Michigan schools could be getting an extra $126 million for school safety efforts next fiscal year, on top of what was originally planned. That’s under a spending bill passed in the state Legislature Wednesday.
The additional spending is to make up for cuts to per-pupil mental health and school safety grants that had been made in the original version of the state’s fiscal year 2024-2025 schools budget that passed this summer.
Under the state’s current budget, for fiscal year 2023-2024, the grants received $328 million between restricted and general fund dollars. The new budget had slashed that number to $25 million in ongoing school aid funding and $1.5 million in one-time funding.
Democratic state Representative Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) said that was because federal money that had supported the program was running out.
"It was always a priority, especially of House Democrats, to make sure that we were doing everything that we could to find additional dollars. So, we worked all summer and were able to find a fund that was underutilized that we could lapse early that freed up funding,” she said Wednesday.
Weiss said that new fund would be from a soon-expiring pot of money that also supported school mental health efforts.
With the new spending, the mental health and school safety grants would receive more than $150 million total in the upcoming fiscal year.
During a committee hearing for the supplemental budget bill Wednesday, Rep. Nancy DeBoer (R-Holland) pointed out that would still be less than half of what the grants got in the past.
"This means the schools will install only half the door locks or half the security cameras that they might otherwise. It means only half the students that need mental health support might receive them,” DeBoer said.
The legislation ultimately passed the House with wide bipartisan support by a vote of 98-11.
In the Senate, however, Republicans had harsher words for the deal. In that chamber, it didn’t get enough votes to take effect immediately.
State Senator John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) accused Democrats in legislative leadership of shutting Republicans out of the process until the very last moment. He criticized the bill for using one-time funding to supply the grants.
“You think a school can hire a school resource officer knowing that the funding is gone next year? You don’t think people can see through this?” Damoose said.
But Democrats defended the plan as something schools they represent are in favor of.
“That flies right in the face of what my local superintendents are telling me. So, those who are on the ground, in the classrooms every day, doing the work are elated right now,” state Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth) said.
The legislation is now on the way to the governor for her signature.
