In March 2021, the Legislature enacted HB 4048, which amended the State School Aid Act to appropriate supplemental funding for public education, including approximately $1.5 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) funds awarded to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) by Congress under the Federal Coronavirus Relief and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA). The bill, however, conditioned the release of $840 million in ESSER II funds to local education agencies (LEAs, or districts) on the Governor signing-off on a separate bill, HB4049. This bill amended the public health law by transferring the authority to close schools in the pandemic from the State Health Director to local health officers. As expected, the Governor promptly vetoed the bill that would strip the State of its power to close schools in a public health crisis. Linking approval of that bill to the release of emergency federal ESSER II funds -- a legislative tactic known as a "tie-bar" -- has blocked the MDE from distributing those funds to districts and charter schools across the state. The additional education costs imposed by the pandemic add to the budgetary crisis faced by so many Michigan districts. The State Legislature's continuing failure to adequately fund public education disproportionately harms schools in communities with higher proportions of low-income students and students of color. It is precisely these schools that Congress intended the ESSER II funds to help in the pandemic. The Republican majority's decision to hold these funds hostage through a tie-bar on a public health issue wholly unrelated to the educational needs of Michigan's students and schools is nothing short of tragic and completely inexcusable.