On Monday, July 1, the Democratic Party-dominated Michigan legislature passed its 2025 fiscal year budget, delivering a gut punch to public schools already reeling from the ending of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER).

Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who cynically welcomed the agreement as “putting students first,” has cut the school aid fund budget by nearly $1 billion, down from $21.5 billion to $20.6 billion. The Democrats, who control all three branches of the state government, have flat-lined per-student public school funding. This amounts to a substantial cut as a result of inflation, which has particularly ravaged school budgets contending with double-digit increases in the cost of transportation, food services and utilities.

This assault compounds the loss of ESSER, under which Michigan schools received $6 billion. The Biden administration has allowed the program to end, catapulting public education into economic crisis across the US. Even prior to the budget deal, 5,100 Michigan teachers were projected to lose their jobs due to the ESSER termination.

The Michigan budget underscores the Democratic Party’s national priorities —war and Wall Street. Democratic Governor Whitmer is emerging as a national party leader and has been repeatedly cited as a possible replacement for the crisis-wracked Biden candidacy.

While failing to provide even a modicum of inflation protection to school districts, the budget will drastically cut mental health funding for schools from $328 million to a derisory $25 million. Whitmer, following Biden’s approach, is allowing the state’s multimillion-dollar mental health initiative, begun in 2021, to expire under conditions where such services are more urgently needed than ever.

In the days before the budget was released, the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) pushed through an early contract settlement with the state’s largest school system. Fully aware of Detroit educators’ long history of militancy, as well as a recent sickout by Flint teachers and educator protests in Ann Arbor and Wayne-Westland, the DFT bureaucracy’s snap contract deal was a preemptive attempt to avert a statewide struggle against layoffs and budget cuts. Detroit is the largest district in the state, with about 53,000 students and 3,200 teachers.

School officials reacted to the statewide cuts with stunned disbelief. “The zero per-pupil foundational increase is unreal to me,” said R. J. Webber, superintendent of Northville Public Schools. “Seeing that was awful,” he added.