Michigan leaders have announced a stopgap plan to keep state government functioning for the next week while lawmakers hash out final budget details.
But that doesn’t include money for K-12 schools, which are already three months into their fiscal year — and still have no idea how much money to expect from the state.
Tina Kerr said that’s already had damaging consequences for school districts. She’s head of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and School Administrators.
Kerr said that as of late last month, a MASA survey of Michigan school district leaders showed that at least 16% have had to take out high-interest loans to keep their doors open. In one district, “They were paying over $70,000 in interest fees, and that's money that's diverted away from the classroom,” she said.
“That's been kind of our biggest concern,” Kerr added. “That because the budget wasn't done in a timely manner, we have actually incurred costs.”
The survey also found that over half of the more than 250 districts who responded said they would have to cut back on extracurricular activities if state aid money didn’t come through by October 1. And 54% have already chosen to leave positions unfilled because of the budget uncertainty.
“That's a big deal, that we had positions that they basically paused,” Kerr said. “Because the last thing you want to do is hire somebody, and then turn around and not be able to afford to pay them and have to lay them off.”
And 42% said they would have to suspend providing universal free school lunches — something that’s been covered in the state’s education budget for the prior two years—due to a lack of funds.
On Tuesday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and State Superintendent of Schools Michael Rice sent a letter to district leaders urging them to continue providing free meals despite the lack of funds, saying school meals would be covered in the final budget.
That angered some school leaders and education groups, who said many districts don’t have a choice at this point, and that the state should avoid lecturing schools after blowing past two deadlines to have a budget in place. The first was July 1, which is the date set by law because it coincides with the start the fiscal year for K-12 schools — but there's no legal consequence for missing it. The second deadline was October 1, which is set by the state constitution and coincides with the start of the state's fiscal year.
"Pressing schools to spend money when lawmakers have failed to deliver a budget for more than three months now continues to show a total lack of awareness about the chaos and uncertainty Lansing has created that has led to schools discontinuing services such as these,” Robert McCann, director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, said in a statement.
“Until there is an actual budget signed into law that includes funding for school meals, which lawmakers have yet to produce, districts cannot simply trust that the funding will be there when the budget is now more than three months overdue," McCann said.
