LANSING — Michigan schools received clarity this week on a widely utilized free meal program, despite the lack of an education budget.
Gov. Whitmer sent a letter to schools Wednesday promising educators that school meals would be included in any state spending deal, also telling districts to continue serving meals over the next week.
Whitmer said that parts of the education budget had been agreed to by Republicans and Democrats, including funding for the school meal program.
“We are all in agreement that no children in Michigan should go hungry and they should have more resources in their classrooms to learn and grow,” she said in a letter to educators.
Political analysts say that months of uncertainty around state spending likely haven’t inspired confidence in Michigan government.
“It certainly appears to be a little bit broken,” said Nicole Mathew, an Oakland University political science professor. “When you have to start the school year and schools don’t know what their budget is for the year, or whether they’re supposed to be serving free lunch or not — that is a little amount of chaos that ends up affecting everyday people.”
Whitmer’s directive comes months after schools were expecting to receive a finalized state budget — lawmakers have previously met the legal requirement to approve a plan by July 1.
The House Republican budget would have cut specific funding for school meals, instead proposing that schools receive that funding with fewer restrictions.
“It sounds like the lunches are going to be funded, from what I’m hearing,” Mathew said. “There’s a lot of things that need to be figured out in this budget, because it’s a budget for the whole state government.”