Lexi Browning/States Newsroom
With less than three weeks until a government shutdown, marking 72 days since the Legislature’s July 1 budget deadline, Michigan school superintendents and administrators took the Legislature to task over their failure to reach a consensus on the budget.
The stalled budget talks between the House and Senate have left Michigan schools in uncertain territory with the threat of closures on the horizon.
On Wednesday, members of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators and the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity met in Lansing to highlight how the continued lack of a budget is harming Michigan schools, forcing them to pursue loans and dig into their savings in the absence of state funding.
Just as members of the Legislature are legally required to complete the state budget by July 1 each year, Michigan school districts must also complete their budgets by July.
Without a budget from the Legislature, school districts are forced to formulate their budgets based on guesswork, said Tina Kerr, executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators.
“Lawmakers have obviously missed that deadline. They violated state law, they’ve broken trust with our schools, and most importantly, they’ve put Michigan students in jeopardy,” Kerr said. “Every day that passes without a budget districts are forced into further contingency planning. Instead of focusing on what we should be right now, which is student success, these superintendents and their entire teams are spending time and resources again, trying to guess what the funding will look like.”
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Schools cannot operate indefinitely without stable funding, and district leaders are already preparing for the possibility of closures if a budget is not put into place, Kerr said. She urged prompt action from the Legislature and the governor to pass a budget.
Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, warned that students who need the most help are the first to lose out, with literacy coaches, bilingual teachers, after school programs and mental health services often serving as the first item on the chopping block when budgets are late.
He pointed to survey data from Michigan School Business Officials, a statewide leadership and management group, which found 11% of districts among those surveyed have laid off teachers, while 15% have laid off non-classroom staff and 42% have made cuts through attrition.
Although wealthier districts can patch the holes left without a budget, low income and rural schools do not have a safety net, Spadafore said.
“Political gridlock cannot be allowed to rob students of stability and opportunity,” Spadafore said. “Every single day the Legislature fails to act is a day children are forced to learn in uncertainty, and that’s unacceptable to me and everyone in this room.”
John VanWagoner, the superintendent of Traverse City Area Public Schools, told reporters that the K-12 budgets presented by the House and Senate are so different, superintendents cannot project what funding they will eventually get.
While Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) previously told schools to hold fast as they work to broker a deal with the Democratic-led Senate, school leaders argue it’s not that simple, given the distance between the two chamber’s proposals and the time it takes to distribute funds to schools, and to secure a loan.
“We’re talking to our newer superintendents saying if you don’t have the cash flow, you need to be applying for your loans now. So even if the money comes as we’re hearing, they still have to have that contingency plan in place,” Kerr said.
If schools have not taken their contingency plans seriously and payments from the school aid budget do not arrive as expected on Oct. 20, those districts could face closures, Kerr said.
Senate appropriations leader: K-12 funding could be made whole if moved to roads, higher education
In a roundtable with reporters on Wednesday, state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) was asked about letters sent to parents of students at Lansing schools, calling on them to contact their legislators and urge them to protect K-12 funding.
A similar letter was sent to parents in Allegan area schools on Monday.
Like Kerr, the districts warned of late school aid payments in October.
Another sticking point in the state budget negotiations is whether to use some K-12 funding for other priorities, much like roads or higher education funding.
Anthony was asked if she could commit to not using those dollars for anything other than K-12 funding.
In response, Anthony said she’s heard from multiple school superintendents on the issue.
“I’ve made it very clear to all of them that I always believed that school aid dollars should compensate education,” Anthony said. “That’s what I believe taxpayers have committed to. That’s what they expect. Does that include higher education? All of that is a part of these negotiations.”
Anthony added that she has been a huge proponent of increasing higher education funding.
“What I can commit to you is that, what we’ve heard from our colleagues in the Senate, is that we want to make sure there are adequate backfills,” she said.
When asked what she meant by backfill, and if that meant some type of revenue to replace school aid funding taken to fund another priority, Anthony said yes.
Michigan Advance Senior Reporter Ben Solis contributed to this report.