From our media partners at WOOD TV:
KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — The governor is taking her fight for a state budget to a new group of constituents: second graders.
“I have to make sure I have a budget passed that will pay for things like your school and support your teacher and support your education. And it’s not done yet. It’s getting late,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer explained to kids at Meadowlawn Elementary in Kentwood Tuesday.
School has started for a number of West Michigan districts (Kentwood started Monday and Grand Rapids Tuesday), but they still don’t know how much money they will be getting from the state because the budget isn’t finished. The state’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and if there is no budget by then, schools could have to take money from their savings to keep going.
Whitmer, a Democrat, said she wants the Republican-led Legislature, which returned to work Tuesday after a two-month break, to act.
“It’s hard to be continue to be optimistic and to show people we have the ability to do this,” she told reporters.
In March, she proposed spending $15.4 billion for the state’s K-12 schools and $507 million in additional spending for schools with urgent needs. But that plan is dependent on the passage of a 45-cent gas tax increase to fund infrastructure improvements and free up other state money for schools.
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