Tonight in Livingston County, every Republican candidate for governor showed that they are in lockstep to implement a DeVos-style agenda that would decimate public schools and harm Michigan’s students, parents, and educators. 

The wrong-for-Michigan vision gubernatorial Republicans shared on stage is no different from what they’ve been saying on the campaign trail for months on end:

• James Craig advocated for cutting funding for underperforming public schools, saying that the public education death spiral that would come from altering Michigan’s constitution to funnel taxpayer resources to private schools would somehow spur school districts to improve, arguing that when “you incentivize progress, magical things begin to happen.” He described his support for transforming Michigan’s public education system to one that would increase educational inequality as “absolute.”

• Kevin Rinke was critical of Governor Whitmer’s recent veto of “the latest effort by legislative Republicans to create a school voucher system in Michigan” that could have reduced state investment in education by upwards of $500 million annually, signaling that he would have signed it into law instead. Additionally, he advocated for transforming Michigan’s public education into a voucher system, lacking detail on how such an initiative would operate and be funded.

• Like Rinke, Tudor Dixon also showed her support for stripping critical funding from public schools and announced that repealing Michigan’s constitutional ban on using public money for private education was a top priority for her campaign. 

• Perry Johnson has already communicated to Michiganders that he’s “not interested in the same things” as them – such as a robust public education system that keeps students, parents, and educators first. One of his many misleading ads spamming the airwaves fails to point out the disastrous impacts his backwards education agenda would have on public schools across Michigan. Johnson’s extreme education agenda – implementing a voucher-style funding scheme and funneling resources from struggling schools – would dismantle public education as we know it.

• Ryan Kelley has pledged to “happily and enthusiastically as governor, sign an executive order that eliminates the Department of Education” – another unconstitutional proposal.

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