State Activities​

On Feb. 7, 2024, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer presented her 2024-2025 budget to the Legislature. This officially starts the budget season in Michigan.  

In her budget, she included a $241 per-pupil increase, a 2.5% increase. The proposal spreads that 2.5% increase to special education, English Language Learners, rural/isolated districts, at-risk students, ISDs, CTE and the Great Start Readiness Program. The GSRP also sees significant additional funding to eliminate the income cap and allow all 4-year-olds access to the pre-k programs, as she called for in her State of the State Address.  

Rural and isolated districts, CTE and English Language Learners would see an additional 5% increase. Finally, the budget for the Department of Education also continues funding for school board member training. 

Appropriations subcommittees will now begin their work on the budget. Following, we break down the School Aid Budget by relevant sections and detail her proposal. We urge you to continue to talk to your legislators about how this proposal will affect your district, other items that would be useful and the timeliness of final budget decisions. 

Sec. 12c – Consolidation and infrastructure fund
Appropriates $25 million from the fund for districts and ISDs facing an infrastructure emergency that threatens their students' and staff's health and safety. The district superintendent would have to submit a request to the state treasurer and state budget director.  

Sec. 20 – Per-pupil foundation allowance
Increases the target foundation allowance by $241 per pupil for an allowance of $9,849, a 2.5% increase. It sets the cyberschool allowance at $7,879 per pupil, 80% of the target foundation allowance. 

Sec. 22d – Rural and isolated districts
Increases funding in this section by $885,000, a 7% increase, for payments to rural and isolated districts. 

Sec. 25l – Early Warning and intervention system – NEW
Appropriates $5 million to an ISD for an early warning intervention and monitoring system for students at risk of dropping out of high school. 

Sec. 25m – Additional supports for income-eligible students – NEW 
Appropriates $90 million for competitive grants to districts and ISDs to support the academic, social-emotional and physical needs of income-eligible students. 

Sec. 27h – Mentor teachers
Maintains $50 million for grants to districts to create mentor programs to support and retain teachers, counselors and administrators. The grants would fund stipends for mentors, materials and cover out-of-class time for the mentor teacher. Adds language specifically allocating $5 million for mentoring for school administrators up to $3,000 per administrator. 

Sec. 29 – Enrollment stabilization fund
Maintains appropriations for the fund to assist districts with declining enrollment. 

Sec. 30d – Universal breakfast and lunch programs
Includes $200 million to reimburse schools for the cost of providing free breakfast and lunch to all students. The increase reflects actual costs incurred during the 2023-2024 school year. 

Sec. 31a – At-risk funding
Increases funding by $23.8 million, a 2.5% increase. 

Sec. 31n – School mental health and support services
Maintains funding for this section for licensed behavioral health providers in schools. It also continues allowing those providers to qualify for federal Medicaid match funding.  

Sec. 31aa –Mental health and school safety grants
Maintains the $300 million for per-pupil payments to districts for activities to improve the mental health of students and staff and/or to improve school safety. The funding would be disbursed on a per-pupil basis to districts. 

Secs. 32d and 39 – Great Start Readiness Program
Increases funding for the Great Start Readiness Program by $160 million and expands eligibility to all children who will be four by Sept. 1. However, students in low-income households must be given priority for enrollment slots. Increases the full-day rate to $10,342 and the part-day rate to $5,171.  

Sec. 35a – Third grade reading
Increases funding for this section by $8.25 million to increase the number of literacy coaches and the grant amount per ISD for the coaches. 

Sec. 35m – Committee for literacy achievement – NEW
Creates the committee for literacy achievement to identify and rank literacy tools and services available to districts. Appropriates $155 million for stipends for committee members up to $8,000 annually and grants to districts. Districts using tools higher on the ranking would receive more funding than those using tools lower on the ranking.  

Sec. 35n – READ innovative competition – NEW
Appropriates $10 million for reading excellence and advancing district innovation competition. The Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential would establish the structure of the program, the categories of the competition and the award recipients. Startup funds must be provided to eligible districts to develop innovative literacy initiatives to compete for the final award of $500,000.

Sec. 41 – English Language Learners
Increases funding by $3 million, a 7% increase over last year.

Sec. 51e – Special education funding
Increases funding for special education programs to continue to fund pupils at 100% of the target foundation allowance. 

Sec. 54d – Early On
Increases funding by $1 million for Early On programs for children from birth to age three with a developmental delay, disability or both. 

Sec. 56 – Special Education Millage Equalization
Increases the appropriation for this section to $124.2 million and restructures the formula used to distribute the funds for special education costs. The intent is to achieve more equitable funding across the state.  

Sec. 61c – CTE equipment
Maintains funding at $15 million for eligible career education planning districts to update career and technical education equipment. 

Sec 61v – CTE internships – NEW
Appropriates $20 million for competitive grants to career education planning districts to foster partnerships in key industries for internships or paid structured apprenticeship programs for high school seniors. 

Sec. 67f – FAFSA incentives
Increases funding to $40 million for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion challenge. Eligible districts would receive $50 for each 12th grade student to be used to drive FAFSA completion. 

Sec. 81 – ISD funding
Increases funding to ISDs by $2 million for a 2.5% increase over last year.  

Sec. 99h – First Robotics
Maintains funding and expands eligible programs and competitions.

Sec. 147 – MPSERS rates
Makes annual adjustments to all rates. 

Sec. 147a – MPSERS offset
Maintains current year appropriation for normal costs and increases the reimbursement for payroll costs.

Sec. 147c – MPSERS rate cap
Lowers the average rate cap per-pupil amount by $417 to $740 and sets the rate cap per pupil for districts to a range of $2-$2,650. Also changes the payroll growth assumption to 0.25%. 

The Governor also repealed many of the vendor-specific sections that were included in past years’ budgets and the funding for nonpublic schools.

As always, keep in mind this is just the beginning of the process and now the Legislature will create its proposals. The next Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference will be in May, and that will give the Legislature and the Governor the most current revenue figures with which to set the final budget. We will keep you informed as the budget continues to move through the process.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.