To provide a “template” or “place holder” for a Fiscal Year 2017-2018 “Omnibus” school aid, higher education and community colleges budget. This bill contains no appropriations, but may be amended at a later date to include them.   Official Text and Analysis.

With the recommendation that the substitute (H-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

To make it a crime for a charter school board to hire a for-profit management company to operate a charter school.

To clarify a timing detail on funding for a study on preschool programs.

To adopt certain recommendations to increase school spending.

To increase funding for high schools by $36 per student, and reduce the amount given to charter schools that are online "cyber schools".

To strip out $2.5 million allocated to reimburse private schools for the costs they incur meeting various unfunded state mandates.

To allocate $4.5 million for grants to schools for water testing and related infrastructure upgrades.

To increase operations grants to state universities.

To spend an extra $250,000 on grants to some districts to buy more "locally grown fruits and vegetables".

To spend an extra $1.5 million on a Michigan State University fruit and vegetable processing teaching laboratory.

To adopt a version of this budget that expresses the fiscal and policy preferences of the Democratic in the House on various spending items and programs.

The House version of the K-12 school aid, community college and university budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1, 2017. A separate budget bill authorizes the rest of state government spending (House Bill 4323). This bill would appropriate a total of $16.324 billion, of which $1.838 billion is federal money. Of this total, $14.309 billion would go to K-12 public education, compared to $14.161 billion approved last year. Another $1.619 billion is for state universities, compared to $1.582 billion the prior year. Community colleges would get $395 million, the same as last year.

To pass and send back to the House a version of this budget that contains no actual appropriations, leaving it as a "template" or "placeholder." This is basically a procedural method of launching negotiations to work out the differences between the House and Senate budgets.

To concur with a Senate-passed version of the bill. The vote will have the effect of sending the bill to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences.

The final K-12 school aid, community college and university budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1, 2017. This bill appropriates a $16.608 billion, of which $1.838 billion is federal money. Of this total, $14.580 billion would go to K-12 public education, compared to $14.161 billion approved last year. Another $1.629 billion is for state universities, compared to $1.582 billion the prior year. Community colleges would get $399 million, up from $395 million last year.
House Bill 4323 funds the rest of state government, and when combined with this it means the state will spend pend $56.5 billion next year, a 2.9 percent increase.