Dept of Ed says schools need mental health funding. Governor’s office says they got it

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Local and state education leaders say they’re getting hundreds of millions of dollars less this year from the budget for mental health and school safety, but the governor’s office is denying that’s the case.

The Michigan Department of Education, led by State Superintendent Michael Rice, sent out a news release on Monday asking legislators to replenish more than $300 million in funding for mental health and school safety.

MDE said the budget for FY24 (the current fiscal year) invested an historic $491.8 million toward mental health. It helped schools hire more than 1,000 additional helping professionals such as social workers, counselors, nurses and psychologists, according to MDE.

MDE said mental health and safety funding dropped to $136.7 million, a decline of 72%, in the budget for FY25 . which starts Oct. 1.

“This cut, if unchanged, would reduce the momentum for improvement that has taken place over the last half decade in this important area,” MDE said.

The State Board of Education has passed a resolution calling for a supplemental budget to be passed to restore the funding.

Last year, Rockford Public Schools got $1.8 million from the state for mental health and safety. It let the district hire two new school resource officers, social workers and a mental health liaison. It says what it got this year isn’t even close.

“That grant was reduced to just under $130,000,” Superintendent Steve Matthews told News 8.

“The hope was this would continue to be a priority for the state to help these students in our district and our state,” he went on to say. “But it feels like the state is pulling back from that commitment.”

Matthews is joining MDE and other school districts in urging the Legislature to replenish the funding as soon as possible.

“Those (social workers and liaisons) are the people that are in the buildings every day that work with students, that see students on a regular basis,” he said. “They’re able to be proactive, try to help students before a crisis develops.”

Matthews said the district is keeping its new staff this year, but took money from the general fund to pay for them, preventing it from hiring as many new teachers. He worries that eventually, he won’t be able to keep the mental health and safety staff on board.

“We’ll take money from our fund balance to cover some of these costs, but eventually you’re going to run out of that money to be able to cover the cost,” Matthews said. “Then a very difficult decision will have to be made.”

Despite the criticism from the state superintendent, the governor’s office says it is a myth that statewide funding was cut.

In a statement to News 8, the governor’s office says the budget “delivers an additional $600 million in funding for districts, which gives schools the flexibility to use the funding to meet the needs of individual students in their area. The law clearly states that this additional $600 million is intended to be used to improve school safety, mental health, before- and after-school programs, and more.”

The budget does say there is up to $598 million from “state school aid fund money” to be used for this topic.

“It is the intent of the legislature that the allocation under this subsection be used to support student mental health, school safety, the educator workforce, and academic interventions,” the budget reads.

The governor’s office also said the education budget marks the largest investment in schools in the state’s history for the sixth straight year.

“The budget also gives teachers the much-needed raise they deserve while offering student loan repayment to lower the cost of being an educator,” the governor’s office said. “Governor Whitmer will continue to be a staunch ally for students and teachers in Michigan’s public school system.”

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