From the Office of the Governor

A few months ago, I signed two new laws— Public Acts 123 and 124—which will strengthen our high schools curriculum requirements to ensure that every student in Michigan is prepared for college, technical training, or the workplace after graduation. This legislation would not have been possible without the strong support of the State Board of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan, the Michigan Legislature, education and business associations, educators, and parents throughout the state.

The new Michigan Merit Curriculum—regarded as among the best in the nation—will require all Michigan high school students, beginning with students entering eighth grade this year, to take a full complement of math, science, English, and other courses to earn their diplomas. Students also are required to have an online learning experience to prepare them for the kind of learning they will encounter in postsecondary education and the workplace. In addition, in order to compete in the global market, two world language credits are required of students beginning with students entering the third grade this year.

This curriculum will help students from Monroe to Marquette from New Haven to Grand Haven, have a greater opportunity for success after high school. It will also let Michigan students know: “We believe in you and we believe you can do it.”

Our new core curriculum is just one of the many new policies that have emerged from the December 2004 report of the Cherry Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth. When I asked that forty-person body, led by our Lt. Governor John Cherry, to find ways to double the number of college graduates in Michigan, it responded with a series of top notch recommendations that together constitute a revolution in education in Michigan.

That revolution draws its power from a little three letter word—“all.”

Our new high school curriculum aims to prepare all students for success in college, in technical training, and in the workplace. For the first time, all this year’s high school juniors will take a college entrance exam when we replace our high school Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test with an assessment that incorporates the ACT®. We are now creating a new generation of high schools around the state where the new three Rs—Rigor, Relationships, and Relevance will give all students the opportunity to succeed. And we are now just one step (and one house) away from creating my new $4,000 scholarship that will allow all students to continue their education beyond high school.

Taken together, the changes now underway in our education system are sending a powerful message to employers across the country and around the globe—Michigan will have the nation’s best-educated workforce.

With Michigan’s economic future on the line, the time for piecemeal change in education in our state is over. From setting high standards in our K-12 schools to giving every young person the opportunity to earn a college degree, we are now committed to enacting fundamental change in our education system. Whether we are focused on the needs of our own sons and daughters or the health of our state’s economy, this moment in time demands no less.