Michigan group calls for ‘massive tax hike’ for public school despite ‘abysmal’ performance, dwindling enrollment

A new Michigan coalition is proposing a constitutional amendment to raise $1.7 billion for public schools – something voters should oppose unless the state can prove it will help students, a recent commentary argues. 

“More money hasn’t produced better outcomes,” writes Michael J. Reitz of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, noting state taxpayers paid “a record-high $15,000 per student” this year. 

“Academic performance is abysmal. The state’s math and reading scores have yet to improve to pre-lockdown levels. Michigan’s fourth-grade reading scores were 44th in the nation, even falling below Mississippi. My colleague Molly Macek notes that only 5% of Detroit fourth graders can read at grade level.” 

Such results make calls for additional funding increasingly suspect, Reitz notes. 

“The Invest in MI Kids coalition has yet to address several questions. Given Michigan’s record spending, why are students performing so poorly? What would another billion in education spending produce? How much will it boost student performance? How will it affect graduation rates? What are other states (Mississippi, perhaps) doing that we should mimic?” 

Public-school enrollment declining over a decade 

Even as public-school funding has grown, the number of enrolled students has dwindled for more than 10 years, The Center Square reports. 

“A few different factors likely contributed to the decline in enrollment, including a slow decline in the population, a decline in births over the past decade and a rise in home school or private school students,” the article concludes, noting the 2024-25 school year saw 7.3% lower enrollment – or more than 110,000 fewer students – from a decade ago. 

“This downward trend is expected to continue, especially as Michigan’s birth rate declines to levels not seen since the 1930s.” 

The Wolverine State is also wrestling with high chronic absenteeism rates after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The FutureEd think tank found chronic absenteeism reached a high of 38.5% in the 2021-22 school year, up from 19.7% in 2018-19. 

Even the 2023-24 absenteeism rate of 29.5% surpassed pre-pandemic levels, researchers noted. 

“When many students attend school irregularly, teachers can’t move through the curriculum at their usual pace, which hurts the academic progress of students who are attending regularly as well as absentees.” 

Funding criticized for ‘pork-barrel spending’ 

Additionally, Reitz highlighted concerns over current fiscal policies at public-school districts statewide. 

“If Michigan lawmakers wish to spend another billion dollars on education, they could do so without a dime in new taxes,” he argued. “The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation just filed a lawsuit against the process the Legislature uses to dole out billions of dollars in pork-barrel spending.” 

State schools received $6 billion in COVID-19 pandemic relief, yet nearly half of it went to employee compensation and benefits rather than instructional services, the Center Square reported. 

A similar trend is occurring with “community enhancement grants,” according to Reitz. 

“Baseball stadiums, a cricket field, a curling facility and a distillery – these are just a few of the projects Michigan taxpayers are funding through unconstitutional spending,” he writes. 

“Before Michigan voters agree to higher taxes, they deserve real answers about where the money is going and why the billions we spend today produce so little.”