“This less-than-half-measure leaves schools and students without the resources they need, but Democrats seem to hope this stunt will be good enough to improve their political prospects,” House Minority Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said in a statement. “Do they care more about protecting their political careers than keeping students safe?”
Retirement savings
The funding dispute came amid ongoing concerns over recent school shootings and student mental health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
School officials say they spent prior safety and mental health grants on counselors, staff training, cybersecurity software and more.
Whitmer’s administration has defended the initial budget, saying it included other pots of money – including retirement contribution savings – schools could choose to spend on mental health and school safety.
Democrats voted Wednesday to make those retirement savings permanent, sending Whitmer a bill that would lower how much traditional public school districts have to pay into the state’s educator retiree system.
Currently, school districts must pay 20.96% of their payroll costs into the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which includes funding for retiree health care, benefits and pensions.
House Bill 5803 would permanently reduce school districts’ required contributions to 15.21%. It would also eliminate the requirement that some employees pay 3% toward their retiree health care costs.
Republicans have bashed the legislation as a “raid” on the teacher pension system that could jeopardize future benefits.
‘Meaningful change’
The separate $126 million spending plan was announced by House Democrats earlier Wednesday in a press conference held just minutes after the proposal was first made public.
It included representatives in some of the state’s tightest legislative races, highlighting the electoral significance.
“This is meaningful change for Michigan students, and as we all know, actions speak louder than words, and House Democrats are bringing transformational change to local schools,” House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, said.
But some Republicans wanted more.
Senate Republicans earlier Wednesday attempted to force a vote on their proposal that would have increased school safety and mental health funding by more than $300 million to match last year’s spend.
Majority Democrats rejected a motion to discharge that bill from committee, however.
“With a new fiscal year starting in a matter of days, schools in every one of our districts are facing massive and dangerous cuts to critical funding,” said Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe. “This isn’t money for swimming pools or pickleball courts. This is money to protect our children’s physical and mental well-being.”
School groups pleased
Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, a group that represents school districts, told Bridge that the House plan to restore some of the funding “will go a long way in ensuring that every district receives a much larger increase than we saw in the June budget.”
He said he was pleased to see the Legislature working with “urgency” to address the issue.
Advocates with the Michigan Education Justice Coalition were also pleased to see the additional funding, but they didn’t see it as a full fix. Molly Sweeney, the group’s organizing director, noted there is currently just one school counselor for every 570 students in the state.
“We know that the state as a whole is in dire need of revenue, and so we know that the legislators were doing their best to figure out how to fund all the things,” Sweeney said.
At Ypsilanti Community Schools, the buildings previously underwent security assessments. If the House plan is eventually signed into law, Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross told Bridge she’ll work with others, including law enforcement, to determine what security purchases can be made to enhance school security, such as security cameras
“I just really appreciate the fact that they’ve heard our voices and understand that security and mental health are important to us,” she said.
Where the money comes from, is going
In recent years, school districts have heavily invested in school security equipment like security cameras and vestibules. They’ve also expanded mental health programming and hired staff to address student mental health concerns.
But demand for school safety funding has so far surpassed supply. In 2023, school districts requested a combined $45 million to hire school resource officers, for instance, but legislators had only allocated $25 million for the program. Seventy four applications were denied.