Editorial from the Freep- Why is Michigan so far behind other states in Education?

I know no one that says "we're number 47." If you are a teacher in Michigan you have to have a collective state ranking and Michigan trails all but South Dakota, Alaska and West Virginia.  How did this happen? When I was teaching in Florida and Georgia several years ago, these states were just coming off of being in the bottom ten states when it comes to educational achievement. During my time there, MAP testing, state standards and rigor were the rage and teacher evaluations were tied to the data. (Whether it was entirely fair is another matter) but my students were above the norm but in many classrooms around the state that is not the case. How did Michigan get there? Why is Michigan using the standards from other states including math? In Waterford for instance, some schools use Georgia standards in math. The Detroit Free Press takes a look at this dilemma facing our schools. The link to the Detroit Free Press editorial is below the graph.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014304130042