Michigan House backs off major cuts to university funding while passing education budget bills

The Michigan House of Representatives worked late into the evening to pass an overhauled university funding budget that reduced its massive cuts to operational funding but still penalized Michigan State University and the University of Michigan | Screenshot
Michigan House Republicans passed their last few education budget bills late into the evening on Thursday, using an all-night session to make major changes to the university funding budget in order to garner support.
The House had initially planned to slash operational funding for each institution across the board in House Bill 4580, sponsored by state Rep. Greg Markkanen (R-Hancock).
That would have resulted in a $828.1 million decrease in overall operational funding. Meanwhile, the House also planned to cut state funding to Michigan State University and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to penalize them for not producing enough Michigan-based graduates. The House noted that operational cuts to those universities were due in part to their large endowments, cutting 50% of funding from MSU and up to 75% of funding from U of M.
Another big factor in the House Appropriations Committee-produced university budget bill, which was sent to the floor on Wednesday, was its boilerplate language indicating the different ways it would penalize universities for 'woke' policies.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The House planned to withhold funding if universities allowed transgender women to play women's sports, created common area spaces or held gatherings that separated people by sex or race, or continued to push diversity, equity and inclusion-based programming or initiatives.
What passed the entire chamber – albeit along party lines – was a much different funding model. The $828.1 million operational funding cut was out and replaced with a $51.6 million decrease, meanwhile still cutting the same amount of general fund dollars from university operational funding at $1.2 billion.
That softened the blow a bit for other universities but MSU and U of M still took a hit in the House-passed version. Instead of taking a percentage of state funding away from those flagship state universities, the House made a $291 million reduction in operational funding across the board just for those two universities. MSU's state funding was to be reduced by $56.6 million, or an 18% reduction, and U of M's state funding was to be reduced by $234.4 million, a 65% reduction.
The House-passed plan redistributes that to the other 13 state universities, with $22 million of those general fund dollars going to the state's tuition grant program, $13.3 million for Native American tuition waiver payments and a $13 million payment to the seven universities that participate in the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System.
The DEI and women's sports boilerplate language remained, however, as did the House's plan to shift a significant portion of school aid fund dollars for public schools to higher education.
Also passing late Thursday evening was the community college budget, House Bill 4579, which the chamber moved unchanged from its committee reported version. Community colleges in the House budget would receive $456.6 million with zero general fund dollars, resulting in a decrease of $5.56 million, or 1.2%.
The House on Wednesday passed House Bill 4576, funding the Department of Education, public schools, and House Bill 4577, funding Michigan's K-12 public schools, and House Bill 4578, funding the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential.
The K-12 budget passed Wednesday was also rife with boilerplate language that would target DEI programs and initiatives and wrapped school meals and other vital student success programs into per-pupil funding. Democrats argue costs for those services – like funding for at-risk students – would come out of classroom dollars that students and teachers need.
The road ahead at the bargaining table between the Democratic-controlled state Senate and Gov. Grecthen Whitmer could be difficult to predict, considering the dynamics in play with divided government and the fact that Whitmer and state House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) have been talking about budget items and road funding for the last several months, said Andrea Bitely, founder of Bitely Communications.
Bitley in an interview with Michigan Advance said that both Hall and Whitmer hold each other's political fates in the palm of their hands.
'Hall holds Whitmer's fate when it comes to what her final success story is,' Bitley said. 'She started off with a really bumpy ride. Her numbers for the first few years were not great, and the pandemic shifted that. Now she's one of America's most well-known and popular governors. But she wants to end on a high note.'
Whatever her next moves, Hall and House Appropriations Chair Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) are coming to the negotiating table this year with a wholly different way to fund public schools, a reduced university funding model and with several political pressure points in the culture war-tinted boilerplate language.
'He's coming to the table with something that's not ideal for her, or a lot of the interest groups that she works closely with that are her prime supporters,' Bitely said. 'There are a lot of stakeholders that are mad [about the House education budgets].'
What the differing plans offer between the Senate, the House and the executive office recommendations is a chance to have a true negotiation, Bitely added.
'This is honestly giving everybody the opportunity to come to the negotiating table and work this out,' she said. 'There are going to be true negotiations because everyone wants something in this budget. Whitmer wants more roads money, she wants education money. Hall also wants roads money, but wants it in a different way than she does. But he also wants education money.'
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) was much harder to predict.
'She's been the outlier in everything over the past 100 days or so,' Bitley said. 'She's kind of the wild card because Whitmer and Hall have obviously been working together for a multitude of reasons. They are the ultimate frenemies. And we know that Matt Hall right now is working better with Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan than Winnie Brinks or [Democratic minority House leader and state Rep. Ranjeev Puri of Canton]. That's where we're at in Michigan's political world.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Associated Press

7 minutes ago

• Associated Press

Texas governor vetoes bill that would ban all THC products

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill Sunday to ban all THC consumables, allowing the booming market flush with THC-infused vapes, gummies and other products to continue to be sold across the state. Abbott, a Republican, waited until the final moment to veto the bill in what would have been one of the most restrictive THC bans in the country and a significant blow to the state's billion-dollar industry. The law would have made it a misdemeanor to own, manufacture or sell consumable THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products and was the latest push by states to regulate THC after a 2018 federal law allowed states to regulate hemp, a similar plant to marijuana that can be synthetically processed to produce THC, the compound giving marijuana its psychoactive properties. Loopholes in existing law have allowed many THC-infused goods to enter the market across the country, including states with strict marijuana laws. Texas has some of the strictest marijuana laws in the country, prohibiting all recreational use and providing a limited medical marijuana program. The consumables market has allowed residents to legally access goods giving a similar high to marijuana. Republican lawmakers have criticized the products as dangerous due to a lack of federal oversight in how the goods are manufactured. Texas' ban is one of the more far-reaching among states that have taken similar steps. Several states, including California, have imposed age limits and restrictions on the potency of THC products. Critics of the Texas bill say it allows people who cannot access marijuana through the state's medical marijuana program to acquire goods that can provide a similar relief. Many retailers across the state also pointed to the thousands of jobs and millions in revenue the industry brings each year. Last year, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have put age restrictions on THC consumables, claiming it would hurt small businesses. ___ Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Yahoo

40 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Live updates: ‘Fighting Oligarchy' tour brings Bernie Sanders to Fort Worth

Bernie Sanders and his 'Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here' national tour has made targeted stops in deep-red congressional districts held by Republicans. Today's stop? Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. The independent senator from Vermont said his tour highlights the country's move toward authoritarianism and the increasingly large role billionaires and big corporations play on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Austin, and former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat from El Paso, were among those speaking. At least 3,000 North Texans joined labor leaders in chants of 'What kind of power? People power,' as the crowd prepared for the entrance of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders is appearing in Fort Worth just short of 24 hours after President Donald Trump launched a series of airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facility sites. News of the strikes came to Sanders last night while he was onstage at another Fighting Oligarchy rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sanders did not appear at an earlier event in Amarillo due to security meetings about the strikes, according to Amarillo's KAMR. IAM Union President Brian Bryant, the union representing Fort Worth Lockheed Martin workers, said he is worried the country is headed toward being controlled by an oligarchy, whether citizens realize it or not. He said the issues Sanders is highlighting are ones that resonate with all workers across the United States. 'It's an issue that our members, regardless of what party they affiliate themselves with, they can connect with this because even though they may have voted for the Trump administration, they're sensing that they are being left behind with the legislation he's passing,' Bryant said. 'It's not what they envisioned. It wasn't going to be they thought he was going to be pro-worker. He hasn't done anything that's pro-worker.' Though the union has made efforts to reach out to the Trump administration to raise questions about legislation being passed, Bryant said 'no one's listening.' 'Huge tax breaks for billionaires, and they're not doing anything to help the economy for the working people,' Bryant said. 'None of his executive orders, none of the bills that Congress has passed, they do nothing to go towards the heart of what the issue is that working people are still hurting.' Bryant said he is glad to be representing IAM Union at the Fighting Oligarchy Tour because Sanders is standing up for the workers Trump is leaving behind. 'We aren't just taking punches anymore, we're throwing them too,' Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder said as the crowd erupted in cheers. Scudder said it's high time to flip Texas and start actually representing the people instead of allowing Republicans to 'rig the game.' O'Rourke described a world where workers only have to work one job and money is not being funneled into billionaire's pockets. A world where the president does not stage an 'illegal war' on Iran and where veterans receive the benefits they are promised. 'But to realize this picture, we need action from all of us, and we need it right now,' O'Rourke said. 'If you see a protest, please show up and join it. If you don't see one, start on your own. This stuff is breaking through. It's changing public perception. It's applying political pressure on those in these positions of public trust, and we need more of it.' Casar said Trump's playbook is based on dividing people. 'He would try to play native born workers against immigrant workers, black against white, against Brown, have us fight each other so the rich could get richer.' The only way to beat the playbook every time, Casar said, is to stick together and stand in union. On stage, O'Rourke called out Republicans on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court for their mid-decade redistricting that some residents call racial gerrymandering. He said the act was one that would draw Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons out of her seat — something Republicans on the court have been transparent about. O'Rourke told the Star-Telegram that redrawing lines to ensure political gain is human nature and that both parties do it while in power. The only way to fight it, he said, is to vote. 'So you have to guard against human nature, and that requires you know the people, the voters of Tarrant County, rejecting this, and even within newly drawn districts, making sure that there's a political consequence for those who tried to thwart the will of the voters.' As goes Tarrant County, so goes Texas, O'Rourke believes. With none of the 13 conservative-backed candidates winning in Tarrant County municipal elections, O'Rourke said it's a good sign for the midterm elections, but progressive candidates aren't out of the woods yet. He said voters are rejecting fascism and authoritarianism, no matter what political party is associated with it. 'It's just, do you believe in the Constitution? Do you believe in the rule of law? Do you believe that people should be treated with dignity and respect?' O'Rourke said. 'Those are so fundamental and so basic, and I'm so encouraged that so many Americans are responding to these challenges and these choices at school board level, at the city council, at the commissioners court level across the state, in a very, very positive way.' O'Rourke, who lost to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022 in the race for Texas Governor by about 10 percentage points, said he will stop speaking out politically when the problems Texans are facing solved. 'Everything that I was concerned about as a member of Congress, everything I was concerned about as a candidate, I'm still concerned about today,' O'Rourke said. 'You can't get rid of me, whether I'm a candidate or not, I'm going to be out here doing the work.' At the heart of the issues in America's political climate, Sanders said, is an immense concentration of wealth among a select few corporations and people. 'The bottom line is that today, the people on top have never, ever been better,' Sanders said to the crowd of over 6,500. The Vermont senator recalled sitting at Trump's inauguration earlier this year, where Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos sat near the president. Behind them, he said, were a dozen more billionaires, all of whom are reaping more rewards in U.S. politics than ever before. Trump is not being slick about lining their pockets, Sanders said. 'If you recall, right behind him, plain vision for the world to see, were the three wealthiest people in our country,' Sanders said. Throughout the night, O'Rourke, Casar and Sanders repeatedly decried this weekend's strikes in Iran as a blatantly unconstitutional effort to involve the United States in another 'forever war.' Sanders said the vast majority of Democrats understand what is happening and plan to act against the president. 'Whether you want to go to war in Iran or argue against, it just so happens, the President of the United States doesn't have the authority to do that,' Sanders said. 'Read the Constitution of the United States. It is Congress that has that authority. And I would hope that this week, we will force that resolution, War Powers Act, onto the floor and force people to vote.' Sanders said he doesn't accept states as being solely red or blue, he instead sees hard workers who have the same goals, needs and the same vision. 'This is not Democrat, Republican or independent,' Sanders said. 'I think it is criminal that in the richest country on Earth, we have so much income and wealth inequality that 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. We're the only major country not to guarantee health care to all people. And all of this is related to money in politics.' The bottom line of his tour across America, Sanders said, is that citizens need to get involved politically. 'I would urge people, in any way that they find comfortable, to stand up to the oligarchy,' Sanders said. 'Because what you have now is a small number of people who are incredibly greedy.'

Axios

an hour ago

• Axios

Abbott vetoes Texas THC ban

Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday night vetoed the THC ban bill pushed by his fellow Republicans in the Texas Legislature. Why it matters: The move secures the future of the state's multibillion-dollar hemp industry and keeps those who rely on legal THC products with more options — for now. It also articulates a divide among Texas conservatives in how they view cannabis and how to address its rising popularity. Between the lines: Abbott waited to act less than an hour before the midnight deadline to veto bills. Driving the news: Senate Bill 3 sought to ban the possession, sale and manufacture of all THC products — including consumable delta-8 THC which Texas lawmakers legalized in 2019. Context: Delta-8 THC is a minor chemical variant of the main psychoactive ingredient in traditional cannabis and provides lesser psychoactive effects. It can be coupled with CBD, another hemp-derived compound used for pain relief and mental wellness. In 2019, Abbott signed the Texas farm bill, which partly legalized products containing small amounts of hemp-derived delta-8 THC, including edibles, beverages, vapes and traditional bud. Catch up quick: Last year, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vowed that Texas would once again criminalize all forms of THC after claiming products were being sold with "unlimited THC" and marketed to children with "life-threatening" consequences. The Senate passed SB 3 26-5 in March, and the House followed suit with an 87-54 vote in May. Flashback: Thousands of veterans, business owners and THC proponents sent Abbott letters urging him to veto the bill. The big picture: The move comes as Abbott this weekend expanded the state's medical marijuana program, opening it up for people with chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, Crohn's disease and in palliative care, and as more states have loosened cannabis restrictions in recent years.