LANSING, MI (AP)-- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is proposing to use a budget surplus to finally eliminate a funding gap among K-12 districts, 27 years after Michigan overhauled the financing of public education.
Under the Democratic governor’s revised proposal, districts and charter schools would receive $8,692 in base per-student aid from the state. That is $581, or 7%, more for most. An existing $418 gap between lower- and higher-funded schools would be fully closed.
Whitmer also proposes spending $1 billion to upgrade school infrastructure and to hire more teachers and psychologists, counselors, social workers and nurses who work in schools.