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Michigan schools to begin fiscal year without clear budget from Lansing

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   Michigan schools will finalize their budgets Monday – but without knowing how much money they’ll have to work with.

It’s the start of the new fiscal year for school districts, and that means that schools in Michigan need to know now how much money they are going to use throughout the year, but lawmakers in Lansing have yet to give them a clear picture of what they can expect their budgets to be.

Republican Representative Aaron Miller is chair of a subcommittee focused on education spending. He says this situation has happened in the past.

“It gets ironed out and school boards have to go back and change budgets. I admit that it could be a problem for some, it’s just not the end of the world. And they may end up having to make educated guesses,” he says.

So far teachers and education advocates have held two rallies at the Capitol. They want the Legislature to adopt Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s spending proposal.

Before becoming the newest Capitol reporter for the Michigan Public Radio Network, Cheyna Roth was an attorney. She spent her days fighting it out in court as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Ionia County. Eventually, Cheyna took her investigative and interview skills and moved on to journalism. She got her masters at Michigan State University and was a documentary filmmaker, podcaster, and freelance writer before finding her home with NPR. Very soon after joining MPRN, Cheyna started covering the 2016 presidential election, chasing after Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and all their surrogates as they duked it out for Michigan. Cheyna also focuses on the Legislature and criminal justice issues for MPRN. Cheyna is obsessively curious, a passionate storyteller, and an occasional backpacker. Follow her on Twitter at @Cheyna_R