New Michigan budget could prompt cuts, hard decisions in public schools

While many lawmakers and state politicians celebrated the budget passed in the early hours of Thursday morning , some public school superintendents across the state despaired.

"Absolutely baffled," said a superintendent in Northville. "Stunned," said one in Livonia.

And in Flat Rock, Superintendent Andrew Brodie said, "It's a pretty tough day to be an educator in the state of Michigan."

Superintendents were shocked when the budget, unveiled and finalized late in the week, did not increase per-pupil funding, the first time without an increase since the 2020-21 school year, as the pandemic bore down on Michigan. They also said they were disappointed to see cuts to mental health funding and what they decried as a lack of ongoing funding, creating budget confusion and setting off difficult conversations about the upcoming school year's budget. The panic induced by this year's state education budget among public school leaders may also be a part of mounting concern about budgets as federal pandemic aid dollars dry up and enrollment declines continue.

"There will, unfortunately, be consequences of this misguided budget felt in every school across Michigan," wrote Robert McCann, executive director of The K-12 Alliance of Michigan, in a statement.

Some of the dismay stems from a budget maneuver that frees up an estimated $589 million districts would have otherwise had to pay into teachers' retirement fund.

"Schools are getting more money," wrote state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township, and a member of the Senate's Education Committee, on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

But superintendents disagree with that assessment, arguing that money isn't guaranteed for future years, making it difficult to map out a budget and that cuts to other programs — notably school safety and mental health funds — will hurt public schools in what has already been a challenging year for funding.

Overall, the total school aid fund budget is $20.6 billion, down from $21.5 billion in the previous budget. The reasons behind that decline are complex, including declining state revenue.

Still, education advocacy groups praised what they wrote were bright spots in the year's K-12 education budget, including added money for literacy efforts, directed funds to English Learners and other vulnerable students, and an investment in after-school programs.

Budget challenges ahead

It's important to understand the context surrounding the concern of the latest budget: There's been long-standing fear brewing this year over school district budgets, as schools have largely spent federal pandemic aid and K-12 enrollment is down statewide, declining by 5% since the 2019-20 school year and by almost 20% in 20 years, since the 2003-04 school year, according to state data.

Those factors could create a perfect storm for districts, experts say. And some districts, such as Ann Arbor Public Schools and Wayne-Westland Community Schools, have already run into significant budget shortfalls, some leading to staff cuts.

So this year's budget, and notably that lawmakers declined to increase what's called the foundation allowance for district schools, which funds schools at $9,608 per student, shocked some district leaders.

"The zero per-pupil foundational increase is unreal to me," said RJ Webber, superintendent of Northville Public Schools. "Seeing that was awful."

Lawmakers defended the final budget, arguing that the money schools don't have to contribute to retirement funds is the equivalent of a foundation increase.

"This is the equivalent of a 3.9% foundation allowance increase for traditional K-12 school districts, which is MORE money than any of the per pupil increases that Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer, the House or the Senate put forth in their initial proposals," wrote state Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, chair of the Senate Education Committee, on X .

Webber said the retirement contribution rate reduction is not long-term or set in stone for future years. Without certainty over how the budget will look next year, it's very difficult for superintendents to set salaries for teachers and other staff members represented by unions, he said.

Other budget moves hurt, too.

In the last few years, Brodie said his district has added both school social workers and school resource officers (usually police officers stationed in schools) as school safety and mental health measures. Social workers, in particular, can often be some of the first to intervene when a student slips into a mental health crisis or when issues at home become too much.

The last budget included $328 million for districts to spend on mental health and school safety improvement. This year's budget scales back that funding to $25 million. For Brodie, that means looking in other places to cover the social work and school resource salaries. Though that money was classified as one-time funding, proposed budget plans by the governor and House had included $300 million for safety and mental health.

"At a time when schools have made a commitment to school safety and security and mental health supports for kids, the idea that we would take that from $214 a pupil to $17 a pupil, truly a 98% decrease next year is hard to fathom right now," said Andrea Oquist, superintendent of Livonia Public Schools.

More money to serve vulnerable students

State lawmakers did build on funding directed at educating vulnerable student groups: students with disabilities, students struggling to read and English Learners.

"While more needs to be done to ensure that every student has the resources they need to achieve at high levels, we look forward to continuing to work with our state leaders to build upon historic progress made last year," Amber Arellano, executive director of The Education Trust- Midwest, wrote in a news release.

Funding for students for schools that serve higher at-risk populations, which includes students from low-income areas, increased by $83 million. The budget also increased funding for students with disabilities and special education programs by $365 million.

Ongoing funds for schools that serve higher proportions of English Learners increased by $10 million, or 26%, from the past year, for a total of $50.2 million. That's important for Flat Rock Community Schools, where the number of English Learners has increased from 20 students in 2015-16 to 30 in the 2023-24 school year.

This year, Brodie said a new student from Pakistan arrived at a Flat Rock school to homemade signs from other students in Arabic, so the student could find where the bathroom and other rooms were. Those kind of moments elicit a lot of pride for his district, he said — and it's why the budget is so important for him and his district.

"That's really what it's about, shifting money around, we can figure a lot of that stuff out, but every time we underfund public schools, it's detrimental to our community, to our kids, to our future," he said.

Contact Lily Altavena : laltavena@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Michigan budget could prompt cuts, hard decisions in public schools