All four public schools in Leelanau County are “out-of-formula” school districts (Glen Lake, Suttons Bay, Leland, and Northport). The new state budget has some feeling uneasy about the current situation, which focuses primarily on in-formula school districts.
“If my memory serves me correctly, the school aid budget this year is 513 pages. We still don’t know all the implications. I’m not sure how the politicians knew what they were voting for. I highly doubt that any of them read most of the changes before voting,” Northport Superintendent Neil Wetherbee said.
On Northport’s end, Wetherbee says it could have been better, but it also could have been much worse with a current estimate that the school budget will be down $14,745 from last year.
“The budget proposed by the House could have cost us $750,000 or more. With the current levels of inflation, I wish our state aid were higher than last year, but I’d rather be down a few thousand dollars than about three-quarters of a million – especially since we passed our budget four months ago. Adjusting budgets mid-year is way more difficult than being able to plan ahead,” Wetherbee said.
Although local educators said it’s better to have a budget rather than not, state law requires lawmakers to pass a budget by July 1. It took until last week to get that done.
The budget includes $201.6 million for free meals, $10,050 per-pupil funding (up from $9,608), and provides full funding for online charter schools. Additionally, it allocates $321 million for mental health and safety grants, which are available to both public and private schools.
Out-of-formula schools are not funded on a per-pupil basis.
The FY26 Education Omnibus budget totals $24.1 billion, with $19.5 billion from the School Aid Fund.
Glen Lake, the largest school district in Leelanau, is reporting that nearly $500,000 of state aid will be cut from the operating state budget, leaving many questions for the school board. Glen Lakes’ state aid decreased from roughly $1.2 million in 2024-25 to nearly $800,000 in 2025-26, resulting in a difference of $470,000. “We appreciate the efforts to lift up a lot of portions of public schools and their funding. Just for Glen Lake, it’s not a good budget,” Glen Lake superintendent Jason Misner said. “I want to be clear, there’s so much to this budget that we still have to play out and actually see what we get with state aid. Interpreting this, we are at $470,000 (that would be cut).”
Misner would like to see a supplemental budget passed to correct unintentional harm that could come to districts.
Misner reports that Glen Lakes has a healthy financial standing and a fund balance of $9 million, which provides a little cushion.
“I think there are winners and losers, and that’s going to happen with anything. However, because it’s so late, it’s hard to get all that information ... People are still working through the language of all this,” Misner said.
Misner thought the budget would include a “hold harmless” clause that would maintain the state funding for Glen Lake at the same level as last year. That was cut from the budget.
“I just want to go back to the point that your legal obligation is to have it done (by July 1). The fact that we’re in October, we’re mid-cycle of a budget year, that’s the challenge. We can process those things before staffing decisions and other (decisions) are made, but this just makes it really hard on all schools,” Misner said.
Suttons Bay Public Schools reports the state budget doesn’t change the Norse bottom line much.
“We have been waiting to hear from Lansing on what will be included in the School Aid Budget since June 30, so the passage of the budget is a huge relief,” Suttons Bay superintendent Casey Petz said. “Suttons Bay Public Schools will make the very best of the funding we receive in this year’s allocations. I think it is important to recognize that our opinion on the state budget doesn’t change much in terms of what our job as school administrators is. We don’t control the process for funding allocations, so we are happy with what we are getting from the state, no matter what they decide.”
Petz added that the expectations for a supplemental budget are low but will advocate for additional support.
“We took a conservative approach to our budget process this year when we passed our district budget in June, and as a result, the impacts of this budget are minimal,” Petz said. “The biggest changes impacting SBPS are the increases in funding for student supports and programs, specifically for special education students. We will realize some impacts on our budget due to the elimination of some funding that was designated for paying down our retirement fund obligations.”
Governor Gretchen Whitmer praised the bill as the seventh “Historic” bill signed under her tenure.
“This education budget will help our kids learn, grow, and thrive from pre-K through college or trade school and beyond,” said Governor Whitmer. “With record perpupil funding of more than $10,000 for every child in every school, free breakfast and lunch for all to save parents almost $1,000 a year, per kid, free pre-K and free community college for all, and even more literacy support,” Whitmer said. “We are supporting our hardworking educators with attraction and retention bonuses and free training programs to prepare even more skilled, qualified teachers for the classroom. Finally, we’re investing in our school, community college, and university campuses so they are even safer and better places for all our students.”
The Michigan Education Association (MEA) signaled mixed reactions to the new state bill.
“(The state bill) provides $200 million in funding to directly put money in the paychecks of public school employees – whose pay increases are being consumed by skyrocketing outof- pocket health insurance costs,” MEA president and CEO Chandra Madafferi said.
“We remain concerned about the long-term implications of shifting higher education costs to the School Aid Fund to free up General Fund money for roads, as well as cuts to state support for district payments into the educator retirement system. Although this budget compromise does not include all of our priorities, we welcome that it provides muchneeded support and certainty for PreK-12 schools and higher education institutions to meet the needs of Michigan students.”
