LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Lansing Public Schools have seen its staffing increase by 30% while enrollment dropped by 5% as the district has seen spending on instruction and support services jump by $19 million since the pandemic.
But the district is far from alone. That’s a formula many school districts in Michigan have followed.
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Overall, the K-12 public school districts in Michigan have seen staffing increase three years in a row and had 219,808 full-time employees in 2023-24 while statewide enrollment hit 1,429,895. Compare that to 2007-08, when the K-12 school districts employed 216,751 people to serve 1,645,742 students.
Lansing schools spent $164.3 million on instruction and support services in 2018-19 and that increased to $183.3 million in 2022-23. Enrollment went from 10,652 to 10,062 during that four-year span.
Dearborn Public School’s is experiencing the same issue. Their full-time jobs jumped from 2,496 in 2018-19 to 2,701 in 2023-24 while enrollment during that time dropped from 20,740 to 19,644.
School districts are spending more money, hiring more employees overall and educating fewer students, one of the effects of the pandemic.
Student enrollment in public schools has been dropping since the 1970s. When the pandemic hit, the state’s education system received $647 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund and another $529 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.
On top of that pile of federal cash, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer set aside another $240 million in 2021 for school district to increase the number of school-based professionals support staff to work on the mental health of students.
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“The pandemic reminded us that school-based mental and physical health professionals are not luxuries. Healthy students-physically, mentally, and social-emotionally-are better learners,” Whitmer said in 2021 in a media release.
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