State Rep. John Reilly today testified before the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness in support of his plan to make a mandatory workforce readiness exam optional for high school students.

“For some students, the WorkKeys exam is a helpful stepping stone in their career paths,” said Reilly, of Oakland Township. “For others, the exam may be unnecessary and unrelated to their goals. Removing the WorkKeys requirement — while ensuring the workforce readiness exam is available to interested students — will create a balance and provide every student with resources for success.”

Under current law, the ACT WorkKeys exam is included in the mandatory Michigan Merit Examination (MME), which public schools must administer to 11th graders. Reilly’s House Bill 4038, paired with HBs 4037 and 4538, would remove the WorkKeys exam from MME requirements. The plan would prohibit the state Department of Education from requiring schools to administer the job skills exam as a condition of receiving state aid.

Schools would instead have discretion whether to offer a workforce readiness exam, but schools would be required to ensure any student who requests to take the exam has an opportunity to do so. The state would reimburse schools for providing the workforce readiness exam to their students.

Reilly’s plan passed the House with bipartisan support last year. It remains under consideration by the committee.

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