Detroit free press election
That could embolden Whitmer to lay out a more progressive agenda than she has in the past, and that would likely include bigger increases in education spending.ÄŻor now, her campaign hasnât put forward a slate of new education priorities, but instead has been touting her first-term accomplishments. There is a chance that either or both chambers of the Legislature could flip in November. She won her 2018 election against Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette by nearly 10 percentage points. Whitmer is a former county prosecutor and legislative leader with progressive bona fides, and an agenda that stood little chance to succeed under a Republican-controlled Legislature. With the GOP primary over, she now has a chance to define herself for general election voters, who may not have been paying attention during primary season. (DeVos resigned within days of the riot.)Äixon is a political newcomer who is relatively unknown around the state. Dixonâs primary challengers seized on that connection in campaign ads that called DeVos a turncoat for her criticism of Trump over the Jan. Families could then use the scholarships for private-school tuition or to supplement public-school education with, for example, tutoring, books, speech therapy, or extracurricular programs.ÄeVos and her family were among Dixonâs top campaign contributors and fundraisers. education secretary in President Donald Trumpâs administration, the proposal would allow Michigan residents to contribute money to scholarships in lieu of state taxes. Strongly backed by Betsy DeVos, who was U.S. Rather, she supports an Opportunity Scholarship program that Whitmer vetoed last year. In an interview last month with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan, Dixon said her top education priority is ensuring âmoney follows the student.â She says that isnât the same as vouchers, which she hasnât taken a public position on. She included those items in her 2022-23 school aid budget proposal but was unable to get them through the Republican-controlled Legislature. She counts among her accomplishments closing the school funding gap and tripling the number of school literacy coaches, but she faced criticism over decisions she made in 2020 around pandemic-related school closures and mask mandates.ÄȘ second term would give her another chance to advance her agenda of paying teachers retention bonuses, funding onboarding programs for new teachers, and piloting a home-based version of the Great Start Readiness preschool program. Whitmer has prioritized early childhood education, teacher recruitment, and school-based health centers. Tudor Dixon, a former conservative commentator and businesswoman in the steel industry, topped a field of five in Tuesdayâs Republican primary. When Michigan voters fill out their ballots for governor in November, theyâll pick between a school choice advocate who wants to strictly enforce the stateâs third-grade retention law and an incumbent with a record of increasing school spending without raising taxes.