State school aid budget effect on APS budget still unclear
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ALPENA -- It's still up in the air exactly how the state school aid budget will affect the Alpena Public Schools' budget, Mary Lyon, APS associate superintendent for business and operations said.
The Fiscal Year 2026-2027 school aid budget was signed on July 21 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
According to a July 21 press release from the Executive Office of the Governor, the budget makes a historic investment in student literacy, with $502 million allocated toward literacy curriculum, literacy training for teachers, before- and after-school programs, literacy coaches, high impact tutoring, and more.
The budget includes $96.1 million to continue free Pre-K for all through the Great Start Readiness program, saving families $14,000 per year.
It provides $123.1 million to train teachers in the science of reading, $200 million to continue free school meals for all 1.4 million public school students, and $325 million for a 2.5% increase in base per-pupil funding--an additional $250 per student, for a total of $10,300 per pupil. The per-pupil funding represents a 31% increase since Whitmer took office.
Lyon said that the per-pupil increase this school year is a little over middle range for what is typically in the budget in the past 25 years.
"It'll give us about a million dollars extra," Lyon said.
The state school aid budget also provides $40 million to reimburse eligible districts for dual enrollment costs, incentivizing districts to encourage more students to pursue college credit while still in high school.
Lyon said that APS should receive some of that funding based on the number of dual enrollment students that the district reported last year.
She doesn't know yet what that portion is going to be.
"The way the state does it is they set aside a pot of money for an initiative, so dual enrollment and then they look at how many districts qualify for that," Lyon said. "Then they take that pot of money and distribute it so it’s always prorated. They'll say it’s supposed to be a certain amount per student, but obviously there's more people that reported dual enrollment students than what the pot can cover at one to one. So it’s reduced with a proration."
Lyon explained proration as if a person wants to give $20 to six people with only $100 on hand, the amount that each person gets has to be reduced for a fair distribution.
According to a July 3 press release from the Executive Office of the Governor, $125 million will be allocated to reimburse districts with exorbitant transportation costs, allowing them to devote more resources to the classroom.
A Michigan Department of Education (MDE) press release from July 21 stated that the budget provides a $4.3 million increase to $46 million for Career and Technical Education programs that are growing in popularity as a way to prepare students for postsecondary education and rewarding careers.
Gross appropriations for the state school aid budget are $22,914,940,800 for 2026-2027. In 2025-2026 that figure was $24,118,775,800.
Lyon said that Career and Technological Education is grant funded and teachers are paid through the general fund
"There's a little bit of split funding there," she said.
Lyon said the district gets a little over $500,000 back from the state to help cover transportation costs. She said she thinks the funding was increased a little bit this year, but doesn't know yet what the district's share of that pot of money will be.
"It is what it is and it costs us what it costs us," Lyon said.
At 604 square miles, APS is the eighth largest school district by area in Michigan and transportation costs make up about 8% of the total operating budget each year.
Lyon said changes were made to 31a funding in the state school aid budget, which is a categorical state grant in Michigan designed to provide supplemental instructional and support services for at-risk K-12 students.
She said the funding was moved to 22b which is a discretionary payment. With that change, there is a new formula for the distribution of 31a funds. Lyon said she called the MDE to get some information about what the new formula is, but was told that they don't have things ready yet.
Lyon said the district will receive an estimated additional $35,000 for special education funding.
There will be no changes to free meals for students.
"So right now even though we passed our budget in June, we're still sitting in a fingers crossed, hoping nothing went too haywire," she said.
The state typically passes their budget later, which can make it difficult for school districts to budget. Lyon described the state budget process as a slow moving horse.
Lyon said she is very conservative when it comes to budgeting.
"I don't like to state something and then have it backfire," she said, "So I'd rather just say that at this point, this is our best guess scenario for our budget."