Pam Good has a bold guarantee: If lawmakers set aside $340 million from the $20-plus billion school funding bill they’re currently debating, and dedicate the same amount in the next four budgets, she’s 100% certain she could solve Michigan’s education crisis.

Good is the founder of Beyond Basics, a non-profit literacy initiative that uses intense tutoring to rapidly improve student reading skills. She’s been at it for 17 years, has tutored roughly 25,000 students and boasts a success rate above 90%.

“We have an opportunity in Michigan to move the academic needle,” Good says. “What’s holding us back is literacy. If we went deep, we would go from 44th up to 20th up to 10th in the nation or higher.”

That’s been the elusive goal in Michigan for 25 years. Despite doubling school spending during that period and embarking on numerous education reform crusades, Michigan remains among the very worst states in education performance.

Test scores on reading almost never move upward. And there is no discernible correlation between spending on schools and classroom results.

Michigan Department of Education’s District Transparency Report says 57% of the state’s junior and senior high school students, or 384,000 kids, fall below the proficiency level in reading.

Those middle and senior high students are where Good wants to focus. Most have aged out of literacy efforts that are primarily directed toward elementary school pupils.

That’s how the Pellston School District is using Beyond Basics. Superintendent Stephen Seelye says in the upper grades, there’s less room in the curriculum to focus on literacy.