Senate Bill No. 481, entitled

A bill to amend 2006 PA 317, entitled “An act to create certain entities in the Michigan strategic fund; to impose certain duties and responsibilities on those entities and on certain state employees and public employees; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,” by amending section 2 (MCL 125.1972), as amended by 2010 PA 337.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 49 Yeas—38

Albert Daley Lauwers Polehanki

Anthony Damoose Lindsey Runestad

Bayer Geiss McBroom Santana

Bellino Hauck McCann Shink

Brinks Hertel McDonald Rivet Singh

Bumstead Hoitenga McMorrow Theis

Camilleri Huizenga Moss Victory

Cavanagh Irwin Nesbitt Webber

Chang Johnson Outman Wojno

Cherry Klinefelt

Nays—0

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss

Senate Bill No. 544, entitled

A bill to amend 1980 PA 299, entitled “Occupational code,” (MCL 339.101 to 339.2677) by adding article 18A.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 50 Yeas—26

Albert Cherry Klinefelt Santana

Anthony Damoose McCann Shink

Bayer Geiss McDonald Rivet Singh

Brinks Hauck McMorrow Victory

Camilleri Hertel Moss Webber

Cavanagh Huizenga Polehanki Wojno

Chang Irwin

Nays—12

Bellino Hoitenga Lindsey Outman

Bumstead Johnson McBroom Runestad

Daley Lauwers Nesbitt Theis

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss

Senator Klinefelt asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator Klinefelt’s statement is as follows:

This bill, as well as Senate Bill No. 545 if I may speak to it—with COVID came the rise of storage facilities for bodies and we became aware that we don’t have any regulations with regard to transport and storage and treating bodies with respect and also treating them in a manner that is healthy for the rest of us. That’s all these bills are.

Senate Bill No. 545, entitled

A bill to amend 1979 PA 152, entitled “State license fee act,” (MCL 338.2201 to 338.2277) by adding section 43a.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 51 Yeas—26

Albert Cherry Klinefelt Santana

Anthony Damoose McCann Shink

Bayer Geiss McDonald Rivet Singh

Brinks Hauck McMorrow Victory

Camilleri Hertel Moss Webber

Cavanagh Huizenga Polehanki Wojno

Chang Irwin

Nays—12

Bellino Hoitenga Lindsey Outman

Bumstead Johnson McBroom Runestad

Daley Lauwers Nesbitt Theis

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss

Senate Bill No. 567, entitled

A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled “The revised school code,” by amending section 1280f (MCL 380.1280f), as amended by 2023 PA 224.

Senator Irwin offered the following substitute:

Substitute (S-3).

The question being on the adoption of the substitute,

Senator Johnson offered the following amendments to the substitute:

1. Amend page 5, line 14, after the second “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

2. Amend page 5, line 21, after the second “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

3. Amend page 7, line 11, after “than” by striking out “January 1, 2026,” and inserting “October 1, 2025,”.

4. Amend page 7, line 23, after “than” by striking out “January 1, 2026,” and inserting “October 1, 2025,”.

5. Amend page 7, line 28, after “August 1,” by striking out “2027,” and inserting “2026,”.

6. Amend page 8, line 15, after the second “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

7. Amend page 10, line 9, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

8. Amend page 20, line 18, after the second “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

9. Amend page 22, line 20, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

10. Amend page 23, line 5, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

11. Amend page 23, line 19, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

12. Amend page 23, line 29, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

13. Amend page 24, line 10, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

14. Amend page 24, line 18, after the second “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

15. Amend page 27, line 25, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

16. Amend page 28, line 18, after “the” by striking out “2027-2028” and inserting “2026-2027”.

The question being on the adoption of the amendments,

Senator Lauwers requested the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered, 1/5 of the members present voting therefor.

The amendments were not adopted, a majority of the members not voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 52 Yeas—18

Albert Hauck Lindsey Runestad

Bellino Hoitenga McBroom Theis

Bumstead Huizenga Nesbitt Victory

Daley Johnson Outman Webber

Damoose Lauwers

Nays—20

Anthony Chang Klinefelt Polehanki

Bayer Cherry McCann Santana

Brinks Geiss McDonald Rivet Shink

Camilleri Hertel McMorrow Singh

Cavanagh Irwin Moss Wojno

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss

The question being on the adoption of the substitute,

The substitute was adopted, a majority of the members serving voting therefor.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 53 Yeas—37

Albert Daley Klinefelt Polehanki

Anthony Damoose Lauwers Runestad

Bayer Geiss Lindsey Santana

Bellino Hauck McCann Shink

Brinks Hertel McDonald Rivet Singh

Bumstead Hoitenga McMorrow Theis

Camilleri Huizenga Moss Victory

Cavanagh Irwin Nesbitt Webber

Chang Johnson Outman Wojno

Cherry

Nays—1

McBroom

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss

Senators Johnson, Irwin, Hauck, Shink and Runestad asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator Johnson’s statement is as follows:

I rise to support my amendments to the S-3 substitute. I appreciate all the work that’s been put into this very important legislation. No skill is more vital to the success of Michigan students—our children—than the ability to read. Yet, currently, we are failing them. Two-thirds—that’s two out of three—of our state’s 4th and 8th graders cannot read at grade level. We heard testimony in committee that there are zip codes in Michigan where only 4 percent of our students can read at grade level. If we don’t fix this as soon as possible, that means 96 percent of these kids are robbed—robbed of their opportunities and a future they deserve. We cannot wait to address this crisis. Michigan’s third-grade reading scores have fallen 11 places since 2019, to 43rd in this country.

Currently in the substitute before us, important changes to help teachers identify and help students with reading difficulties would not take full effect until the 2027-2028 school year. This is a problem the Legislature should not drag their feet on. There are validated tests available right now from vendors to screen children for dyslexia and characteristics of dyslexia. Pushing back the implementation of this legislation a full two years from what was originally introduced is unnecessary and will hurt our children and our state.

My amendments would still give schools and test developers an additional nine months—a full year, 12 months in total—as opposed to the three months that was introduced in the original version. And my amendments would still give school districts an additional year from this time to prepare to meet the other requirements in the bill, moving the implementation date to the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year as opposed to the 2027-2028 school year which is contained in the current version of the S-3 substitute before us.

We heard compelling testimony in committee of the lifelong impacts that reading difficulties have on people in our state. How many more children must wait for us to act? I ask my colleagues to support these amendments.

Senator Irwin’s first statement is as follows:

First I want to just start with a hearty thank you for the Senator from the 24th District. It’s been great working with her and all the members here, all the colleagues, and talking about this important literacy legislation. I genuinely appreciate the vigor with which she advocated for her amendments and also all the nice things she said about the legislation. I agree that it’s vitally important.

But one thing about me that maybe most people in this room don’t know is that I’m originally from Sault Ste. Marie. When I was a small boy, I would stand on the shores of the St. Marys River and watch the lake freighters go by—you know, these beautiful thousand-footers, and they’re majestic machines. One of the things that you learn pretty quickly when you’re boating on the St. Marys River or using it in a recreational way is that these great ships don’t turn very fast. They turn very very slowly. I just want to remark that while the changes in Senate Bill No. 567 are incredibly important, our school systems are a big machine. They’re a big ship that’s hard to turn. While we’ve been negotiating with our school leaders about how and whether to implement this good policy, one of the things they’ve asked for is the time to implement these changes in a thoughtful, planful, and cost-efficient way. So, through the process we have made these changes to bring these changes into our literacy programs a little more slowly, and while I appreciate the sentiment of the Senator from the 24th District that this is urgently important, I also think we need to make this work. That’s why I urge a “no” vote and urge that we give our school districts the time to turn that massive freighter.

Senator Hauck’s statement is as follows:

To me these amendments make perfect sense. If you’re a parent, grandparent, what would you do if your child was having trouble reading and the school came, We understand that, but you have to wait two years before you could help? There’s no way anybody in this chamber would settle for that. I urge a “yes” vote on these amendments.

Senator Irwin’s second statement is as follows:

First I want to start with some thank-yous because this legislation we’ve been working on for a long time. I would be remiss if I didn’t start by giving a hearty thank you to my colleagues across the aisle from the 22nd and 23rd districts. This legislation didn’t start this year; it started years ago. There needs to be more working across the aisle and more bipartisanship in this chamber and I want to tell those colleagues directly here on the floor that even though there are times we disagree, this has been a good effort and I’ve really appreciated your work with me on this legislation. I also want to thank our Senate leadership for bringing this forward, and I particularly want to thank the chair of the Senate Education Committee, the Senator from the 5th District, who’s also the sponsor of the companion bill, Senate Bill No. 568.

With those thank-yous out of the way, I just want to say that this legislation is so important, so important. Literacy is the foundational skill upon which all further education is built and it is the key that unlocks every other subject in school. If kids don’t learn to read, if they don’t learn to become expert readers, then they’re not going to be able to be successful in their future education. When you zero in on literacy and reading, which is the foundational skill for education, what I found is that phonics are the foundational skill to literacy. Phonics and the ability to decode the language is essential to comprehension and vocabulary and all the other skills that we expect young people to attain.

This is why we need legislation to improve our literacy rates and to improve our literacy education here in Michigan. We propose to do that by weaving the science of reading into our early elementary assessments, into our instruction, and into our teacher training. Now, these changes are incredibly important for kids who struggle with characteristics of dyslexia. I want to thank all the families and all the students who came to committee to testify this year and in previous years to talk about how important it was to them. By screening for dyslexia and phonemic awareness, we can get kids the help they need earlier and we can make sure that we get them on track for their future education. But this isn’t just going to help kids with characteristics of dyslexia. The research shows that this helps all kids. Every single person needs to develop and master these foundational skills of literacy. This is incredibly important, not just because of everything we know about reading is fundamental, but because of the statistics we just heard a moment ago from the Senator from the 24th District. We have a real crisis with literacy in Michigan. If you listen to the people who do economic development, if you listen to the business leaders of Michigan, they say Michigan needs to be a top-10 state for education, should be a top-10 state for college attainment, a top-10 state for literacy. We are nowhere close to being a top-10 state on reading and literacy; we’re in the basement and getting worse. Michigan used to be a leading state, but now as my colleague from across the aisle pointed out, Michigan is 43rd in the nation in the most recent reading scores, and there are some districts that struggle even more with getting their kids to pass reading tests in 4th grade. It’s incredibly important to get those scores up.

It’s incredibly important to resource these young people with the skills to be successful, but it’s also important in another way. It’s important to improving the environment in our classrooms. One of the most powerful things I heard when talking to kids who struggled with dyslexia is when a young man said to me, When I was a student and I was struggling to read, I acted out and I did that because it was easier to be a bad kid than a stupid kid. We need to help these kids.

Senator Shink’s statement is as follows:

I rise today in support of Senate Bill Nos. 567 and 568. I want to thank all the people and Senators who’ve worked on this, especially my colleague from Washtenaw County who I know has been working on this for quite a few years. My husband and children are dyslexic and although my husband would not want me to be saying this here today, I think it’s important. When I met him, he said he could not read until he was in the 8th grade. He grew up in the ’60s and ’70s so that was then; we can do better now. My children are dyslexic, and I knew from a very young age that they would be because of signs they showed, even before they attained the age where we would expect them to read. School screening did not detect their dyslexia. The screening happened because of my advocacy and thousands of dollars. They were relieved when they had an official diagnosis when they were school age. For years I didn’t work out of the home to make sure they got the support they needed, and now they are all-A students at U of M, one in undergrad and one in grad school.

I know that when kids get what they need, they can succeed, but other kids were left to struggle. Some kids weren’t screened, and some didn’t get the help they needed. They struggled on, essentially alone. Sometimes this resulted in bad behavior. Others grew up thinking they were dumb. It leads to poor education and other outcomes when kids aren’t screened. They appreciate it. Dyslexia is something we can solve with proper intervention. Screening is the first step and I appreciate my colleagues’ work on this.

Senator Runestad’s statement is as follows:

I’m very pleased that we have come to this point when we’re having an opportunity to pass a bill package that is going to make, I believe, a difference. It isn’t a perfect bill package. I talked to activists. I’ve been working on this for years and years and years, and they’ve all said that Michigan is by far the worst state in the nation for a dyslexic student and the numbers never seem to move. In fact, as long as I’ve been here, they seem to be going down. If we don’t deal with dyslexia by identifying which students have an issue and then get the intervention, nothing is going to change. This is, even with an imperfect package, it’s a huge improvement over what we currently have. I can’t thank enough the Senator from the 15th District. We have had more discussions than I can remember over years and years about, What are the obstacles, and he has worked relentlessly to overcome those.

I remember back when I was in 4th grade, I had a very difficult time reading. Fortunately for me, there was a traveling troupe of college students who came into town. I have no idea who paid for it, but they were all college freshmen and sophomores. All of us who had identified as having a reading problem got, over the entire summer, intensive reading intervention that went on four hours per day for the entire summer. It was all phonics-based. I immediately began to decode and figure this out. It was such a—important thing for me, so I’m very pleased we’re doing it. Thank you.

Senate Bill No. 568, entitled

A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled “The revised school code,” (MCL 380.1 to 380.1852) by adding section 1531e.

The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows:

Roll Call No. 54 Yeas—38

Albert Daley Lauwers Polehanki

Anthony Damoose Lindsey Runestad

Bayer Geiss McBroom Santana

Bellino Hauck McCann Shink

Brinks Hertel McDonald Rivet Singh

Bumstead Hoitenga McMorrow Theis

Camilleri Huizenga Moss Victory

Cavanagh Irwin Nesbitt Webber

Chang Johnson Outman Wojno

Cherry Klinefelt

Nays—0

Excused—0

Not Voting—0

In The Chair: Geiss