State Board of Education President Dr. Pamela Pugh, state elected officials and education leaders from across Washtenaw County shared an update about threats to education, what’s going well in Michigan and what support community members can offer at an Education Town Hall on April 30th at Washtenaw Community College. The event was presented by the Washtenaw Superintendents Association and the Washtenaw Association of School Boards.
Pugh described education efforts in Michigan as both an offensive and defensive battle. She highlighted on the offensive side the recently announced the highest graduation rate in state history, expansion in mental health funding for schools and increases in funding for K-12 education in the last two years. On the defensive side, Pugh shared Michigan’s Attorney General has filed six lawsuits against federal efforts that would harm education, including challenges to birthright citizenship, defunding multiple programs and requirements on what schools can and can’t teach.
Pugh said we are making sure our children are getting closer to getting the best education system that we can have. “We will fight for our children, we will fight for our children to have the education that they have always deserved and definitely fight against those who are trying to push a very cruel agenda,” she said.
Locally, Washtenaw Intermediate School District Superintendent Naomi Norman shared this year the WISD received about $29 million in federal funds for 19 programs that are at risk. Most of these funds flow through the WISD into the county’s local school district for important services such as special education, medicare reimbursements and the Head Start program. Norman said they won’t stop programs immediately when federal funding is cut, but this will require dipping into fund balance.
Norman added no matter what happens, school districts as required will provide special education services based on what is included in a student’s Individual Education Plan or IEP. Instead those services would have to be funded from another source. “If we lost the federal dollars it would be about a ten percent drop for us and just to put that in context for Ann Arbor for example that would be about five million dollars they would have to pull from the general fund in order to cover those expenses,” Norman said.
Not all of the challenges facing local education are specifically funding related. Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jazz Parks highlighted an executive order challenging diversity, equity and inclusion that is currently blocked by a preliminary injunction. Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Alena Zachery-Ross focused her remarks on the impact immigration enforcement policies have had on students. “We’ve seen decreased attendance in these families and in our scholars,” she said. “Our scholars experience the reality of this happening with their families across the nation and it is hard to shelter them. Families are forced to honestly share with them this real challenge of perhaps having a backup plan for care if they return home and their parents are no longer there.”
State Senator Jeff Irwin and 32nd House District State Representative Jimmie Wilson, Jr. gave the perspective of work going on in Michigan’s government. Irwin shared there is a five billion dollar gap between what the Democrat controlled state senate and Republican controlled house are proposing for K-12 education funding for the 2025-26 year. Irwin added that it’s important to change the narrative on schools and highlight what they have done for Michigan. “Free quality public education is the most important, most successful thing we have ever done,” he said.
While most of the focus was on impacts federal cuts would have on schools directly, Superintendent Parks highlighted cuts are also hurting other community organizations that provide valuable services for students. “One of our biggest partners is Community Action Network in Ann Arbor Public Schools and they just took a significant blow to their funding,” Parks said. “They are able to provide resources for our students, wrap-around supports, working with staff, working with families, working with students both during the school day, before school, after school and summer, and so with the reduction in the grant dollars that they receive through AmeriCorps happening just this week, it’s a devastating impact for the families that they serve.”
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