The Michigan Legislature passed legislation in October 2021 to create the Student Opportunity Scholarship Program, which would give thousands of families across the state more spending power to help meet their children's educational needs. This report unpacks this proposed education savings account program and analyzes its potential fiscal impacts.

The growth of homeschooling from a somewhat fringe movement during the 1970s and 1980s to a more widespread and socially accepted approach in recent decades has provided a strong foundation of flexible learning models. When Florida's school choice expansion, House Bill 1, was introduced in January 2023, one of its goals was to allow more…

This is the technical appendix for the report "From Insights to Impact: Fostering Innovation through Texas" which examines the current national landscape of higher education research and development to help gauge Texas' current position and identify opportunities to drive further innovations into the future. This appendix includes the…

Despite profound benefits of high-quality early childhood education (ECE) that could address and avert educational inequities for children of color and those from low-income backgrounds, ECE in Michigan and across the nation lacks sufficient funding. Students of color and students from low-income backgrounds particularly encounter many barriers to…

Michigan's funding system is falling short for all students, especially Michigan's most vulnerable children. This means that students who are in most need are not receiving the funding that would allow them to overcome barriers and opportunity gaps. This report outlines a set of nonpartisan, research-informed guiding principles and a framework for…

This brief is part of Education Law Center's "Tracking State Aid Cuts in the Pandemic" series. Michigan schools have struggled with reductions in funding over the last decade. In July, the Michigan Legislature approved a state aid cut of $175 per pupil, totaling $256 million. The cut was applied equally to all districts, from those with…

Michigan policymakers and advocates are calling on the state to adopt a new school funding formula that provides additional funding to students with greater educational need, such as students with greater economic need. For Michigan students who have been identified as economically disadvantaged, at least a 35 percent weight is necessary for…

School funding in Michigan is inadequate and inequitable. Michigan does not provide a sufficient base per-pupil amount, nor does the state properly address the cost of educating students with additional needs, especially students with disabilities, English learners, and low-income students. It would cost $4.5 billion to bring districts to funding…

TICAS partnered with higher education researcher Dr. Donald E. Heller to examine the "affordability gap" that students are facing when paying for college. The report uses federal data to determine the so-called "college affordability gap" in three states--California, Michigan, and New York--with a focus on students who are…

According to a new analysis by The Education Trust-Midwest, Michigan is underfunding students from low-income backgrounds and English Learners by an estimated $5.1 billion annually compared to what leading states practice and what research indicates is needed for those students to succeed. The analysis also found that Michigan is near the bottom…

For more than a quarter century, Michigan public schools have been financed under a structure commonly known as Proposal A. This funding system's greater dependence on using state revenue to finance an enrollment-based funding formula has led to greater parity among districts over time and fueled more publicly supported schooling options for…

Since early 2017, the governor and state legislature have been debating the state's school aid budget for fiscal year 2017-18. The roughly $14 billion school aid budget is the primary source of public school funding in Michigan. As described in the March 2017 analysis of the Governor's executive budget recommendation, the state budget provides…

State takeover has become a consistent policy prescription for school districts who become financially insolvent and/or have low academic achievement. A look at the state of Michigan's state takeover laws and the case study of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) demonstrates the negative consequences and nuances of the policy to improve academic…

Governor Whitmer's April 2020 decision to extend the shutdown of school buildings through the remainder of the academic year came with a guarantee to preserve districts' 2019-2020 funding levels, provided they met a few basic conditions. One condition was to continue paying all district employees, even if staff members needed to be redeployed to…

This brief is based upon a report that reviewed research on the role of money in determining school quality. The research documents that resource investments matter for student outcomes, especially when they are directed to under-resourced districts and students from low-income families. The research also shows that spending resources in ways that…