LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Despite passing one of the highest education budgets in state history a recent study found that Michigan is under-funding public education by $4.5 billion.
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“Michigan’s education funding system is inadequate and inequitable, Tanner Delpier, Michigan Education Association labor economist, said in a statement. “In 2018, The School Finance Research Collaborative created a blueprint for a fair school funding system in the release of their adequacy study. Today, policymakers have an opportunity to lay the foundation of equitable and adequate funding.”
According to a report provided by the Education Law Center and co-authored by Delpier, more than 90% of students go to schools without adequate resources.
“77% of all Michigan public school students attend schools in districts that are more than $2,000 per pupil below adequacy,” the report said.
The study also affirmed that universal, no-cost preschool is needed, and included it in the plan with an estimated $1.6 billion price tag.
“What we’re saying is, look, to actually achieve the things that the state has set as its own academic standards, we will need way more resources to support students,” Delpier said to the Detroit Free Press.
The study concludes with strongly encouraging school resources as part of an “adequate education” such as small class sizes, student support services, before and after school programs, funding for extracurricular activities, and summer learning opportunities among other recommendations.
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On the legislature side, the recommendations include a “substantial overhaul of Michigan’s school finance formula.” Some of those overhauls include upping the 11.5% weight from the school aid budget for at-risk students to 35% and fully funded.
The study also references a previous study from the School Finance Research Collaborative (SFRC), which criticized Michigan’s school choice policies.
“[The SFRC] did not account for the inefficiencies imposed by Michigan’s expansive school choice policies,” the report continued, “In practice, this system has created extremely high choice penetration, especially in urban districts, and the highest proportion of for- profit charter schools in the country—85%.”
The study, which can be found here, also includes a map to highlight different inadequacies in different regions of the state.
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