- House Passes Partial Budgets
- House Education Committee Approves Changes to Teacher Certification
- Senate Education Committee Approves Stipends for Preschool Student Teachers
- President Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress
- Possible Federal Government Shutdown?
House Passes Partial Budgets
On Thursday morning, Speaker Hall announced a budget that would fund essential services for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 and tie it to the book closing appropriations that are needed for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2024. He stated the move was to take a state government shutdown off the table as budget negotiations continue by not allowing certain things like “schools, and prisons, and veterans’ homes, and local governments and police as pawns”. The bills, House Bill 4161 for the General Fund and HB 4162 for the School Aid Act, were then passed quickly that afternoon on basically a party-line vote, with the only Democrat joining in support being Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit).
The rest of the Democrats did not support either bill, saying it was reckless to treat the budget process this way and complaining that they did not know about nor see the bill until shortly before the vote.
For schools, it included a per-pupil increase of 4.3% to $10,025 and increased special education funding by the same amount. It also funded mental health and school safety grants (Sec. 31aa) at $350 million. Finally, it included funding for MPSERS. Everything else was left untouched in this proposal. The idea is to settle these items now and continue to negotiate the rest of the budget. While we appreciate the idea of giving schools the expected per-pupil amount in time for them to do their budgeting, leaving out other large funding sources such as at-risk is concerning.
The bills are now before the Senate for consideration where their fate is less than certain.
House Education Committee Approves Changes to Teacher Certification
On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee approved a four-bill package focused on how teachers are certified. House Bill 4150 would remove teacher renewal fees for certification, licenses and permits. This change is intended to improve teacher retention.
House Bill 4151 would allow additional subject area endorsements to be added to a teaching certificate if the certificate holder passed that subject area on the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification, a standardized test used to assess teacher competency. This would expand the areas a person could teach in and could help shortages.
House Bill 4152 would require that college and university teacher preparation programs ensure that the mathematics and science programs are developed with the consultation of a professor or content expert who specializes in these fields. This is aimed at encouraging more instruction in best practices to increase a teacher’s classroom success.
House Bill 4153 would allow local school districts, ISDs and public school academies to issue a local teaching certificate. The requirements would be set by the district, ISD or PSA, and the process would be set by the state superintendent. To qualify for a local teaching certificate, the candidate must have a bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate or professional degree from a regionally accredited college or university in the subject area that will be taught. This provision would sunset in 2035 and does not include CTE teachers.
HBs 4151 and 4153 were referred to the House Rules Committee which approved them without further debate on Thursday. All four bills are now before the full House for consideration.
Senate Education Committee Approves Stipends for Preschool Student Teachers
On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 83 which would expand student teacher stipends to preschool teachers working in publicly funded education programs such as the Great Start Readiness Program. Supporters of the expansion noted this could help encourage people to become preschool teachers.
SB83 is now before the full Senate for consideration. A similar bill was passed unanimously by the Senate last session but was not considered by the House before they adjourned for the year.
President Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress. His speech was the longest address ever at 100 minutes and served a similar purpose to a State of the Union address, allowing President Trump to outline what his priorities and agenda are for the upcoming year. He spoke about the things he has done in his first 43 days in office including the record number of executive orders. He touted the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency and the cuts that have been made, the hiring freeze, and withdrawal from international agreements like the Paris Climate Accord as efforts to boost the economy.
He also outlined a few cultural and social issues that he will or has addressed, such as ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in the federal government and calling on schools and universities to do the same.
Finally, he spoke to foreign policy and the need to rebuild the military and revive the shipbuilding industry. You can read his full address here.
Michigan’s newest U.S. Senator, Elissa Slotkin, delivered the Democratic Response following the President’s address. She outlined three core beliefs that will drive their agenda and work this year: the middle class drives our economy, a strong national security protects us from harm, and democracy is worth fighting for. You can watch her ten-minute response here.
Possible Federal Government Shutdown?
The current Continuing Resolution funding the federal government is set to expire at midnight on March 14. If Congress does not pass department appropriations bills or another continuing budget resolution by then the federal government will shut down. Without annual appropriations, only essential services will continue, as federal programs cannot continue without appropriation.
For school operations, the shutdown may not be felt completely as many federal funds have already been allocated to the districts and state. However, Head Start, school nutrition and Impact Aid will be immediately affected as funding will stop with the shutdown. Impact Aid is a federal appropriation to districts that have federal lands within their borders that are exempt from normal taxes. Twenty districts in Michigan receive this funding, which totals more than 10 million dollars. If a shutdown lasts for a length of time, other programs will start to see funding issues.
Districts may also see some effect right away with students who currently receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Both SNAP and WIC will face cuts to recipients under the shutdown. WIC recipients will be affected immediately, SNAP benefits are paid for a 30-day period, which will protect recipients unless a shutdown lasts longer than a month.
The House and Senate are continuing to work to reach an agreement, and we will keep you posted on their progress. A federal government shutdown does not affect the state government or state-funded programs, those will continue.