The Education Trust-Midwest - Fair Funding for All
Non-Network partners: Michigan Partnership for Equity and Opportunity  In June, Michigan became one of the first ten states in the country among those with similar funding systems to send increasing levels of funding to districts as their concentrations of poverty increase. This huge structural change is the most important funding reform in Michigan since the mid-1990’s. It now lays the groundwork for larger conversation on school revenue expected in 2024. This remarkable overhaul was led by The Education Trust-Midwest (ETM) and the Michigan Partnership for Equity and Opportunity (MPEO), for which ET-Midwest serves as a backbone organization. Our coalition and organization were the only actors in Michigan advocating on this historic policy win. Coalition members successfully proposed and achieved a new funding formula, called the Opportunity Index, that accounts for the concentration of poverty in students’ school districts for the first time in Michigan. The impact for Michigan students from low-income backgrounds is significant: •Upon full implementation, the new funding mechanism will invest more than $2.9 billion annually in students from low-income backgrounds. •This year, it will invest more than $950 million in these students – a greater than $200 million increase above FY23. •The win is garnering attention and interest from national school funding experts for its attention to concentration of poverty, among other important substantive changes. Coalition partners also successfully advocated to increase funding for English Learners by 50%, amounting to the highest funding level ever and representing the first meaningful state investment for English Learners in a decade, as well as significant increases for students with disabilities.  The wins followed a three-year-long advocacy campaign, including dozens of meetings with stakeholders, policymakers and the governor’s office; an advocacy day at the state capitol; public testimony; two funding reports; multiple guest opinion pieces in Michigan’s major media outlets; over a dozen interviews and individual learning sessions with media; and a social media campaign with digital toolkits, advocacy alerts, a letter-writing campaign to lawmakers and a Fair Funding Pledge.    ETM is the backbone and convening organization for the MPEO, a statewide, diverse, bipartisan table of more than 50 civil rights, civic and business leaders who work on issues that impact students who are the most underserved in Michigan.