13-06-2025
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.'
