Education Quote by John Engler

Calling Michigan’s teaching “outstanding” isn’t just praise; it’s a strategic move in the perpetual trench war over who’s to blame for schools that don’t meet expectations. John Engler, a Republican governor forged in the 1990s era of budget battles and “reinvent government” rhetoric, is doing something politicians often do when education becomes a political liability: separating the labor force from the system. By elevating classroom teachers, he protects himself from sounding anti-education while keeping room to argue that the machinery around them needs discipline, restructuring, or tougher accountability.

The line is carefully engineered to feel like a plainspoken compliment, but its real target is suspicion. If teachers are “outstanding,” then stalled outcomes can be framed as the fault of bureaucracy, unions, local boards, parenting, poverty, or the state’s old funding formula - anywhere but the person at the front of the room. It’s also a coalition-building gesture: parents like hearing their kids’ teachers are heroes; teachers like being publicly valued; reform-minded voters like the implied contrast between good individuals and a sluggish institution.

Engler’s “I think” is doing work, too. It softens the claim into reasonable belief rather than a statistic anyone can interrogate. “We’ve got” makes it communal - not “they,” not “those teachers,” but a shared asset. The subtext is reassurance with a knife behind it: admiration for the people, pressure on the system, and a preemptive defense against accusations that reform equals disrespect.