FLINT — The state’s new education budget promises the highest per-pupil spending in Michigan to date.

Governor Whitmer signed the educational budget agreed upon by the state’s legislature, at the Mott Community College Regional Tech Center in Flint on Thursday.

She said the budget also invests half a billion dollars in school infrastructure, funds teacher recruitment, bolsters school safety, expands mental health resources and more.

“Every kid in every district deserves to feel safe and supported in school and I am proud today to sign a historic, bipartisan education budget that will make game-changing investments to improve every student’s in-class experience,” Whitmer said.

The budget holds the highest state per-pupil funding in Michigan history: $9,150 for students in every district. 

Additional support for the nearly 200,000 special education students and 710,000 at-risk students in Michigan is also available. It also expands free preschool under the Great Start Readiness Program to 1,300 more kids.

There’s also $214 in per-pupil mental health and school safety funding for every kid, in every public school district as well as support for new textbooks, more personalized instruction and bolstering of AP and honors classes.

The budget includes special education, at-risk funding and career and technical education while expanding slots in free after-school and preschool programs.

Governor Whitmer speaks at the Mott Community College Regional Tech Center in Flint, Thursday, July 14. Photo: Office of the Governor

A Funding MI Future Educator Fellowship will pay up to $10,000 in tuition for 2,500 future Michigan educators every year, $9,600 in stipends per semester for student teachers and Grow-Your-Own programs that help districts put support staff on no-cost paths to become educators.

Also earmarked is $250,000,000 in school infrastructure funds meant to build or renovate everything from classrooms, computer labs and libraries, and funds targeted for teacher recruitment programs.

Historically, in communities like Dearborn and Hamtramck, these infrastructure needs in particular have pushed school districts to ask residents for new millages during elections to secure bonds — an often unsuccessful strategy.

In Dearborn, the state’s new budget and increased spending means a reduction in property taxes for residents. But though the state’s new budget has an overall increase in school funding, the Dearborn School District has said that complicated changes in how it received state aid this fiscal year resulted in millions less for the district in per-pupil funding.

The budget has a condition that the school district must axe its 6 mill Hold Harmless tax on the property tax bills for district homeowners this year in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights in order to receive those funds.

Whitmer said the state budget is “proof of what is possible when we put our students first and stay focused on getting things done”, speaking most likely of the Republican-controlled state legislature.

The bipartisan budget includes funds to hire more on-campus school resources officers in the wake of the recent multiple deadly school shootings across the country, including in Oxford, Michigan last November. It creates an intervention system for at-risk students that brings together law enforcement, schools and mental health professionals, and establishes a school safety commission.

“The increase in support for at-risk and special education students is critical, as it will better position schools to set vulnerable kids up for success,” said David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan.