Font size:
Michigan's new K-12 school-aid budget includes the largest per-pupil funding increase in state history. Signed in July by Gov. Engler, the budget will increase funding from the current amount of $5,700 to $6,700 per pupil by 2003. The bill increases school spending from $10.3 billion to $11.9 billion by 2003.
The school-aid budget allows for expansion of cross-district schools-of-choice programs, which let public school students attend a school in any contiguous school district that will accept them.
However, the budget also contains a clause that threatens to reduce per-pupil public school funding if Proposal 1 is passed in November. The ballot proposal would allow parents in failing public school districts to use a state-funded voucher for their child's education at a non-public school.
