LANSING — Michigan schools still don’t know how much state funding they’ll receive come October, owing to continued disagreements among lawmakers.
The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate appear no closer to reaching an agreement on more than $20 billion education spending — and may actually be farther apart than they were previously.
That new rift can be attributed to the introduction of House Republicans’ full budget plan, which seeks to cut around $5 billion in government programs and state agency funding.
While those cuts are in non-education areas, educators say they’re worried that the proposals will now be linked — to the detriment of schools.
“I think since we’ve passed the July 1 deadline, that — I don’t think you’ll see the budgets move without each other,” said Jennifer Smith, director of government relations with the Michigan Association of School Boards.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall, (R) District 42, Richland Twp., says he’s had productive conversations this week with Gov. Whitmer and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, both Democrats.
“The House Republicans believe that it’s really critical that we get our schools funded, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if we got education and roads done first,” Hall said.
Whitmer weighed in on the Republican spending plans this week, saying they should serve as a starting point for more discussions.
“We just want to see the Democrats empower their leader, Gov. Whitmer, and support her, and we’ll get a deal done very fast, bipartisan, where everybody compromises,” Hall said.
Lawmakers also remained finger-pointing this week, with House Democratic Leader Ranjeev Puri saying Hall is pushing for a government shutdown with his actions.
“We are still very much headed to the planned shutdown that the Speaker of the House wants, and Democrats are still at the table waiting to negotiate in good faith,” said Puri, (D) District 24, Canton.
Educators say that some of the damage to schools has already been done, even if a budget is quickly adopted.
“We still are so far away from the deadline that schools needed,” Smith said.
According to the group Michigan School Business Officials, 11% of more than 200 districts surveyed have already laid off some amount of classroom personnel this year.
“I always think of those classroom layoffs, whether it’s teaching positions or teacher assistance, as the most drastic,” said Jason Helsen, associate executive director with MSBO. “I think most districts approach the budget situation in terms of trying to protect the classroom in terms of, you know — that’s the first investment and the last cut that you’re going to make, because those folks have the most direct impact on students.”
Hall dismissed some of those concerns and said the Republican plan would give schools more say over how they spend their money.
“Empower our local school superintendents and our school boards, and they’ll get the job done,” he said. “And if they’re laying people off, you know, it’s probably for performance reasons.”
In that same survey, nearly 80% of districts said they don’t have confidence that a state budget will be passed by Oct 1.
And over 40% of respondents said they would have problems making payments if their school aid funding were delayed due to a prolonged shutdown.
“If a potential shutdown were to go for days and days, then you’re going to run into districts that don’t have the cash flow to stay open, or districts that have to dip into reserve funds — that are there for other reasons — to keep their doors open,” Smith said.