SE Grand Rapids News

Michigan education leaders are demanding the state take action on a school plan for the upcoming school year.

They have asked the Michigan Legislature to either make a deal with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to ensure schools are safe for in-person learning, or they will go directly to the governor and ask her to take action on her own, Bridge Michigan reported. 

“Staff at our … districts and individual school buildings across the state are still hard at work every day making plans to continue the essential service of educating our 1.5 million students, and they need answers and direction. Planning for the fall is already difficult enough in these unprecedented times, but without a budget nor any clear idea of how many pupils will be enrolled sets school districts up for failure," four education associations said in a joint statement, expressing anxiety with the undecided school situation, according to Bridge Michigan. 

Parents, students and teachers are wondering what school will look like in the fall. | stock photo

After a state senator tested positive for COVID-19, the Senate and House were sent home before the Senate could pass a House package that would allow for the reopening of schools. 

Currently, school districts have until mid-August to create their reopening plans. But districts are finding this difficult to do when there is no set plan on whether they will be able to reopen for in-person learning or how they will be funded. 

In the statement from the four education associations, which was sent to the Legislature in a letter, they asked for funding per pupil based on the amounts from last year, for the Legislature to revise the 75% attendance policy so that school days can count toward instruction, and they asked for school districts to allow "nontraditional instructional methods," according to Bridge Michigan.

Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators Executive Director for External Relations Peter Spadafore said schools don't have much time left to make plans. 

“They need answers now -- yesterday,” Spadafore told Bridge Michigan. “We’re building an airplane while we’re flying, and we have no idea on our budget. We need that guidance.”

The four education associations would prefer the Legislature work out a school agreement with Whitmer, but they will go to the governor if they have to for an executive order to determine attendance and funding. 

But Spadafore said he hopes the Legislature can make a deal with the governor. “Even if we had a deal announced [and not yet signed], we could articulate [that deal] to our membership, and that would provide certainty,” he told Bridge Michigan. “Something has to give.”