In a low-energy, uninspired speech to the state that was light on policy specifics, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2025 State of the State address on Wednesday, Feb. 26, identified many of the economic, education, and regulatory issues facing Michigan.
It was Whitmer’s first SOS after Democrats lost trifecta control of the Governor’s office, House of Representatives and Senate last November. Seated behind her on the rostrum was Republican Speaker of the House Matt Hall, who has vowed to provide increased oversight of Lansing’s previously unfettered Democratic spending.
Among the several issues still facing Michigan residents in the sixth year of her administration are housing costs. The governor noted:
- Mortgage rates are above 6%.
- Home prices have shot up 50% in 4 years.
- The median age of a homebuyer hit 56 years old—an all-time high.
- And just a quarter of homes went to first-time buyers—an all-time low.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
MORE NEWS: Dixon, James lead Republican field in 2026 governor poll — in statistical tie with Benson in general
Men “buy just 8% of homes sold today, compared to single women, who buy 20%,” she noted, but offered few details on policies she would consider as remedies.
“This year, let’s invest $2 billion to build, buy, or fix nearly 11,000 homes,” she said, but didn’t specify how this would rectify the gender disparity among homebuyers.
Whitmer didn’t mention her proposed record-shattering $86 billion dollar budget for the upcoming year, and although she addressed her initial campaign mantra to “fix the damn roads,” she didn’t speak of her plan to raise the state’s marijuana tax to pay for it. Nor did she offer specifics on how much the state would need to raise its corporate income tax to generate enough revenue to repair Michigan’s roadways. Currently, the state’s CIT is 6%, but business groups estimate she would need to raise it to at least 8% to fulfill her goals.
Additionally, Whitmer asserted that President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs against Canada and Mexico would pose deleterious effects on Michigan’s economy, but noted that Trump did pause the tariffs prior to enacting them.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
“I’m also grateful the President decided to pause. As I’ve said before, I’m not opposed to tariffs outright. But they’re a blunt tool when the Michigan economy is on the line,” she said.
Whitmer also identified other issues facing Michigan residents.
On education, Whitmer talked about feeding school-aged children, but said little of substance about the dismal test results of the state’s students.
“When our kids get a great start, they get a strong foundation to build a good life” she said, adding:
- It’s why we feed all 1.4 million public school students free breakfast and lunch, saving families nearly $900 bucks a year per kid on groceries and valuable time every morning.
- It’s why we delivered free pre-K for all, so every 4-year-old can arrive at kindergarten better prepared to learn while saving their parents $10,000.
- It’s why we expanded 3,600 child care centers to serve 37,000 more kids.
MORE NEWS: Michigan college enrollment flatlines despite hundreds of millions in taxpayer funded scholarships
She also mentioned the recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress that show students in Michigan continue to lag behind their peers in other states five years after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic edicts shuttered schools to in-person instruction for nearly a year.
Whitmer noted:
- Just 24% of 4th graders can read proficiently.
- The same percentage of 8th graders are proficient in math.
She claimed that Michigan’s dire public school education results aren’t an anomaly, suggesting it was a a national rather than state crisis despite the state’s continually declining reading and mathematics proficiency among the state’s public school students.
“I get that this is a national trend, but the reality is that we invest more per-pupil than most states and achieve bottom 10 results,” she said.
The data in Detroit is on a whole different level of disappointment.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District came in dead last among 26 large urban school districts that participated in NEAP’s Trial Urban District Assessment, a distinction it has maintained since volunteering to participate in 2009, Chalkbeat Detroit reports.
The results for 2024 show a mere 7% of Detroit fourth-graders are proficient in math, while it was just 4% for eighth-graders. In reading, only 5% of fourth graders tested proficient, and 6% of eighth-graders.
In Michigan more broadly, 37% of fourth graders were proficient in math, and 25% in reading. About 24% of Michigan eight-graders tested proficient in reading and math.
MORE NEWS: Michigan’s former Republican Attorneys General call out Nessel’s ‘weaponization’ of office
For fourth-grade reading, the 2024 results for Detroit students are essentially the same as 2009, and two percentage points lower than when Whitmer took office in 2019, according to a NEAP district profile.
“We spend more and we get less. It’s not acceptable,” Whitmer said. “For our kids, let’s do better. Let’s face our literacy crisis with fierce urgency.
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. One personal appearance on the West Coast prompted Whitmer to move the date of her State of the State to the end of February.
Whitmer did receive a positive response among both Democrats and Republicans when she pledged to cut government red tape in licensing and permitting.
“A lot of our licensing rules and requirements don’t make sense,” she said.
“It’s why I directed the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, or LARA, to review all of Michigan’s regulations and find redundant rules,” she said to bipartisan applause.