Governor Gretchen Whitmer Sings $23.4B Education Budget into Law

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an education budget into law on Tuesday, sparking criticism from some of her traditional allies, including school superintendents and other educators. Whitmer highlighted the budget’s benefits at a Flint preschool and daycare, noting its investment in Michigan students, increased funding for educators, and support for expanding pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college.

“In Michigan, we want every single person to be able to get onto the path that is best for them,” Whitmer stated as she signed the budget at Educare, where young children played and snacked while state leaders promoted the spending plan.

“This budget had them in mind,” added state Senator Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The $23.4 billion education budget allocates $20.6 billion for K-12 schools, $2.3 billion for universities, and just over $462 million for community colleges. This represents a 3.5% decrease from the previous year’s $24.3 billion budget, which included $21.5 billion for K-12 schools, $2.3 billion for universities, and over $544 million for community colleges.

A major point of contention is the K-12 portion of the budget, which maintains the foundation grant at the 2024 level of $9,608 per student without any increase. This decision comes amid declining enrollment in many school districts and rising costs due to inflation.

The Whitmer administration contends that the freeze in the foundation grant is balanced by other budget adjustments, particularly a change that will free up about $589 million that school districts would otherwise contribute to the teacher retirement fund. However, this explanation has not appeased most school administrators, who argue that the lack of increase in the per-pupil grant will have ongoing financial implications, while the savings on retirement costs are not guaranteed to continue.