• House Education and Workforce Committee Holds First Hearing 
• House Appropriations Hears Analysis of the Executive Budget Proposal
• Minimum Wage and Earned Sick Time Bills Signed by Governor
• Governor’s State of the State is Next Week, Join Us for a Recap

House Education and Workforce Committee Holds First Hearing 

On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee had its first meeting of this session.  They heard a presentation from Education Trust-Midwest on its report, Closing the Opportunity Divide: Addressing Michigan’s Teacher Shortage Problem for Students Most in Need. The report speaks to the challenges districts face with the teacher shortage and shows that students who are the most underserved face the highest rates of inexperienced teachers. This leads to even more issues in trying to close academic gaps between students in different districts. 

The committee also took testimony on House Bill 4060 which modifies the requirements of taxes levied for career and technical education programs.  It would allow an intermediate school district to use the CTE millage to contract with another intermediate school district for career and technical education programs. This would give more flexibility for ISDs to offer programming to their districts.  

MASB supports the bill, and hearings are expected to continue next week.

House Appropriations Hears Analysis of the Executive Budget Proposal

The House Appropriations Committee kicked off its budget season on Wednesday with a presentation from the House Fiscal Agency on Gov. Whitmer’s 2025-2026 budget proposal.  Mary Ann Cleary, Director of the House Fiscal Agency presented an overview of the entire state budget with highlights of certain sections and funds, including the School Aid Fund.

Appropriations subcommittees will now begin their work on the budget. We have a detailed breakdown of the School Aid Budget by relevant sections for your information available on our website. We urge you to talk to your legislators about how this proposal will affect your district, other items that would be useful, and the timeliness of final budget decisions. With newly elected legislators working on the budget, it’s important that they understand a school’s fiscal year is not the same as the state’s and ends on June 30.

Minimum Wage and Earned Sick Time Bills Signed by Governor

On Wednesday, Senate Bill 8 was approved by the House, making changes to the minimum wage law. The bill was tiebarred to House Bill 4002, which addresses earned sick time. HB 4002 was still under negotiations. Late Thursday, a deal was finally reached on HB 4002, and it passed both the Senate and House and was sent to the Governor just before midnight.

Today, Gov. Whitmer signed both bills into law as Public Acts 1 and 2 of 2025. They went into effect immediately.  Under SB 8, the minimum wage increased from $10.56 an hour to $12.48 beginning today. It will then increase each year to reach $15 by Jan 1, 2027. The tipped minimum wage remains at 38% of the regular minimum wage for 2025, increasing each year to reach 50% by Jan 1, 2031.

HB 4002 amended the Earned Sick Time Act. Under the bill, employers, including school districts, will have to provide employees with one hour of paid earned sick time for every 30 hours worked, with a minimum amount of 72 hours total granted for full-time employees. Businesses with less than 10 employees will have a more relaxed requirement that takes effect until October 1, 2025.

The bills were in response to a court ruling from 2018 that would have allowed the ballot initiatives on minimum wage and earned sick time to go into effect today.

Governor’s State of the State is Next Week, Join Us for a Recap

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver her annual State of the State Address Feb 26, 2025, at 7:00 pm. Join MASB on Feb 27 at 12:00 pm for a Views From the Capitol webinar to recap the speech and what else to expect in education legislation this year. 

This interactive webcast allows viewers to ask questions and get answers instantly. We look forward to you joining us for this informative session! Register today to receive the link.