Research council warns Medicaid "unwinding" is creating an at‑risk funding cliff for Michigan schools

Craig Theel, research director at the Citizens Research Council, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid and the Department of Education that two federal funding dynamics — unequal Title I allocations and changes in Medicaid eligibility counts — are combining to create an "at‑risk funding cliff" for Michigan school districts.

Theel said Michigan receives about $500,000,000 annually in federal Title I funds but that the federal hold‑harmless provisions and the Title I formula produce inequitable distributions across districts. He urged the subcommittee to use state Section 31A at‑risk dollars to help correct those federal inequities: "Congress has failed to address the inequities of title 1, so Michigan lawmakers should step in," Theel said, and he left his full analysis with the clerk for the committee record.

Why this matters: Theel showed that the state adopted weighted funding goals described in the 2018 School Finance Research Collaborative (SFRC) report — a 35% weight on the foundation allowance for students from low‑income backgrounds and a higher weight for the highest‑poverty districts — but…