Opinion | Why you should worry about the House Republicans’ school budget

Public education in Michigan is strongest when our leaders plan ahead and provide our schools with proper resources. But for the second year in a row, this may not happen.

Terrence Martin is the president of AFT Michigan (Courtesy photo)

Last year, House Republicans almost brought the state government to a shutdown. Basic needs programs and local governments suffered as a result because they didn’t know when and if funding was coming through their doors. This also put our school districts in jeopardy. For years, school budgets have been finalized by July 1 so districts can properly plan for the year ahead. Yet in 2025, our lawmakers let the clock run out, only coming to a temporary agreement on October 1 while passing funding for the whole year just a week later.

This is not the way to negotiate a budget, especially for school districts. Even though summer just began, administrators and educators are already prepping for the next school year. They need predictability for how much money will actually be coming into classrooms.

Right now, Michigan families are struggling to afford gas, groceries and utility bills — the last thing they need is more uncertainty about whether their kids’ schools will be fully funded. While our federal leadership continues to fall short on education funding, Michigan lawmakers must act. Our leaders have a responsibility to do right by Michiganders by making sure the state budget works for everyone, not just power-hungry Lansing lawmakers.

This year’s Republican budget proposal continues this pattern of being out-of-touch and driven by ideology, not reality. House Republicans passed a budget proposal in April that falls woefully short of what’s needed at this moment. Their plan makes a 27% cut overall to higher education, which will make college even more unaffordable and inaccessible. And if that pain wasn’t enough, their plan forces a 20% penalty for schools that provide curricula related to race and gender or that have DEI initiatives. This poison pill is nothing more than a power grab meant to stoke fear and division and undermine public schools’ ability to teach the truth and create supportive classroom environments.

Moreover, Republicans’ formula for school funding will underfund urban and rural schools alike. House Republicans want to underfund our public schools so they can continue to prop up private school funding to enrich their friends and donors.

The pain is the point of the House Republican budget. At every step, when conversations could be had about policies that balance the budget with essential needs, the Republican budget cuts services and leaves Michiganders without community investments that create jobs, protect the environment, and support growing families. This also includes a $500K cut from the High School Dropout Recovery fund and a $900K cut from the Detroit Area PreCollege Engineering program.

In contrast, the plan from Senate Democrats is much more realistic and aligned with the needs of school districts, school children, their families, and educators. At-risk students would receive the resources they need, colleges wouldn’t see a drop in funding, and K-12 districts would be given the long-term support they need for determining how much funding they’d get from year to year by instituting a weighted per-pupil formula that would be in effect for 15 years.

Families, students, educators, and support staff need long-term solutions to fund our school districts. School districts need the resources required to educate our kids, but House Speaker Matt Hall and Republicans are instead taking cues from the disastrous federal budget that will set our country back for decades. Michigan can’t afford to go down this path.

Michigan has made strides in protecting and advancing public education over the past few years, yet Speaker Hall and his caucus are dead-set on undoing this progress. Michigan’s kids can’t wait. While House leadership announced a budget framework agreement on June 23, we’re waiting for details on what programs will still get funding and what’s getting cut.

Lawmakers must pass a fully funded, equitable education budget now — not in the 11th hour, and not with cuts that sell out our future.