Governor Gretchen Whitmer asked school superintendents across Michigan Wednesday to continue to make free breakfast and lunch available to all students – despite the chaos surrounding the state budget and funding for the school meal program.
Whitmer made the request in a letter signed by both her and State Superintendent Michael Rice, who leads the Michigan Department of Education.
“While we acknowledge the uncertainty that the Michigan Legislature has created by not passing a final budget yet, we implore you to do what it takes to feed every kid as we wait for the budget,” the letter said. “So, to keep it simple: Do what’s right for our students and continue providing free school breakfast and lunch for all.”
The letter is signed by Whitmer and Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice, who leads the Michigan Department of Education.
Whitmer has been a champion of universal free school meals in recent budgets and has resisted efforts to narrow the program to make it income restricted. On Wednesday, some school districts alerted families that funding for the program expired at midnight.
“Some of them have been able to keep that universal meal program going,” said Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents superintendents. “Other districts, as recently as today, have discontinued them because as of today that funding is officially gone.”
McCann said some districts will extend offering free school meals in hopes the Legislature will continue funding. He said others could switch to means testing for free or reduced-cost school meals, which some Republicans have called for. He said a lot of school districts cannot afford to absorb the costs of the Legislature and the governor’s failure to finish the budget on time. The letter from Whitmer to school districts, he said, is disappointing.
“It’s frustrating to see that,” he said. “Instead, I just want to see a budget put on the table so that superintendents know what’s in there, they know what funding will be available to them even though we’re already a month into the school year and still have none of that information available to us.”
The Legislature missed the midnight deadline to adopt a complete budget for the new fiscal year, but after a couple hours approved a continuation budget to allow lawmakers and the Democratic governor more time to forge a deal.
The House is controlled by Republicans and the Senate has a Democratic majority, so finalized budgets must be bipartisan. The Legislature is meeting this week to try to wrap up K-12 and general government budgets. The Legislature not only missed the October 1 deadline, but also a July 1 statutory deadline to wrap up budgets. The July 1 deadline matches the starting date of K-12 district fiscal years.
