Michigan Republicans are livid over recent test scores that show the state’s students are continuing to fall further behind, while the state’s prominent Democrats are largely ignoring the crisis.

“I’m deeply disappointed by the latest Nation’s Report Card, which shows 75% of Michigan’s fourth graders and 76% of eighth graders are not reading at grade level,” Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, posted to X on Wednesday. “This is a crisis, and yet instead of raising the bar, Democrats have repealed key literacy policies, weakened teacher standards, and eliminated the A-F school grading scale – all while celebrating these decisions.”

She continued: “To make matters worse, @GovWhitmer vetoed $155 million in reading scholarships that could have provided families with much-needed support. And now, instead of addressing the crisis, she’s traveling the country promoting a children’s book,” the post read.

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“Michigan kids are falling behind, and their future is on the line,” Theis wrote. “We need to correct course – immediately.”

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton, who is running to replace Whitmer in 2026, told One America News “I think it’s time we have a governor that cares more about whether or not students are reading at grade level and being able to excel than trying to sell books in Martha’s Island or San Francisco,” he said, referring to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s book tours to support her True Gretch and the recent release of its Young Adult edition.

Nesbitt described the test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress released on Wednesday as “unbelievable.”

“Three out of four students can’t read at grade level!” he said.

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Michigan House and Senate Republicans echoed those concerns on X, as well, highlighting how legislation repealed at the behest of the state’s teachers unions have contributed to the crisis.

The response from the other side of the aisle, meanwhile, has been largely silence.

Whitmer has not publicly addressed the abysmal test results, despite edicts she issued during the coronavirus pandemic that shut down Michigan schools far longer than other states, a primary driver for the learning loss.

Instead, Whitmer offered a “Happy Lunar New Year, Michigan!” in her only post to X on Wednesday, when she appeared on The View to promote her book, allege President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are racist, and play coy about running for president in 2028.

The stop on The View is one of many in a second round of promotions for True Gretch, with the 2025 tour ironically devoted to the “Young Adult Edition.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who recently announced her campaign for governor, also did not directly address the test results, though she did acknowledge the need to improve education in a self-promoting post to X on Wednesday.

“I became a law professor, a Secretary of State, and a candidate for Governor – all with the tools that a public education gave me,” Benson wrote. “Let’s give every kid in Michigan a strong education – no matter what zip code they’re born in.”

Other prominent Michigan Democrats who have not proactively addressed the crisis include U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, Attorney General Dana Nessel, state Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, former House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, and others.

There was also no mention of the crisis on social media sites for Michigan House Democrats or Michigan Senate Democrats.

Michigan schools Superintendent Michael Rice acknowledged on Wednesday a lack of in-person instruction time is a major reason why fourth grade reading scores on the NEAP dropped from 21st nationally in 2022 to 32nd in 2024. Michigan eighth-graders slid from 10th to 18th.

Rice told The Detroit News changes in state law have allowed schools to close for an increasing number of reasons, while allowing educator professional development days without students to count as student instructional time. Those changes, he said, means some students receive less than 150 days of instruction per school year.

“The Legislature has chipped away at in-person classroom time with teachers, despite the lessons learned during the pandemic about reduced student learning through virtual instruction,” Rice said in a statement.

“The Legislature should roll back the 2019 and 2023 changes that have reduced in-person instructional days for students,” Rice told The News. “Students have lost days of in-person instruction, not simply as a function of the pandemic and the health-related decisions of individual families and school districts, but also because of legislative changes.”

Whitmer took office in January 2019, and Michigan Democrats in 2022 won their first government trifecta in 40 years.

Confronted by The News, Polehanki agreed instructional time is an issue lawmakers must address, but blamed the current reading crisis on the pandemic and “longstanding divestment” in education, ignoring the fact that reading scores were much better with smaller budgets before Democrats took control.

“Student performance is a complex, nuanced issue — and unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that can immediately reverse the effects that longstanding disinvestment and a global public health emergency have had on our education system,” Polehanki said in a Wednesday statement.

“But here in the Senate, we’ve championed education policy to help address lagging student performance in Michigan, from bipartisan bills to support students with dyslexia to intentional state budget investments for our students and districts that need it most. There are additional tools at our disposal that we’ll continue exploring to help work toward better student outcomes, including hours of instruction and science-based literacy trainings for educators.”

Education experts, meanwhile, are urging the state’s leaders to do more.

“I agree with (Rice) that instructional time is an issue that should be addressed,” Molly Macek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told The News. “We did see during the pandemic that students who weren’t in person the most were the most affected by learning losses.”

Macek argued a legislation approved by Democrats that reduced reliance on student performance data to evaluate teachers has eroded what should be a “robust, outcomes-based system.”

She continue: “How are districts evaluating their teachers’ effectiveness?… Are they providing incentives for the highest quality teachers to come to their district and work with students?”

Others, including NEAP commissioner Peggy Carr, have highlighted ongoing issues with chronic student absenteeism, as well, according to Bridge Michigan.

“We have seen an improvement in chronic absenteeism,” she said. “It’s not where it needs to be, but it’s particularly noteworthy among the lower performing students.”

Nearly 30% of Michigan students were chronically absent from school in the 2023-24 school year, or nearly 10% higher than before Whitmer closed schools for nearly a year amid the pandemic.

The chronic absenteeism – defined as missing more than 10% of the school year – is even higher in the state’s largest school systems: 65.8% in Detroit, and 41.2% in Grand Rapids, Chalkbeat Detroit reports.