The Republican Party used to tout itself as the party of ideas. But in Michigan—and across the country—it has devolved into the party of recycled failures. This week, Michigan Senate Republicans introduced a package of education bills so stale, so regressive, and so wildly out of step with research and reality that you could be forgiven for thinking it was a legislative time capsule from 2009. Honestly, reading them felt like sitting through Speed 2: Cruise Control, Jaws: The Revenge, Highlander II, Caddyshack II, Basic Instinct 2, Son of the Mask, Zoolander 2, Final Destination 17, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—all in one sitting (only one of these is not a real movie). Just like those sequels, these bills try to revive old scripts that didn’t work the first time. And Project 2025? It’s the ultimate box set—a greatest hits album of bad right wing policy ideas from the last 20 years. Spoiler alert: almost half of it has already been forced onto classrooms, campuses, and communities.

The Return of Punitive Retention

And now, the sequels are coming soon to a classroom near you. Leading the pack is a reboot no one asked for—just another rerun of a policy Michigan already tried, failed, and wisely left behind. But like any bad franchise that refuses to die, it’s back with a new number and the same harmful impact.

SB 376, introduced by Sen. Thomas Albert, seeks to reinstate third grade retention for students who don’t score high enough on a single reading test. Yes, the same disastrous policy Michigan wisely repealed just two years ago. Research has shown that mandatory retention based on standardized tests disproportionately harms students of color, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families. Worse, it has long-term negative effects on graduation rates and student well-being.

Retaining children in the third grade doesn’t magically teach them to read. It teaches them that failure is a punishment, not a challenge to overcome with support. It’s educational malpractice disguised as rigor.

More Bureaucracy, Less Trust in Teachers

SB 377 seeks to micromanage curriculum decisions by requiring the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to only approve math and science teacher prep programs developed with professors in those exact specialties. Not only is this an unnecessary intrusion into academic freedom, it reflects a deep distrust of teacher educators and the MDE. It assumes our current programs are being designed by amateurs. They aren’t.

Meanwhile, SB 380 amends the Teacher Tenure Act, and SB 381 adds new restrictions on what can be bargained between educators and school administrators. Together, these bills are part of a coordinated attack on the profession of teaching—designed to demoralize, devalue, and destabilize.

When you strip away teacher voice, you strip away the very people who best understand what students need.

Back to the A-F Shame Game

Then there’s SB 378, which proposes bringing back the A-F school accountability system. Remember that one? The simplistic, misleading, one-size-fits-all grading system that punishes schools serving the highest-need students and offers no real path for improvement?

A-F systems reduce the complex work of teaching and learning to a letter, erasing context, nuance, and equity. They don’t empower parents—they mislead them. And they don’t fix schools—they stigmatize them.

This isn’t accountability. It’s austerity theater.

Gutting Education Budgets—and Kids’ Meals

As if the policy proposals weren’t enough, Michigan Republicans are also floating education budgets that would eliminate:

• Free school breakfast and lunch programs.
• Student teacher stipends, which help diversify the educator pipeline.
• Literacy programs, which support struggling readers without threatening them with retention.

These cuts would erase the progress made by Democrats over the past two years and plunge Michigan back into a cycle of underfunded schools, exhausted teachers, and widening opportunity gaps.

So much for supporting families. So much for putting students first.

The Political Power Grab Behind It All

Make no mistake: this is more than just bad policy. It’s political engineering.

Republicans have also proposed making the State Board of Education a political appointment rather than a citizen-elected body. This is a power grab, pure and simple. By shifting control to the governor and legislature, Republicans aim to shield bad policy from democratic accountability and permanently politicize public education.

What does that mean for Michigan parents, educators, and students? It means education policy would no longer reflect the will of the people—it would swing violently depending on which party holds power. That’s not governance. That’s whiplash.

No New Ideas, Just New Ways to Hurt Public Education

When you step back and look at the big picture, a pattern becomes clear. Republicans are not offering new ideas for education in Michigan and beyond—they are repackaging old ones that have already been discredited by evidence and experience.

Retention? Failed.

A-F grading? Failed.

Attacks on teachers? Failed.

Privatization disguised as “accountability”? Failed.

Taking meals from hungry kids? Morally bankrupt.

These aren’t just bad ideas. They are cruel, calculated, and corrupt.

What We Should Be Doing Instead

If lawmakers genuinely cared about students and schools, here’s what they’d be doing instead:

• Expanding early literacy supports—not threatening kids with retention.
• Investing in teacher preparation and compensation—not stripping rights or micromanaging curriculum.
• Supporting school nutrition and wellness—not gutting meals and resources.
• Measuring school success through multiple measures of growth and equity—not reductive report cards.
• Preserving democratic control of our education system—because public schools belong to the public.

Final Word: We Deserve Better

People in America deserve better. Parents, educators, and students need more than a rerun of failure—they deserve vision, integrity, and leadership rooted in both community and evidence.

So, the next time you hear a lawmaker claim they’re “reforming education,” ask them this:

What exactly is new about your ideas?

If the answer sounds like something from the decades old Bush-era playbook or a recent Betsy DeVos op-ed, don’t be surprised. That’s all they have left.

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Call to Action: Contact your state senator and representative. Let them know that you reject recycled educational policies and demand a future-focused, community-based, equitable vision for public education. And keep the Michigan State Board of Education in the hands of the people—not the politicians.

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