Michigan Merit Curriculum - Got Bucks??

I was very interested to read the Michigan Merit Curriculum Guidelines for the Online Experience. Since I am not a teacher, I have never had to read the curriculum guidelines and requirements for K-12 schools, so this was a good opportunity for me.


It was encouraging to see requirements for online experiences in the K-12 curriculum, but I am wondering how school districts are supposed to fund their technology enhancements in order to meet these requirements. I understand that the Curriculum Guidelines are not meant to spell out funding options and requirements, but the absence of any mention at all of funding was starkly apparent to me. I hope that funding support has been mandated or at least addressed in some way, but I’m not sure that it has been addressed properly.

While digging around for information on funding the Michigan Merit Curriculum, I found an interesting research article and report that assesses how Michigan is doing regarding the implementation of the MMC: http://closup.umich.edu/policy-reports/13/mandating-merit-assessing-implementation-of-the-michigan-merit-curriculum/  This article and research clearly shows that funding the MMC has been a struggle. I think that if “we” are going to mandate policies that will require funding, that we need to make provisions for the funding as well.