Opportunities in Michigan’s State Budget for Advancing Equity in Public Education

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (March 21, 2017) – The proposed budget for Michigan’s public education system includes important investments for promoting quality and equity. For better results, however, education funds should invest in evidence-based strategies and monitored through the robust collection of data.

In Opportunities in Michigan’s State Budget for Advancing Equity in Public Education, The Education Trust-Midwest highlights and analyzes key areas of Governor Snyder’s school aid budget recommendations for fiscal year 2017-18, which begins in October 2017. The brief focuses on proposed funds to:

• begin addressing Michigan’s major funding inequities. Michigan is currently among the most inequitable states when comparing high- and low-poverty school districts;
• continue investments aimed at improving early literacy efforts statewide;
• improve the quality of classroom instruction – the single greatest in-school factor for student improvement – by funding training for educators and administrators to implement systems of educator evaluation, feedback and support; and
• additional funds intended to better support low-performing schools and students.

While the Governor’s budget recommendation for schools is strong in many areas, problems remain. These include provisions that may allow Michigan to move to a lower-quality state assessment that cannot provide honest and meaningful information to parents and educators and no requirements to collect data on early literacy efforts.

Legislative committees are actively considering the budget recommendation and will work toward a final state budget by early summer.

The full brief on the fiscal year 2017-18 executive school aid budget recommendations is available here.

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The Education Trust-Midwest is a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to improving outcomes for all Michigan students, especially for African American, Latino, American Indian, and low-income students. The Education Trust-Midwest believes in the power of intelligent education policy and practices — informed by data, research, and the successes of other states — to make Michigan a top ten education state for all students.

www.edtrustmidwest.org/press