Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.
In her $21.4 billion school aid fund budget, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is proposing at least $10,300 in state funding per student and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for literacy tutoring, curriculum, and training for teachers.
The total budget of $88 billion also includes a new initiative that will likely please parents and teachers who shell out money during the back-to-school season. Whitmer is proposing a sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping, exempting clothing and supplies purchased during a weekend in August.
The $10,300 increase in the base per-pupil amount, which is the lowest amount a school district or charter school can receive, represents a 2.5% increase in funding over the current budget. The governor’s office said the per-pupil grant, under this proposal, will have increased 31% since Whitmer took office nearly eight years ago. The budget proposal released Wednesday is her last as governor. A November governor’s race will decide the next state leader.
State Budget Office officials presented the budget to lawmakers Wednesday during a joint hearing of the House and Senate appropriations committee.
Jen Flood, the state budget office director, told lawmakers that federal revenue declines, rising health care costs, high tariffs, and changing national policy made development of the overall state budget challenging. It’s why the budget includes some tax increases that might be tough sells to some lawmakers. For instance, the budget calls for increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $2 to $3. Whitmer also proposes a new tax on vaping products, while also increasing the internet tax rate on casinos.
As she previewed early this week, Whitmer’s education budget is focused on early literacy to address how much Michigan students are struggling with literacy, especially in the early grades.
“Strong literacy skills are one of those clearest predictors of long term success in school, in the workforce and in life. That’s why this budget keeps a clear focus on helping students read proficiently by the end of third grade and stay on track from there,” Kyle Guerrant, the deputy director of the State Budget Office, told lawmakers during the Wednesday hearing.
Here are some of the specifics related to literacy, according to state budget documents:
- $100 million for a new high-impact tutoring program over two years. The funding will be awarded on a competitive basis to tutoring partners with a track record in Michigan.
- $100 million in funding over two years for grants that help districts purchase and implement a high quality literacy curriculum.
- $50 million to continue Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS, training over a five-year period. LETRS is a professional development program based on the science of reading. The science of reading refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge.
- A $10.5 million increase in funding for additional literacy coaches at intermediate districts. Coaches help teachers develop and implement instructional strategies for pupils in grades pre-K to 5. The increase brings total funding for literacy coaches to $52.5 million.
“Widespread support for efforts to improve early literacy are needed more than ever as Michigan’s students continue to lag the nation in reading,” Jennifer Mrozowski, spokesperson for the Education Trust-Midwest, an education research organization based in Royal Oak, said in a statement. “Investments in research-backed practices based in the science of reading are particularly important in districts that serve high concentrations of poverty, students of color, English learners and students with disabilities.”
At the hearing on Wednesday, the state officials were called out by one lawmaker who objected to cyber charter schools receiving 20% less in per pupil funding than brick-and-mortar traditional public schools and charter schools.
“Who does that help?” asked Rep. Tim Kelly, a Republican from Saginaw Township..
Flood replied that cyber schools don’t have the same costs as brick-and-mortar-schools.
““It reflects the cost of educating a child,” Flood said.
Kelly accused the state of lowering funding for cyber schools because their teachers aren’t unionized, a claim state officials said was false. In reality, most brick-and-mortar charter schools are not unionized.
Here are some other features of the education budget proposal:
- The third weekend in August would be a sales tax holiday for people shopping for school supplies. Purchases that would be exempt from the state’s 6% sales tax include clothing under $100 per item, school supplies under $20 per item, and computers for personal use under $1,000 an item. Sixteen states already have such sales tax holidays for the back-to-school season.
- A 6%, or $128 million, increase to the state’s weighted funding formula that provides additional money for some groups of students, including academically at-risk students, students who are English language learners, career and technical education students, those enrolled in rural and isolated districts, students with developmental delays, and intermediate school districts.
- A continuation of a $200 million program that provides free breakfasts and lunches for all students, regardless of income.
- An expansion of the state’s PreK for All program, which provides free preschool to Michigan four-year-olds, regardless of income. The budget would include a 6% increase in the per-child allocation for the state’s Great State Readiness Program, from $10,650 to $11,290.
The state budget process now turns to the Michigan legislature, which has until July 1 to deliver a budget back to Whitmer for a signature. The legislature blew through that deadline last year, and didn’t approve a budget until Oct. 3.
Democratic Sen. Sarah Anthony of Lansing, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday she doesn’t want a repeat of what happened last year.
“We left school districts, we left nonprofits and the business community with uncertainty, with chaos, with unprofessionalism,” Anthony said.
She urged her colleagues in the legislature to “work with each other, regardless of political party, to get things done for the people of Michigan.”
Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.
