a glimmer of hope for the future. The year ahead presents a pivotal opportunity to address Michigan's most pressing educational needs, ensuring that all students, regardless of background, have access to a high-quality education.

The Lingering Shadow of the Pandemic: Addressing Learning Loss and Inequities

The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted significant setbacks on students nationwide, disproportionately impacting those from low-income, rural, and urban communities, as well as Black and Latino students, English Learners, and students with disabilities. Recent M-STEP scores highlight the persistent learning gaps, with students in grades 3-7 remaining behind pre-pandemic levels in English Language Arts. Further exacerbating these concerns, Michigan's ranking on the 2022 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) in 4th-grade reading plummeted from 32nd in 2019 to 43rd, raising alarms about future academic success and life outcomes, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds, where Michigan ranks among the worst-performing states.

As the final year for districts to utilize federal relief funding earmarked for pandemic recovery approaches, the impending loss of these resources looms large, particularly for higher-poverty districts that rely on them to address critical student needs. Learning recovery is an ongoing process and requires sustained attention and resources.

Funding Formulas: Opportunity Index

Michigan policymakers took a significant step towards equitable funding with the passage of the state's Opportunity Index. This change in the state’s school funding formula means that Michigan will for the first-time consider for concentration of poverty in school districts, which will help drive additional funding to students from low-income backgrounds to meet their needs.

The creation of the Opportunity Index is a significant step forward for Michigan, but it’s certainly not enough. Indeed, only transformational and historic changes in how schools are funded will fill the gap. Currently, the Opportunity Index is a weighted funding formula enshrined in law that invests up to 47% more for students in districts with the highest concentrations of poverty, but the state has not committed to fully fund that amount.

Transparency and Accountability: Ensuring Effective Resource Allocation

The influx of ESSER dollars has been invaluable, but a lack of transparency and accountability in their allocation has raised concerns. Michigan policymakers should design systems to ensure that dollars intended for students who are underserved actually reach them in their schools and classrooms.

Michigan can learn from California's experience, where a laudable change in the school funding formula to increase investments in education was undermined by the absence of systems to track spending on students with high needs.

Early Literacy: Screening for Dyslexia

Early reading success is a strong predictor of future academic achievement, yet many students struggle with this foundational skill. Passing legislation to screen for dyslexia, a common barrier to early reading success, presents a significant opportunity to improve literacy outcomes.

These bills would require schools to use valid and reliable screening assessments to identify and monitor early elementary students who struggle with decoding and word recognition and use a multi-tiered system of support, which may include in targeted small groups to receive more intensive support or receive personalized instruction, to help students who display the characteristics of dyslexia.

Addressing Teacher Vacancies and the Salary Gap

A comprehensive understanding of educator vacancies is essential for developing effective solutions. Addressing the teacher shortage requires a multi-faceted approach, including efforts to close the salary gap by raising the salary floor for teachers. This will help to recruit teachers to Michigan, as well as to hard-to-staff districts.

The National Context: Education Policy Trends and Challenges

Policymakers prioritize different issues each year to meet their states’ needs. Strong education policies can shape a better future for our children and they reshaped education in many states. Some new trends have begun to emerge alongside renewed commitments to policies that have proven successful for decades. There are reasons for concern as well as for celebration. In 2024, we took bold steps on multiple fronts: defending and enhancing school accountability, expanding universal parental choice and working across party lines to advance early literacy.

School Accountability: Measuring Progress and Identifying Needs

When it comes to K-12 education, school accountability sometimes feels like broccoli-necessary for a healthy diet, but not something that’s going to make big headlines. There are those who say lowering required passing scores or doing away with testing will help “level the playing field” for students. No family or educator wants to hear that a student is falling behind, but without accurate data, how will they ever know that a student has, in fact, fallen behind?

High-Quality Instructional Materials: Building a Solid Foundation

High-quality instructional materials in literacy and math are essential for providing students with a solid foundation in these core subjects. This alignment helps teachers focus on delivering content that builds essential skills and knowledge incrementally, reducing gaps in student understanding. Investing in high-quality instructional materials also helps states address educational disparities. These materials support a structured approach to learning that has been shown to be effective for all students, including those who are struggling. The Texas State Board of Education recently voted to adopt high-quality, content-rich open education resources. The textbooks are available online, allowing parents and guardians to stay informed about what their child is studying. Teachers also have a letter from each unit of the textbook that they can send home to parents.

College and Career Pathways: Preparing Students for the Future

In 2024, college and career pathways remained a focal point across the nation, with states committing more than $105.6 million in new funding to drive meaningful progress in this policy area. In Indiana and Florida, efforts will focus on enhancing pathways tied to credentials of value-industry-recognized qualifications that improve students’ employability and earning potential. Florida will also expand hands-on, career-connected learning through policies promoting intermediaries and Career Scholarship Accounts, which offer high school students real-world work experience and scholarships toward career education. In Tennessee, state leaders will explore opportunities to enhance college and career pathways for students.

Outcomes-Based Funding: Incentivizing Student Success

In 2023, Texas led the way with a groundbreaking policy that rewards community colleges for helping students earn degrees and credentials that hold real value in the workforce. Outcomes-based funding encourages institutions to center their programs around student success. By tying funding to student outcomes-such as earning recognized credentials, gaining employment in relevant fields or meeting enlistment requirements-states can create a system that prioritizes students’ readiness for enrollment, enlistment or employment upon graduation.

Read also: Becoming a Neonatal Nurse

School Choice: Expanding Educational Options

School choice was picking up steam before the pandemic. Policymakers are eager to meet parents’ demand for different types of educational options and opportunity.

Innovative Teacher Recruitment and Support: Addressing Workforce Challenges

As teacher shortages and workforce challenges persist, states across the country may prioritize innovative teacher recruitment and support policies in 2025. State-sponsored teaching apprenticeships, for instance, provide aspiring educators with hands-on experience and mentorship, creating a structured pathway for individuals from various backgrounds to enter the profession. Our approach also includes targeted incentives to make teaching a more appealing and sustainable career choice.

Limiting Cell Phone Use in Schools: Creating Distraction-Free Learning Environments

Following the phone-free momentum from ExcelinEd’s successful 2024 National Summit, an increasing number of states are exploring policies to limit cell phone use in schools, recognizing the importance of distraction-free learning environments for students’ academic success and mental health. A range of approaches are being implemented across states, from offering guidance on best practices to providing funding for districts that adopt phone-free policies. Early evidence from schools that have gone phone-free shows potential for improved academic performance, reduced behavioral issues and more meaningful social interactions among students.

Higher Education: Navigating Shifting Sands

The beginning of the new presidential administration has brought significant changes and challenges for higher education leaders, including presidents, chancellors, and governing boards. Public institutions in a growing number of states have received directives to eliminate DEI-related staff positions and programs focused on increasing diversity in student enrollment and faculty hiring. At the federal level, the executive branch has introduced policies that affect how private institutions manage admissions, respond to campus protests, and address concerns related to anti-Semitism, with potential implications for federal grants eligibility.

Declining Public Confidence and Enrollment Challenges

Public confidence in higher education has continued to decline, influenced by ongoing concerns over tuition prices and questions about the value of degrees in today’s job market. Besides addressing the need to regain public support for and trust in higher education, institutions face the need to sustain enrollments as the demographic tide of young, prospective students has finally turned. International-student enrollments could be impacted by changes to visa eligibility and travel regulations.

Accreditation and Federal Oversight

Accreditation could change under the new administration, which has expressed interest in replacing current accreditors and overhauling the existing system. The new administration’s plans to increase immigration enforcement, including the deportation of individuals without legal authorization, present complex considerations for colleges and universities.

Executive Actions and Judicial Review

The new president, rather than pursuing the traditional regulatory revision process, issued a series of executive orders aimed at accelerating policy changes. Federal courts from the district level to the Supreme Court have played an active role in interpreting the limits of executive authority, regardless of which party controls the White House. During the Biden Administration, courts issued rulings that blocked several regulations and executive actions, including those related to Title IX and student loan forgiveness.

Free Speech and Academic Freedom

Governing boards, presidents, and chancellors face the challenge of upholding the right to free speech-even loud, contentious, and controversial speech-and protecting academic freedom, while not allowing protests to interfere with the essential education mission of their institutions.

Financial Outlook and Endowment Growth

The financial outlook for colleges and universities over these next two years is uncertain. One good sign was the continued growth of college and university endowments, which rose 11.2 percent on average in 2024 for the 658 largest endowments. There was good funding news for public colleges and universities at the state level. The strong economy allowed states to boost support for public higher education institutions by 10.2 percent for fiscal 2024, to $126.5 billion, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO). But the National Association of State Budget Officers forecast that after several “extraordinary years of widespread, substantial surpluses (and) record-setting revenue growth,” states can anticipate only modest growth in their budgets for fiscal year 2025.

Tax Policy and its Impact on Higher Education

With full Republican control of Congress and the White House, a major federal tax package is expected in 2025, likely through budget reconciliation to extend provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and introduce new cuts. Key proposals include a sharp increase to the 1.4 percent excise tax on large private college endowments and an expansion of its scope. Other proposals would tax all scholarships and fellowships, including Pell Grants, and eliminate education-related tax benefits such as the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning credits, the student loan interest deduction, and tax-exempt bond interest. A plan to revoke nonprofit hospitals’ tax-exempt status could affect academic medical centers, while additional measures have raised concerns about how institutional activities-such as student group affiliations or international research-could impact institutions’ tax status.

Intercollegiate Athletics: Navigating the Changing Landscape

Institutions small and large are grappling with the upheaval in intercollegiate athletics that has fractured the student-athlete model. The professionalization of big-time college sports-with players’ making thousands from marketing their name, image, and likeness and their ability to switch schools to go to the highest bidder-might have unseen consequences. A pending $2.8 billion settlement between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and past and current Division I players could have a ripple effect on institutions outside the so-called “power” conferences.

K-12 Education: Addressing Systemic Challenges

American education issues have reached a tipping point. Reading and math scores are at their lowest levels in decades. Chronic absenteeism is rising. At the same time, federal support is faltering. Many of today’s biggest challenges have deep roots. But we’re now in a moment where traditional fixes are no longer enough. Many people point to the pandemic as the moment when American education began to unravel. But the truth is, COVID-19 didn’t start the crisis. Student performance remains deeply impacted. National reading and math scores have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Only 28% of 8th graders scored proficient in math on the latest NAEP assessment. The effects are most severe in low-income districts, where school closures, chronic absenteeism, and staffing instability have compounded over time.

The Teacher Shortage: A Critical Challenge

A key driver of these outcomes is the worsening teacher shortage. Today, over 400,000 classrooms are either vacant or filled by educators who do not meet state certification requirements. Schools facing the most acute shortages often rely on full-time substitutes or underqualified hires to cover core instruction. This has become especially urgent in specialized areas. The special education teacher shortage continues to leave students with IEPs without the legally required support they need to succeed.

American schools have high student-to-teacher ratios driven by a massive K-12 teacher shortage. Faced with disciplinary problems and low school funding, schools have focused on staffing classrooms at all costs. When students are taught by full-time substitutes or uncertified staff, learning gaps widen. Graduation rates, reading levels, and subject proficiency all decline. This is no longer a temporary setback. Across the country, states and school districts are experimenting with ways to solve the teacher shortage.

Empowering Schools: A Broader Approach

Empowering schools in 2025 requires a broader approach. School boards are navigating a complex environment shaped by shrinking budgets, low teacher salaries, and ongoing vacancies. Department of Education and billions in funding still frozen, many districts are left without clear federal guidance on compliance, certification, or program oversight. This instability is forcing local leaders to make high-stakes decisions without a safety net. Curriculum rules vary from state to state. Certification pathways are being rewritten. Meanwhile, students are still struggling to catch up after years of disruption.

The Role of Technology: Enhancing Instruction and Streamlining Tasks

In this landscape, schools need more than funding. Administrative tools can streamline tasks like grading, scheduling, and feedback. Instructional platforms can expand course offerings and help students stay engaged. But technology alone is not a solution. It requires the right training, support, and fit. If a tool doesn’t save teachers time or enhance instruction, it can quickly become a burden.

Prioritizing Teacher Access, Student Support, and Scalable Instructional Models

Many education policies focus on accountability without addressing the American education issues that hinder progress. Federal funding freezes and department-level restructuring have left many districts without reliable guidance on compliance, certification, or program oversight. To truly empower schools, policy changes must prioritize teacher access, student support, and scalable instructional models that align with local goals. Districts need flexibility, not friction.

Innovative Instructional Models: Expanding Access to Qualified Teachers

Districts are finding success with new approaches that rethink how instruction is delivered. These solutions do more than fill gaps. Innovation in education is not about replacing teachers. Just like teachers and schools, students need more support than ever. In 2025, American public school students are still navigating disrupted learning, chronic absenteeism, and widespread academic gaps.

Understanding Student Needs: Beyond Test Scores

Understanding student needs goes far beyond test scores. Demographics also matter. Most importantly, students themselves should have a voice. Instructional quality still matters most. But as teacher shortages persist and budgets tighten, access to these educators is increasingly uneven. Districts can improve instructional quality by supporting the teachers they do have and rethinking how to deliver high-quality instruction when traditional hiring isn’t possible.

In the face of persistent American education issues, many are turning to new instructional models that expand access to qualified teachers and reduce reliance on full-time substitutes. Mental health services and tutoring are also critical, but they need to match student realities. Remote counseling, for instance, won’t help students without internet access. While some challenges are unique to individual schools, the most effective solutions are built to scale.

Inclusion and Cultural Representation: Creating Equitable Learning Environments

Inclusion is not just an ideal. Students from low-income households, multilingual learners, and those with disabilities continue to face systemic barriers that lead to lower academic outcomes. One of the most overlooked American education issues is the lack of cultural representation in curricula. Students are more likely to engage with classes that represent them and speak to their experiences and interests. Districts can promote inclusivity by encouraging teachers to incorporate a wide range of cultures, histories, and perspectives across subjects. This does not require a complete curriculum overhaul. Feedback from students and families is key. Universal design for learning ensures that instruction is designed to accommodate all learners from the beginning. Effective UDL practices include using flexible learning materials, integrating visuals and audio options, and ensuring all digital content meets accessibility standards. As students progress through the school year, they acquire social and emotional skills in addition to knowledge. One easy way to add SEL into the classroom is to offer more small-group and project-based learning. Tools like closed captioning, screen readers, adjustable font settings, and speech-to-text functions can empower students with disabilities and support multilingual learners.

tags: #education #policy #issues