Michigan lawmakers take action on elementary class sizes in new state budget

By Craig Mauger, MediaNews Group

Michigan’s new state funds contains $65 million for a pilot program geared toward lowering class sizes, following a Detroit Information investigation in April that documented overcrowded lecture rooms at dozens of elementary faculties.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed the $21.3 billion normal spending plan for Ok-12 faculties on Tuesday. One of many credit within the new regulation was a category measurement subsidy program. Districts might apply for a share of the $65 million, however must have excessive percentages of economically deprived college students to qualify.

If districts obtained funding via the initiative, they might be required beneath the funds regulation to keep up the typical class measurement in kindergarten via third grade of 17 college students with a most of 19 college students. The restrictions in this system would mark a big change in method from present follow in Michigan, the place lawmakers have broadly allowed faculties to set their very own class sizes.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, chair of the Senate Schooling Committee, stated lowering class sizes is a data-driven technique that may enhance teachers.

“That is one thing monumental and I hope it’s constructed into future budgets,” Polehanki stated.

Equally, Sen. Darrin Camilleri, the highest Senate Democrat on Ok-12 schooling, stated the pilot program isn’t meant as a one-time effort to cut back massive class sizes.

“My hope, in fact, is that we’ll proceed to fund the small class program in perpetuity,” stated Camilleri, D-Trenton.

Along with the grant program, the brand new funds additionally permits all Michigan faculties to make use of a number of the cash they obtain for at-risk college students to decrease the student-teacher ratio in kindergarten via third grade.

A sequence of tales in The Detroit Information in April revealed 206 elementary lecture rooms — starting from kindergarten via fifth grade — throughout 49 faculties through the 2023-24 and 2024-25 college years, with not less than 30 college students.

Utilizing knowledge obtained via Freedom of Info Act requests, The Information examined 797 particular person lecture rooms at 49 elementary faculties for the 2024-2025 college yr. Of those, solely 8% of the lessons had fewer than 20 college students, whereas 63% had 25 or extra college students.

Reducing some class sizes to 19 or fewer might imply a big shift within the variety of college students in elementary lecture rooms throughout the state.

Polehanki stated it was “serendipity” that The Information’ investigation was printed as she hoped for legislative motion on class sizes.

It was not clear what number of faculties might initially obtain grants via the brand new program. However the funds directed some funding to Muskegon Heights Public College Academy System, Benton Harbor Space Colleges, the Flint College District and the Wayne-Westland Group College District.

Not less than 31 of the 49 different states have already got class measurement legal guidelines, tie funding to small class sizes or set targets that their faculties should attempt to meet, whereas Michigan beforehand didn’t. The scale of elementary college lessons allowed in Michigan conflicts with what policymakers say is greatest for studying and with requirements set in different states, together with Florida, the place the rule of thumb is to have not more than 18 college students in a third-grade class.

As state leaders search for methods to enhance struggling studying scores, Michael Rice, Michigan’s former superintendent of public instruction, beforehand labeled attaining smaller class sizes for kindergarten via grades in high-poverty faculties as “a prime legislative precedence for the Michigan Division of Schooling.”

Final week, Rice praised the category measurement grant program in a funds assertion, saying the pilot “ought to appropriately function a prelude to lowering class sizes in all high-poverty Ok-12 lecture rooms in future budgets.”

Home Speaker Matt Corridor, R-Richland Township, referred to the category measurement program throughout a information convention Tuesday. He stated the funds included cash for smaller class sizes and famous that Rep. Gina Johnsen, R-Lake Odessa, a member of his caucus, sought incentives for smaller class sizes.

“I used to be simply making an attempt to determine what’s a neater and quicker method to get our academics to raised perceive a really tough classroom administration drawback that we’re coping with now greater than ever on this tradition,” Johnsen informed The Information in April. “It will assist scale back the variety of college students they need to deal with on the identical time.”

Initially printed: October 8, 2025 at 5:35 PM EDT