Michigan Ranked 44th in Reading. Its New Budget Bets on the Training That Changes Classrooms.

Last updated: July 3, 2026

When a state ranks 44th in national reading scores, with 45 percent of its fourth graders unable to hit even the basic level on the country’s largest standardized test, the standard political response is to announce spending. Michigan announced a lot of it: $502 million for literacy, embedded in a bipartisan $84 billion budget signed into law in the early hours of July 4th after an all-night legislative session. But the number buried inside that headline is the one parents everywhere should be studying: $75 million specifically for retraining teachers in the science of reading — not new programs, not new materials, but a fundamental change in what a teacher does the moment a struggling reader sits across from them.

TL;DR

Michigan passed an $84 billion FY2027 budget on July 3, 2026, with $502 million in literacy investments, including $75 million for LETRS science-of-reading teacher training.
Michigan ranked 44th in 4th-grade reading on the 2024 NAEP; only 25 percent of 4th graders reached proficiency, and 45 percent scored below the Basic level.
LETRS is a 160-hour, IDA-accredited program that trains educators in phonological awareness, phonics, morphology, fluency, and comprehension — changing teacher method rather than adding another curriculum.
More than 5,000 Michigan educators completed LETRS; 7,000 more are enrolled; the program remains voluntary, with legislators pushing for a K-6 mandate.
At least 11 states have banned three-cueing outright; Michigan is funding the replacement training alongside curriculum approval — a step most states have not taken.

Michigan passed its largest-ever state budget with a major literacy investment. Here are the questions parents ask most about what that funding means for their child.

Common questions

What is LETRS training and why does it matter for struggling readers?

LETRS stands for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. It is a 160-hour professional development program accredited by the International Dyslexia Association that trains teachers in the full science of how the brain learns to read: phonological awareness, phonics, morphology, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It replaces approaches like three-cueing, which trained children to guess words from pictures and context — what cognitive scientists describe as what struggling readers do. Teaching it as a method makes reading difficulty worse, not better.

My child’s school says it uses the “science of reading.” How do I know if that is real?

Ask specifically: has the teaching staff completed LETRS or an equivalent IDA-aligned training program? Is completion required for all K-6 teachers or optional? What phonics curriculum is in use, and was it selected from a state-approved evidence-based list? A school that uses the phrase without requiring structured professional development from its teachers is likely using the label without the practice behind it.

Is phonics enough, or does my child need more than that?

Phonics is necessary and not sufficient on its own. Reading draws on several systems at once: language, attention, working memory, and processing speed. That is why LETRS includes morphology, vocabulary, and comprehension alongside phonics — and why a child who sounds out words correctly but still struggles to pull meaning from a page needs support beyond decoding alone. The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition update explicitly acknowledges this multi-system picture.

My child is behind in reading. Should I get a screening first?

A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. It helps identify whether a child is at risk for a reading challenge like dyslexia and points to which specific skills need practice. If your child might need formal accommodations such as an IEP or 504 plan, or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, a professional evaluation is the route to those supports — a screener does not replace that. What it does is give you a place to start today, in language that builds your child up rather than boxing them in.

Michigan was 44th in reading. Its new budget puts $75M into LETRS — the IDA-accredited training that changes how teachers teach. Every state should be watching this one. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

What Michigan passed — and what the money covers

The $84 billion FY2027 budget, Michigan’s largest in state history, cleared both chambers after a marathon overnight session that stretched two days past the July 1 deadline. Education took a significant share: per-pupil base funding rose to $10,300, and the $502 million literacy package covers several layers. It includes $96.1 million for free pre-K through the Great Start Readiness Program, $50 million for high-impact tutoring with individualized, structured, evidence-based interventions, and $52.5 million total for regional literacy coaches — 420 of them statewide, more than triple the number from five years ago.

The largest single teacher-training line item is $75 million to continue implementing LETRS: Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. Developed by Dr. Louisa Moats and accredited by the International Dyslexia Association, LETRS is a 160-hour program delivered over two years. It teaches phonological awareness, phonics, morphology, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension — the full science of how print connects to language — rather than adding another curriculum to a shelf.

“This budget builds on our progress by strengthening student literacy,” Governor Gretchen Whitmer said after the budget passed. More than 5,000 Michigan educators have completed LETRS; 7,000 more are currently enrolled. Michigan’s State Superintendent Dr. Glenn Maleyko, who took office in December 2025, has made raising literacy rates his primary stated priority.

Author Quote "

This budget builds on our progress by strengthening student literacy, opening doors for more housing opportunity, protecting health care, fixing our damn roads, and lowering costs for all Michiganders.

What the coverage gets wrong

Most news coverage leads with '$502 million for literacy' — accurate and incomplete. Research on reading instruction is clear: spending on programs without changing teacher method rarely moves outcomes for struggling readers. Decades of cognitive science (Rayner's eye-tracking work, Seidenberg's analysis of three-cueing, the IDA's 2025 multi-system definition update) converge on the same point: it is the classroom moment, not the curriculum binder, that determines whether a child who struggles to decode text gets better. The $75 million for LETRS is the line item that addresses that moment. A parent reading only the headline figure would miss the distinction that separates literacy spending that reaches classroom method from spending that doesn't.

Why teacher training matters more than the total dollar figure

Most literacy investments buy programs. Curricula, decodable readers, assessment platforms — they land on teacher desks, get shelved between the old materials and the next professional development binder, and leave classroom method unchanged. The research on why is not subtle. Decades of eye-tracking studies by cognitive scientist Keith Rayner established that skilled readers process nearly every letter on the page and lean more on letter-sound information as they improve. Guessing from pictures, context, and sentence shape is what struggling readers do. Cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg has called the guessing-based approach — the three-cueing system that dominated American classrooms for two decades — descriptive of how poor readers read, not a method for building strong ones. Emily Hanford’s 2019 investigation Sold a Story put this in front of the public; states are still passing corrective laws in 2025 and 2026, with Alabama banning three-cueing outright earlier this year.

What LETRS does is replace that framework at the teacher level, not the program level. A curriculum change tells a teacher what to do. LETRS changes how a teacher understands reading development — so they respond to any struggling reader in any moment rather than following a script. The IDA accreditation matters here: the International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition update acknowledged that reading challenges involve multiple systems — phonological processing, language, working memory, processing speed — and that early, targeted intervention grounded in that science is the lever. LETRS is how a teacher learns to pull it. For parents navigating dyslexia or other reading challenges, this distinction — method versus materials — determines whether a child in a well-funded classroom actually gets better.

Michigan is not alone in recognizing this. At least 11 states have banned three-cueing in recent years; eight more have bills moving in 2025-2026. But banning the wrong approach without funding the replacement training leaves teachers without a road map. Michigan is attempting both: a state-wide curriculum review to approve evidence-based programs, and the teacher PD to back it up. The $75 million for LETRS is the piece most states still treat as optional — and Michigan has made it a budget line.

Key Takeaways:

Michigan's $75M for LETRS targets teacher method, not programs: The IDA-accredited training changes how educators understand reading development, replacing guessing-based approaches with phonological science over 160 hours of PD.

Michigan ranked 44th in 4th-grade reading before this budget: Only 25 percent of Michigan fourth graders reached proficiency on the 2024 NAEP, with 45 percent scoring below the Basic level.

The training is voluntary, not yet mandatory: Lawmakers are pushing to require LETRS for all K-6 teachers; as of this budget, 5,000 educators completed it and 7,000 more are enrolled out of 90,000+ statewide.

What parents should ask before the money reaches a classroom

Michigan’s investment is significant — and it is not yet a mandate. State legislators are actively pushing to require LETRS completion for all K-6 teachers; as of this budget, the training remains voluntary. That gap matters. Five thousand educators completed it; 7,000 more are enrolled. Michigan has more than 90,000 K-12 educators. Voluntary take-up, however enthusiastic, leaves many classrooms unchanged, and a child in a classroom where the teacher has not completed the training is in the same position as before the budget passed.

For parents, this points to a specific, answerable question to bring to every school meeting: Has your child’s teacher received structured reading training such as LETRS or equivalent IDA-aligned professional development — and is it required in this building? A district that received state literacy funds and directed them to curriculum packages without teacher PD on method is one where the funding might not reach your child. A district where LETRS completion is tracked and growing is one where the odds are shifting.

Hold Michigan’s investment with honest optimism. The direction is right, the allocation is smarter than most, and the pressure to make it mandatory is building. The tradeoff to name honestly: voluntary programs, even well-funded ones, move more slowly than the kids waiting for better instruction. Ask the question. Track the answer. The science of reading works at home too — productive, structured reading practice outside school aimed at the specific skills a child needs is the same evidence-based lever Michigan is funding its teachers to use.

Parents have every right to know whether the money their state spends on literacy is reaching their child’s classroom — or sitting in a curriculum closet while the same guessing-based method runs another year. The system that trained two generations of teachers to guide children away from letter-sound decoding did not fix itself when the research arrived; it took investigative journalism, lawsuits, and state bans to start the shift. Michigan is further along than most, and voluntary programs still leave too many classrooms unchanged. You are your child’s most motivated advocate, and the science of reading works at home too. The Learning Success All Access program gives you the multi-system reading tools — phonics through comprehension — to build those skills alongside whatever is happening at school.