The Michigan House passed part of its education spending plan Wednesday.
A roughly $2,400 per-student funding increase for schools made up one of the highlights of the $21.9 billion K-12 schools budget bill.
The Republican-supported plan would pay for that increase by cutting direct spending on items like free school lunches, mental health services, and career and technical education.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) said the switch-up just means districts would have more control over how those programs run.
“We’ve had a lot of dictates from Lansing, right? What to do, how to do it, when to do it, and this allows up money to go back to the school districts where the locals can decide,” Bollin told reporters Wednesday.
But her Democratic minority vice chair Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said that directed spending creates accountability.
“If I get you x money for breakfast and lunch to make sure kids are fed, I expect y number of students to be fed,” Farhat said.
Overall, the plan would keep funding for at-risk students flat, increase some special education funding, and cut short-term spending that helps districts pay for students to get to school. Funding for some early childhood education, like the Great Start Readiness Program would also take a hit.
Representative Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw Twp), who chairs the budget subcommittee that oversaw the bill process, said it’s a starting point for negotiations. He opened the door for some of the direct spending to come back in a later version of the legislation.
“Whatever passes off the floor in the House today, ain’t going to be what we vote on in the final budget. I understand that and everybody knows that. But this is our opening bid,” Kelly said.
Another piece of the overall education package that will likely be a non-starter for the Democratic-led Senate and governor’s office is a ban on districts using their state funding for inclusion initiatives.
The plan would take back 20% of funding from districts that use “a curriculum that includes race or gender stereotyping.”
When asked for some specifics of what that would mean, Kelly said he didn’t have an immediate answer but referenced a brief committee discussion on culturally specific graduation ceremonies — optional celebrations meant to recognize the accomplishments of students from groups that have historically been denied access to higher education — as an example of something Republican lawmakers were trying to avoid.
Farhat dismissed the discussions as unserious policy.
“These are boogeymen put in to distract from the fact that their budget ends school lunch programs, their budget ends transportation,” Farhat said.
Meanwhile, a state Department of Education budget proposal would cut significant funding as well by eliminating some currently vacant positions entirely as a cost-saving measure.
Another budget plan floated Wednesday but not taken up for a vote would cost two of Michigan’s largest universities big chunks of their state funding.
Analysis from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency suggested the University of Michigan could lose around 65% of its state funding under the higher education budget plan. Michigan State University could lose around 19% of its money from the state.
The budget would shift around some of that money to instead expand scholarships for in-state students.
Bollin said she doesn’t see it as a funding cut for Michigan and Michigan State.
“What we have done is place them in a position to compete for our Michigan students, and there are actually potentially increases for everybody across the board to have Michigan students come to their universities,” she said.
Bollin also said endowments and other funding streams would help the schools as well.
The House Fiscal Agency said the change could lead to around a 30% increase in funding for the state’s smaller universities.
Democrats have derided the proposal as not adding up the way Republicans say it does, and potentially being unconstitutional since the scholarships could cover private school tuition too.
The Michigan Constitution explicitly bans using public funding for private education.
House Republicans say they plan to take the plan up Thursday, pending some unannounced changes.
