The Future of School Funding in Michigan: Funding Students, Not Programs

For decades, Michigan has tried to influence schools and their spending by layering on more and more regulations and strings tied to funding. These include special grants, restricted pots of money, and temporary initiatives that change with each budget cycle. While these efforts are well-intentioned, they create instability, confusion, and unpredictability for districts that are trying to plan for the long term. This patchwork system produces a cycle of conflicting policy decisions and shifting priorities. These forces prevent schools from building sustainable, student-centered strategies. 

The good news is that Michigan now has a real opportunity to change course. Michigan must double down on funding students based on their needs, not programs. Michigan began to do this with the passage of Proposal A in the mid-1990s. Today, most students are now funded largely through an equal Foundation Allowance, not based on zipcode.  Michigan now has an opportunity to adopt a weighted, student-centered funding formula based on student demographics like special education, English language learners, and at-risk students. This next generation of funding is fairer, more predictable, and better aligned with how students actually learn.

What Successful States Are Doing

States that have seen the strongest academic gains, including Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Colorado, and Massachusetts, have modernized their funding systems by implementing weighted student funding formulas. These states use student weights such as:

• At-risk
• English learner 
• Special education 
• Geographic isolation
• Career and technical education participation

A Weighted Formula Is Better for Students

The path for Michigan is a multi-year transition to fully fund a weighted student formula.  It begins with creating the formula and streamlining categorical spending. In this model, dollars follow the student, not a program. Districts gain the flexibility to invest resources where they will make the most difference. 

A 10-year plan would include:

• Streamlining dozens of categorical programs to free up resources
• Adding meaningful weights for at-risk students, English learners, students with disabilities, career and technical education, and isolated rural districts
• Using a three-year blended count to stabilize enrollment-driven funding

These changes would create a predictable, sustainable, and student-centered system. This structure would allow districts to plan for and meet student needs more effectively. 

What This Means for Michigan’s Future

Shifting to a weighted funding system would allow Michigan to:

• Target additional resources to students with the greatest challenges
• Reduce the administrative burden tied to categorical programs
• Improve long-term planning for districts, educators, and communities
• Align funding with recommendations from the School Finance Research Collaborative and national experts

This is more than a budgeting shift. It represents a philosophical shift. It means believing that investing in students who need it the most and allowing funding to follow the students drives success. It means trusting districts and educators to allocate resources in ways that serve their students best. It also means building a stable, long-term funding model instead of recreating the system every single year.

The Path Forward

The next decade will be a defining period for Michigan. If the state continues to rely on a maze of categorical programs, it will continue to see inconsistent outcomes. If Michigan embraces a weighted student formula that reflects the real investment needed for educating every child, the state can build a more equitable, student-focused system that children deserve.