Education Policy

We recognize education as the key to re-establishing the full glory of past civilization. Reading is of course vital to understanding historical written records, and understanding of other subjects is important to re-creating their culture, science, and technology. As such, we provide as much education as we can afford, and possibly a little more. Our two states have very similar policies, and one difference is found at grades 7-12.

Elementary school (K-6) is free and mandatory in both states. All students must attain literacy, and demonstrate basic proficiency in arithmetic, American history and culture, and the sciences in order to graduate. Students may be held back for up to two years to help them pass.

Our one surviving university, Wayne State University, is subsidized by both states. Scholarships are given on the basis of merit, based on an applicant's grades and the personal recommendations of teachers, skilled workers, and (in unusual cases) professors at the university itself. Applicants considered very talented attend for free, with smaller awards for the less capable.

In Michigan, high schools (7-12) are subsidized at up to 50% of their cost (based on need), but are not mandatory. About a third of Michigan's students attend high school.

In Ohio, middle school (grades 7 and 8) is mandatory, and subsidized up to full cost on the basis of need. Higher grades are not mandatory, and are subsidized like Michigan's. In addition, the top 10% of graduating sixth graders in each subject (usually around 15% of the total student pool) are granted free tuition throughout high school. They're called the "Lucky Sevens", and most of them go on to college. (A few seventh and eighth graders who bloomed later are also promoted to being Lucky Sevens after their talents are discovered.) A bit more than half of Ohio's students attend high school.

Ohio can manage this generous program for two reasons. One, Michigan's population is much more dispersed, since there are many small farming and fishing villages northeast of Flint, especially along the coast. Teaching the children in these villages requires more, smaller schools, which are more expensive to run (per capita) than Ohio's fewer, larger schools. Two, Ohio isn't as generous with help for the poor, and the savings are mostly used to fund high schools.