Senator Aric Nesbitt

Michigan's Auditor General just put a hard number on a soft promise. A September performance audit of the Going Pro Talent Fund found that about $59.5 million in awards reimbursed employers for new-employee on-the-job training that did not meet the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity's own rule that funded training lead to a transferable, industry-recognized credential. That was roughly a third of Going Pro awards over the nearly three-year review window. Bridge Michigan reported...

The latest M-STEP scores should stop every parent cold. Less than 40 percent of Michigan third-graders are proficient in reading. On the spring 2026 English Language Arts test, just 38.2 percent scored proficient, the lowest third-grade reading result in the exam's 12-year history and down again from 38.9 percent the year before.

Session came back last week. Families in Southwest Michigan expected a session about costs, roads, and kids who still cannot read. Senate Democrats used their first real floor day to pass nine bills their own governor vetoed this summer. The package sat in limbo for more than 18 months. That is not a plan to make it in Michigan.