Clarkston, Lake Orion, Waterford schools all set to lose >$1M

State Rep. Mike Harris on Friday repeated his support for restoring $302 million in school safety and mental health funding that the Democrats cut out of their budget.

Harris, a former school resource officer, shared that the 92% cut will eliminate millions of dollars from school safety and mental health efforts at public schools in north-central Oakland County.

“Students need safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments so they can focus on learning to read, write, and do math,” said Harris, R-Waterford. “The disappointing new budget eliminates millions of dollars from safety and mental health programs at schools in our community. I voted against this budget. Educators and school leaders have spoken out against these cuts, which will wind up with resource officers and mental health professionals laid off and services for students scaled down. Let’s reverse the cuts and protect kids at school.”

New data compiled by the House Fiscal Agency illustrates how much funding local school districts and charter schools are set to lose, based on the latest school count numbers:

The budget also provides no increase to core per-pupil school funding for the first time since 2011.

The Michigan Education Association, a union for teachers and school employees, has called for the Legislature to pass a supplemental spending bill to reverse the cut to the school security and mental health distribution.

MEA President and CEO Chandra Madafferi recently said in a statement: “However, we cannot celebrate all aspects of this budget. There were deep cuts to categorical funding for school safety and student mental health — cuts that will need to be navigated at the local level to keep our schools safe learning spaces for all students and employees. Our hope is that state lawmakers will return after the summer break to pass a supplemental budget that funds these critical student mental health and safety priorities.”

The cuts were included in the budget negotiated between the governor and the Democrats who control the Legislature. The education budget passed the House and Senate along purely partisan lines.