Michigan school officials are taking the Legislature to task for missing session days without a K-12 budget in place. It’s been nearly a month since the fiscal year began for school districts.
A group of school officials held a press conference Tuesday to build pressure and break a logjam that’s created “a manufactured crisis” that stymied wrapping up the K-12 spending plan.
JoLynn Clark, the principal of Frankenmuth High School, said creating realistic plans for the fall is not possible without some coming together on a budget proposal.
“Without a budget that is both right and right now, the choices schools face aren’t just heartbreaking, they represent missed opportunities and elimination of crucial supports that our students need,” she said.
Clark said the state is not short of money, so there is no reason to keep schools waiting.
Kimberly May, president of the Wayne-Westland Board of Education, said schools have to make staff and programming decisions with no idea what to expect in state payments. She said school boards have to meet the July 1 deadline to adopt balanced budgets.
“Our publicly elected legislators should be held to the same standard and meet their responsibility to pass a state budget,” she said. “They have not fulfilled that major component of their jobs and by not doing so, they have violated the law.”
There is a state law that requires the Legislature to adopt and present finalized budget bills to the governor by July 1. But there are no consequences to lawmakers for missing the deadline.
Representative Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw Township), chair of the House Appropriations school aid budget subcommittee, said he was not impressed.
“What’s truly unfortunate is the education establishment’s selective outrage,” he said. “If only they were as loud about student achievement as they are about dollars and bureaucracy. Michigan’s academic outcomes are falling behind, and we need to start putting students, instead of systems, first.”
Kelly said schools remain funded through the end of September because the state’s fiscal year begins October 1, so there is still time to resolve the K-12 budget.
“It’s unfortunate that we’ve reached an impasse on K-12 funding—but let’s be clear: the dollars will flow, and schools remain fully funded through September,” he said in a statement emailed to Michigan Public Radio.
A spokesperson for House Democrats agreed with the school groups.
“This crisis is manufactured and completely unnecessary,” said Tracy Wimmer, spokesperson for the House Democrats.
“Democratic leaders are in regular conversation and alignment on the importance of moving the budget forward, and House Dems are hopeful that given everything that has happened over the last several weeks, (House) Speaker (Matt) Hall is beginning to understand that in order to live up to his responsibility to usher a budget fully through the process, he's going to have to work with his colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
The rest of the state budget is also hanging fire. The Senate, controlled by Democrats, has adopted some budget bills and sent them to the House. House GOP leaders have proposed a stripped-down stopgap budget for state departments and agencies.
The school officials expressed frustration that getting a deal on K-12 spending has been rolled together with negotiations on road funding.
“The fact that the Legislature broke the law and missed the deadline is not because of a lack of resources or outside factors,” said Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Alliance for School Opportunity, which represents more than two dozen Michigan districts.
“Holding up the budget to pave the way for a roads deal is unacceptable and every day that ticks by only makes the situation worse,” he said.
