Every two years, the Michigan Association of School Boards asks its members what they believe the legislative priorities should be for the upcoming legislative session. The following are the issues that were raised the most often and adopted by the MASB Board of Directors as the 2025-2026 priorities.

• Create a more equitable funding system for our public schools.
  • We know each child comes to school at a different level of preparedness and needs. We need to work toward a better system of funding for all our students. This includes ending unfunded mandates that pull resources from our classrooms, properly funding special education, reducing the number of categoricals in the state School Aid Budget, instead rolling them into the per-pupil foundation and implementing the recommendations of the School Finance Research Collaborative.
• Establish mental health and school safety funding as a permanent line item in the budget and available to all districts equitably.  
  • School psychologists, social workers and counselors are critical supports for students and staff in our schools. These mental health professionals can support our teachers and aid students who are struggling emotionally or academically. School safety grants have been used to increase security in buildings with infrastructure improvements, school resource officers, technology upgrades and/or training. Giving students the proper supports early on can help them perform better academically and possibly prevent tragic events from taking place. The state should give districts the proper and consistent resources to increase and retain school safety and mental health initiatives in an equitable fashion.
• Implement state funded infrastructure grants to address aging and outdated buildings.
  • Appropriate, safe and quality infrastructure is essential to student learning. Michigan’s lack of support for school infrastructure has created equity gaps between districts with the ability to raise the money to build or update buildings and those that struggle to maintain the buildings they have. We must create a more equitable way to address our aging and outdated buildings across the state.
• Specify that the School Aid Fund is for preK to 12th grade public education only in Michigan’s Constitution. Also, oppose any attempts to create private school vouchers or tax credit programs.
  • School Aid Fund dollars have been redirected to higher education and community colleges for more than a decade. The 2023-2024 Fiscal Year alone resulted in more than $923 million not being available for our public schools. We must protect the integrity of the School Aid Fund by making sure it is only used for PreK to 12th grade public education.
• Reduce the amount of standardized testing on our students. Focus on assessments that are timely and relevant, including replacing the MSTEP with a more effective and useful assessment. 
  • While accountability is important for schools, our students are subjected to hours of standardized testing and assessments each school year. This is time that is lost and could be focused on instruction. We should re-evaluate the amount of testing that is required in each grade to lessen the burden on our students and free up more time for instruction. Our assessments should also give timely and relevant results to teachers, in order to do this, the state should consider replacing or revamping the MSTEP.
• Implement state-based programs and modify certification requirements to address all education staff shortages and retain our quality employees.
  • Staff shortages in our schools is an ongoing issue. Michigan should support and create programs to encourage people to become teachers and stay in the classroom as well as programs to recruit paraprofessionals and student support staff, as well as train and retain bus drivers. Teacher cadet and home-grown teacher programs should be encouraged and supported across the state. Adjustments to certification requirements including allowing for state reciprocity and professionals to be able to obtain a teacher certification more easily should be considered. However, adjustments should not lessen the requirements to be certified to maintain the professionalism of our school staff.
• Support legislation that will put public school academies and management companies on equal footing with traditional public schools on issues related to transparency, reporting and treatment of employees. 
  • Billions of dollars each year are spent on public education in Michigan. Whether that money is sent to a traditional public school, a charter school or a cyber school, the public should be able to see how those dollars are spent. No school, including traditional public schools, should be able to hire a management company that does not provide transparency regarding expenditures of public funds that are fundamental to the operations of a school district.