Michigan’s two major-party U.S. Senate candidates are clashing on how to improve education in Michigan.
Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers is facing Democratic former public health official Abdul El-Sayed in November’s election to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Gary Peters.
Wednesday in Pontiac, Rogers pointed to recent data showing less than 40% of Michigan third graders are reading at their grade level.
“It’s not just Pontiac, it’s not just Detroit. It’s everywhere. Can’t read at the fourth-grade level. Start doing the math. That is a disaster,” Rogers told reporters.
To address the problem, Rogers says he would channel federal money into programs teaching phonics skills.
El-Sayed’s campaign hit back at Rogers.
“Mike Rogers is being bankrolled by Betsy DeVos, and he’s doing her bidding to defund public education by supporting vouchers, cutting jobs for teachers,” said campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak.
Wozniak also pointed out Rogers has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, who’s been dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.
El-Sayed has a different plan, which he said will support public schools and invest more in educators.
El-Sayed said he wants to to tie any increase in the national defense budget to a proportional increase in national education funding to any equivalent increase in the national defense budget.
