Dear Senator/Representative [Last Name],

As a constituent and supporter of public education, I am writing to urge you to prioritize the completion of Michigan's K-12 education budget and ensure that schools have the resources and certainty they need to serve students effectively.

First, I respectfully ask that the Legislature complete the school budget before the July 1 deadline. School districts are legally required to adopt balanced budgets by July 1, yet they cannot do so responsibly without knowing their state funding allocations. Last year's delay in passing the school budget until October created significant uncertainty for districts across Michigan and hindered effective planning. Our students, families, educators, and taxpayers deserve a budget process that provides timely and predictable funding.

Second, I urge you to reduce transfers from the School Aid Fund. Michigan voters approved Proposal A with the understanding that School Aid Fund dollars would support K-12 education. Today, more than $1.3 billion is being diverted to purposes outside of K-12 classrooms, and proposals have been discussed that would increase those diversions even further. At a time when schools continue to face rising costs for transportation, utilities, health care, and instructional materials, every available dollar should remain focused on supporting students and classrooms.

Third, please maximize investments in Michigan's students. Recent funding increases have not kept pace with inflation, leaving districts struggling to meet growing operational costs. Schools need sustainable funding structures that provide greater certainty for long-term planning. Additionally, funding intended for important priorities such as school safety should be structured in a way that allows districts to access and utilize those resources effectively.

I also urge you to keep broader political debates from delaying the K-12 budget process. Discussions regarding property tax reform and other major policy initiatives deserve careful consideration, but they should not interfere with the timely adoption of a school budget. Michigan's students cannot afford another year of uncertainty caused by unrelated legislative negotiations.

Finally, I encourage you to support a transparent budget process. Legislators, educators, parents, and taxpayers should have adequate time to review the final school aid budget before votes are taken. A minimum 24-hour public review period would help ensure accountability, improve public trust, and allow stakeholders to understand the impact of proposed budget decisions.

Michigan families expect a budget process that is timely, transparent, and focused on students. I respectfully ask you to work with your colleagues to complete the K-12 budget on time, protect School Aid Fund resources for their intended purpose, maximize investments in students, and ensure an open and transparent process.

Thank you for your service and for your consideration of these important issues affecting Michigan's children and public schools.

Sincerely,

•      We are just *** days from the July 1 legal deadline. Both the House and Senate have passed education budgets that are extremely similar to one another. The Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference has finalized the revenue numbers. Every piece is in place. What we need from you is urgency and a commitment to do what’s best for our students this year.

•      Last year, the Legislature didn't pass the school budget until October, more than six weeks after schools had already opened. That's not an abstract statistic. It caused real, measurable harm in school districts across the state.

•      School boards are legally required to adopt their own balanced budgets by July 1. They cannot do that if they don't know their state funding. When the Legislature misses its deadline, it creates a chain reaction that forces every district in the state to plan blind.

•      93.3% of voters support requiring the budget be done by July 1 (up from 82.5% last year).

•      96.6% say it's a problem when districts don't know their funding before school starts.

●      No business could be run successfully this way and it’s irresponsible to expect a school district to be run this way.

•      We need your help in reducing the transfers out of the school-aid fund.

•      The School Aid Fund was established under Proposal A with a promise to Michigan voters that their tax dollars would be set aside for K-12 public schools. For 15 years, governors and legislatures from both parties have broken that promise by diverting SAF dollars to pay for other priorities that used to be covered by the General Fund.

•      In the current budget, more than $1.3 billion in SAF dollars go somewhere other than K-12 classrooms.

•      We were shocked when the Governor's budget recommendation for next year would actually increase these diversions to $1.7 billion, roughly $1,200 per pupil. That is moving in exactly the wrong direction.

•      78.4% of voters oppose diverting SAF dollars away from K-12 (60.1% strongly oppose).

•      While the House and Senate budgets are very similar, it’s clear that the Senate budget is the most straightforward path to getting a final budget done as quickly as possible and should be the sole focus of negotiations going forward.

•      Over the past 2 years, the budgets signed into law have not even kept pace with the rate of inflation. When school funding goes up by 2% but costs for energy, health insurance, transportation, and supplies go up by 4%, that's not an investment. It's a cut dressed up in better language.

•      This year, it’s critical we maximize every dollar being spent and the Senate budget comes much closer to that than the House’s.

•      Importantly, it includes true weighted formulas in the Michigan school aid budget for the first time, providing real budget certainty and sustainability to schools that desperately need it to make longer-term plans for their districts rather than being forced into year-to-year decision making.

•      It also makes needed changes to language in Section 31(a)(a) that prevented 75% of school districts this year from being able to accept critically important school safety money due to serious concerns raised by attorneys. I hope we can agree that money allocated in a manner that makes it impossible for schools to accept is not in the best interest of our kids who deserve to be kept safe.

●      Do not let the last-minute, politically motivated push to overhaul property taxes impact or delay the K-12 budget again this year.

●      Last year, a politically focused push for a road funding deal irresponsibly delayed the K-12 budget from getting done until October.

●      This year, a politically motivated push to reform the entire property tax model is threatening to do the same. That cannot be allowed to happen.

●      The package that was rushed through the Michigan House recently would completely eliminate the State Education Tax, ripping $3 billion from Michigan schools annually, without any replacement for that funding proposed.

●      This reckless proposal would cut more than $2,100 per-pupil in funding to our classrooms, forcing mass layoffs, slashing programming and leaving school districts in financial emergencies across the state.

●      The simple reality is that it is not possible to responsibly reform Michigan’s property tax system in 3 weeks. It’s a process that would require careful deliberation and involvement from stakeholders to ensure it is done correctly and without harming Michigan’s schools and students.

●      This discussion must wait until the K-12 budget is completed to not further delay that process.

●      57.1% of voters said funding schools was a higher priority to them than cutting property taxes

•      Commit to a 24-hour waiting period once the final school aid budget is reported out of conference committee before it is put to a vote. No more voting on bills that nobody has had time to read.

•      It’s become far too common to see the legislature vote on a budget only minutes before it’s been made available to them. Last year, the vast majority of lawmakers hadn't read what they were voting on. School officials hadn't. Parents hadn't. Nobody outside a small group of negotiators knew what was in the bill until it was already law.

•      When educators finally did review it, we found provisions that withheld funding from critically important school programs, provisions that no one in the education community had been consulted on. That included school safety funding with legal restrictions so problematic that more than 75% of Michigan schools were unable to access the money.

•      Good budgets are built through a process that involves educators, parents, school board members, and teachers throughout. When the people who implement budgets have no voice in shaping them and no opportunity to review them, the process fails, and trust erodes.

•      93.0% of voters support a 24-hour waiting period before the school budget is voted on (76.4% strongly).

•      68.1% of voters distrust the Legislature to allocate SAF dollars properly.

•      The families in your district are counting on you. 93% of voters demand budgets being done on time. These aren't partisan numbers. They're the expectations of the people you represent. We need you to deliver.