This article originally appeared in The Detroit News May 7, 2026.

Michigan’s largest teachers union has named Gov. Whitmer the “Champion of Education,” despite her record of significant declines in student achievement and record-high school spending.

The Michigan Education Association created a new award to honor the governor’s impact on education during her time in office: a time marked by the rapid-fire repeal of critical reforms that had been put in place to improve student achievement, school accountability and educator quality.

The fact that student achievement on national and state tests plummeted to new lows while per-pupil spending reached new highs under Whitmer’s leadership eluded the union’s celebratory remarks.

To the governor’s credit, she admitted in her 2025 state of the state address that the state’s record per-pupil spending wasn’t working to turn around the achievement crisis.

But the MEA elided these troubling facts, instead celebrating the governor for investing more taxpayer dollars in education. The union also praised Whitmer for repealing laws designed to support student success by raising the performance standard for schools.

One of those was the Read by Grade Three law. The law included a provision that required third graders to achieve a certain proficiency standard in reading before advancing to fourth grade. The provision was only in place for two years before the governor repealed it in 2023. Now, with new literacy laws in place, every student is promoted to fourth grade regardless of whether he or she can read. Yet students need a strong reading foundation to learn the more complex subject material assigned during fourth grade and beyond.

Conversely, some southern states like Mississippi have adopted literacy reforms that include third-grade retention and have produced substantial achievement gains as a result.

Whitmer also repealed the Michigan School Grades law, enacted to enhance transparency and accountability for public school performance. Under the law, the state used different performance metrics to assign a letter grade to every public school. The letter grade system allowed parents to understand clearly how their school performed relative to other schools in the state.

The governor also undid reforms passed in 2011 that helped ensure students learned from the most effective teachers. The 2011 reforms gave school officials the authority to make personnel decisions with the goal of increasing the quality of teachers who staff public schools. By prohibiting unions from bargaining over subjects like teacher retention, placement, evaluation and compensation, school officials could adopt policies that prioritized teacher performance over years in the classroom.

By undoing these reforms, the governor put these subjects back on the bargaining table, allowing unions to push for policies that favor the interests of teachers over the welfare of students.

The governor also replaced the state’s rigorous teacher evaluation system with a watered-down version, making it harder for school officials to separate the highest-performing teachers from those just making the grade. And the new evaluation system lacks the reliability and accuracy needed to support educators in their professional growth.

Taken together, these changes mean classrooms will be staffed with less effective teachers.

“I ran for office to reverse decades of disinvestment in Michigan schools, and since day one, we’ve kept our promises,” Whitmer told the Midwesterner recently.

One of those promises was expanding “free” breakfast and lunch to every student in the state. She kept this one, and in doing so required taxpayers to cover the cost of school meals for wealthier families. Students in need already had access to free breakfast and lunch through the federal school meals program.

And she’s kept her promise of record spending on Michigan schools. The state spent nearly $24,000 per pupil last year. Unfortunately, there’s not much to show from that investment except a downward student performance trajectory and lower accountability standards.

Higher spending doesn't lead to better education results, especially when it isn't paired with accountability or other good policy ideas. In Michigan, the state has spent more while seeing achievement decline.

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