Low Reading Scores for MI Children

According to a new report, most of Michigan’s fourth graders are not reading proficiently, which is a key predictor of a student’s future educational and economic success. In a new Kids Count data snapshot, the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 81 percent of Michigan’s lower-income fourth-graders and 69 percent of all kids are not reading proficiently. The reports says Michigan’s spending on K-12 education dropped 20 percent, when adjusted for inflation, between 2003 and 2013. During that period, reading proficiency stayed about the same in Michigan while improving in most other states.