State data shows Black students attend school less consistently than white students. The data doesn't tell the full story, experts say, like the lack of transportation around them to get them to school.

And newly released test scores, too, show about three out of every four of Michigan's economically disadvantaged third graders did not pass 2025's state reading test, compared with nearly two of four students not considered economically disadvantaged. The missing context there, advocates say: Students in low-income areas are more likely to sit in crowded classrooms, unable to receive the individual attention they need.

Some call the disparities in numbers an achievement gap. Education advocates use what they say is a more apt phrase: an opportunity gap.

Five years ago, as demonstrators s

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