House and Senate Unveil School Aid Budgets
In a stark departure from last year’s broken budget cycle, the House and Senate both unveiled their school aid budgets earlier this week with the goal of passing them out of their chambers as early as next week. Both the House and Senate budgets include a modest 2.5 percent increase to the foundation allowance, while also focusing on improving early literacy and expanding opportunities for dual enrollment. They also continue to prioritize funding for school safety and mental health, free breakfast and lunch programs, and school transportation. However, there are some large differences between their proposals.
The Senate budget continues to invest heavily in the Opportunity Index by increasing funding by $324 million. This funding supports students from low-income backgrounds and provides additional funding to districts with high concentrations of poverty. The Senate also included a 25 percent increase in funding for English learners. Both increases are strongly supported by EdTrust-Midwest and align with the recommendations provided to the committee earlier this year.
The Senate proposal also includes a new weighted funding formula that attempts to streamline the budget and provide more long-term stability. The Senate budget sets a 15-year goal of fully funding both the Opportunity Index and English learners. They also included language to begin using a weighted funding formula for students with disabilities beginning in FY28. This is a key component of implementing the Michigan Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint.
New funding for increasing teacher salaries and specific funding for school libraries was also included in the Senate budget.
The House proposal includes a 5 percent increase in funding for both the Opportunity Index and English learners, which is similar to what the Governor proposed in her budget. In addition, their budget includes $150 million for reading curriculum, $100 million for math curriculum, and $50 million for STEM curriculum. They also called for the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to re-establish an A-F school accountability system.
The House proposal includes troubling language that prohibits districts from doing the following: using curriculum that includes race or gender stereotyping, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports, and providing multi-stall unisex bathrooms. The House budget also requires a district to provide parental notice if a student requests to be addressed by a different name or with a different pronoun.
When it comes to addressing Michigan’s reading crisis, both budgets invest in LETRS training, which is professional development for teachers aligned with the science of reading. They also include new funding for high impact tutoring and create new reporting requirements to track literacy benchmarks. The House proposes $40 million in new funding to reimburse parents for private tutoring costs. This funding would only reimburse parents living in districts with high concentrations of poverty.
EdTrust-Midwest, along with our partners, will continue to work with leaders in both the House and Senate to ensure students with the greatest needs receive the support they need to achieve at a high level.
