Hall 'Ready To Work In Good Faith' To Get K-12 Budget Done By July 1

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/13/2025) House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) told MIRS on Friday that he is “ready to work in good faith” to get a Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget done for the K-12 schools by July 1 and that he's prepared to meet with the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader and the Budget Office to make it happen.

The plan is for Hall, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) to meet next week to set the broad perimeters behind what a School Aid Fund plan is going to look like and then the legislative chairs of the K-12 budget will work with the Budget Office to hammer out the final details.

Senate K-12 Appropriations Committee Chair Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) and House K-12 Appropriations Committee Chair Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw) had an informal meeting Thursday to get to know each other before diving into any real discussions, Camilleri said.

Next Tuesday, Hall and roughly 30 legislators and 10 local leaders are scheduled to meet President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. as part of a Michigan-specific check-in, sources tell MIRS. Hall declined to confirm he'll be attending, but did say that he wouldn't let whatever happens to be on his schedule get in the way with getting a deal done before the beginning of July, when public schools begin their next fiscal year.

The plan is for the House not to be in session next week. The Senate will be in session Tuesday and Wednesday next week, said Senate Democratic spokesperson Rosie Jones. The chamber will be closed Thursday in recognition of Juneteenth.

After the tumultuous budget process of 2019, lawmakers and the Governor set a statutory deadline of July 1 by which they were to complete work on the following fiscal year's budget. But without any penalties written into the law, it's become more advisory than mandatory.

On Wednesday, the House passed a K-12 spending plan that set aside $21.9 billion for schools in FY 2026, slightly more than the Senate's $21.8 billion plan and the Governor's $21.2 billion plan. House Republicans would like to send $12,000 per student to schools, more than the roughly $10,000 the Senate and the Governor were thinking, but rolls up numerous categoricals like free breakfast and lunch and a special transportation fund to get to that number.

On Friday, the American Federation of Teachers Michigan, Detroit Action, Michigan AFL-CIO and other groups signed on to a statement that the budget “serves the desires of their billionaire overlords (rather) than deliver needed funds and services to public schools.”

“Republicans are attempting to deceive Michiganders by pointing to the per-pupil allocation, but the devil is in the details," the statement reads. “By taking away programs that benefit rural students, students in poverty, English language learners, and those with special education needs, students from Marquette to Monroe will be worse off as a result of this disastrous budget.”

However, the Michigan Freedom Fund celebrated the budget as prioritizing success with “historic investments” that exceed the recommendations of “Lansing Democrats.”

“Republicans are pairing these dollars with the flexibility to meet the most pressing needs of our students and pursuing reforms that give students the tools to succeed, teachers the resources to teach and parents the transparency to choose the best path for their children,” said Zach Rudat of the Freedom Fund.