In This Update:

• Summary
• Budget Update
• Committee Roundup
• USAC-FCC Announce American Rescue Plan Emergency Connectivity Funds
• This Week's Introduced Bills

The legislature finally moved to disperse the non-discretionary federal funds after weeks of hold up, but then the effort stalled. Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick toward the June 30 deadline for school district budgets, and the legislature has not made any significant progress on passing a School Aid Budget.   

Yesterday, Gov. Whitmer announced that the state will lift the remaining COVID restrictions nine days earlier than previous orders implied. Starting June 22, indoor capacity limits and mask requirements will be dissolved. Some limitations will still be in place for specific spaces like long-term facilities, for example. Testing and reporting will also be required for the purposes of identifying areas of community spread. The governor’s announcement indicated that additional guidance will be released for schools next week.   

As always, please contact MASA with any questions or concerns. 

Budget Update

Remember SB 537? Recall this is the bill that extends the deadline for the legislature to get the budget done from July 1 of this year and imposes the deadline for next year instead. Thursday, the Michigan Senate voted 35-0 to pass a shell version of this bill that does not extend the deadline but moves the bill to the House just in case an extension is needed. MASA lobbyists spent all day communicating with lawmakers about why it is unacceptable to kick the can down the road for the School Aid Budget. Those efforts proved to be moderately successful as the deadline was not changed in the Senate-passed version of the bill.    

We are going to need your help, though. Please reach out to your House and Senate members and remind them there are billions of dollars to spend, school budgets are due on June 30, and we need clarity on the foundation allowance, boilerplate governing pupil counts and so many other important issues in the School Aid Budget. Waiting to pass a budget is unacceptable. Urge them to get the School Aid Budget done now, not later.   

In related news, HB 4421, the spending bill that appropriates the remaining ESSER II funds and all the ESSER III funds is held up again. The major hold-up appears to be around the $1,093 per pupil equalization payment the House included, but the Senate did not. While you’re calling your lawmakers about passing the budget, please be sure to mention how helpful the equalization payment will be in ensuring robust pandemic-related programming for students. 

Committee Roundup

The House Transportation Committee voted out HB 4861, which updates provisions related to school bus drivers with insulin-related diabetes. The bill aligns Michigan’s laws with federal law and was voted out on an 11-1-1 vote.  

The Senate Families, Seniors, and Veterans Committee held a hearing on SB 530 sponsored by Sen. Dale Zorn (R-Ida). The bill requires that the Department would have to create a Purple Star Program that, at a minimum, would have to include an application process for a public school to apply to receive Purple-Star-Program-School designation and a process for the designation of public schools that met the criteria provided by the bill as Purple-Star-Program schools. The deadline for this is January 1, 2023. 

The Senate Economic and Small Business Development Committee held a hearing on HB 4063. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. John Reilly (R-Oakland Twp.) and amends the Youth Employment Standards Act to allow a minor’s parent or legal guardian to issue and revoke a work permit for employment in qualifying occupations if the minor is being homeschooled. Currently, the chief administrator of the minor’s school district, intermediate school district (ISD), public school academy (PSA), or nonpublic school or a designee of the chief administrator issues minor work permits. MASA opposes this legislation.

The Senate Education Committee took testimony on HB 4945, legislation that addresses Strict Discipline Academies (SDA). As mentioned in our update last week, the bill is sponsored by Rep. Pamela Hornberger (R-Chesterfield) and would allow any school district board to authorize an SDA. This legislation is in response to a specific circumstance for the School District of the City of Highland Park. Highland Park was put in the position of authorizing ACE academy after its former authorizer, Central Michigan University, ended its agreement after 13 years. The committee took testimony only.  

USAC-FCC Announce American Rescue Plan Emergency Connectivity Funds

New this week the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) announced that the application window for the American Rescue Plan Homework gap funding will open on June 29. The Emergency Connectivity Fund Program will provide $7.17 billion in support to schools and libraries for the purchase of eligible laptop and tablet computers, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers and broadband connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic for use by students, school staff, and library patrons who would otherwise lack connected devices and/or broadband connections sufficient to fully engage in remote learning. The FCC and USAC plan to open the first funding window, which will fund equipment and services for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. Schools will have 45 days to apply for funding.  

Please visit https://www.emergencyconnectivityfund.org/ for more information.  

This Week's Introduced Bills

HB 5040 (Cavanagh) Establishes a grant program for the E-Rate program offered by the FCC.  

HB 5049 (Stone) Suspends the Third Grade Reading law for the 2021-21 school year.  

HB 5050 (Carter) Suspends the department from assigning letter grades for school accountability for 2020, 2021, and 2022.  

HB 5051 (Weiss) Suspends using student growth and assessment data for 2020-2021 teacher evaluations.  

HB 5052 (Carter) Suspends using student growth and assessment data for 2020-2021 administrator evaluations. 

HB 5056 (Posthumus) Changes teacher licenses examination.  

SB 542 (Hollier) Allows any board of a school district to authorize a Strict Discipline Academy.  

SB 545 (Theis) Requires school districts to inform graduating students how to access a state identification card for the purposes of voting.