Michigan Dept. of Education Issues Statement on Legislature’s State School Aid Budget

Meals, Career-Technical Education, Funding Equity Investments
Will Help Children; Spending Plan Falls Short in Certain Areas

LANSING – State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice is issuing the following statement on the fiscal year 2026 school state aid budget approved by the Michigan Legislature.

“Michigan’s children will benefit from this budget to receive meals at no cost to their parents, to provide opportunities for more students to enroll in Career and Technical Education programs that prepare them for high-wage and high-skills careers, and to improve funding fairness in Michigan school finance. At the same time, though, the budget doesn’t fund all the state’s teacher shortage rectification measures. In addition, funding for student mental health and school safety should be enduring. Our most recent tragedy in the state reminds us that we will need mental health funding for the foreseeable future.

“Many investments in this budget will help the state make continued progress toward goals in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan. Of particular note are a 4.6% increase in the per pupil foundation allowance, and 25% increases in support for at-risk students and bilingual students, and a 5.7% increase for Section 51e for students with disabilities, a category that has increased more than four-fold in the last few years. The inclusion of $64.4 million for research-based, high-quality early literacy materials will quicken the implementation of Public Act 146 of 2024, a generational literacy/dyslexia law for which MDE fought, and $65 million will provide lower class sizes in high-poverty K-3 classrooms in four districts, a pilot that should rightly serve as prelude to lower class sizes in all high-poverty K-3 classrooms in future budgets. Both the State Board of Education and Michigan Department of Education (MDE) have advocated for lower class sizes, particularly in high-poverty K-3 classrooms.

“At the same time, it’s concerning that the budget would reduce or eliminate funding for some of the initiatives to address the teacher shortage. This budget ends funding for a student loan repayment program for teachers and provides inadequate funding for many Grow Your Own participants with an interest in a career in teaching. While the department appreciates Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training funding for the fifth consecutive year, science of reading professional development must be made mandatory, and the legislature, once again, failed to require the training. Fifty-two hundred educators have completed this training at MDE’s urging, and another 6,800 are in the midst of their training. The legislature needs to make the training mandatory, the way other states, including Mississippi, have done, or all Michigan children will not be able to avail themselves of the benefit of this professional development.

“The budget eliminates virtual days as a substitute for in-person instructional days, a welcome rectification of the legislature’s 2023 language that permitted 15 virtual days to count toward the 180 instructional day requirement. At the same time, however, the legislature once again failed to correct language that it first passed in the state school aid act in 2019, which has permitted seven professional development days for staff—in the absence of students—to count toward the 180-day requirement the last seven school years. Professional development is very helpful and should be compensated, but it should not be a substitute for in-person student instructional time. At 180 days, our calendar is skinny on paper. What children experience is in fact fewer days, in part because of this statutory provision.

“Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that the delay in passing the budget was harmful for children. The uncertainty of a budget months late caused many school districts to make cuts in staffing, or simply not to fill particular positions, as they began the school year without knowing how much they would have to spend. A budget 95 days late is not a victory-lap budget.”

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