Research

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

reduce class sizes • expand career & technical education • recruit & retain high quality educators

BACKGROUND RESEARCH: SCHOOL FUNDING IN MI

School Finance Research Collaborative

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

Michigan School Finance at a Crossroads

SFRC led Michigan's foundational adequacy study in 2018, followed by an update in 2021, and a supplemental transportation study in 2022. These expert nonpartisan studies are the basis of the Invest in MI Kids campaign.

Michigan School Finance at a Crossroads

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

Michigan School Finance at a Crossroads

In 2019, Professor David Arsen at MSU compared school funding growth across states and found that Michigan came in last. This stark reality helps explain some of the reason that Michigan has fallen behind other states in recent years.

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

Led by the Education Law Center, this 2023 updated costing of the SFRC's adequacy study puts clear numbers on the budgetary shortfalls that our schools are facing.

Michigan Statewide School Facilities Study

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

What Will it Take to Achieve Funding Adequacy for all MI Students?

In 2025, the School Finance Research Foundation found that Michigan school districts will need about $23B to maintain adequate facilities through 2033, highlighting the cost pressures that school districts are under and the urgent need to invest in MI kids.

Unique Challenges for Rural Schools

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

Recruiting and retaining teachers, managing the financial challenges of declining enrollment and shrinking local tax bases - rural schools in Michigan face a particular set of challenges.

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint

Coming soon: The Autism Alliance of Michigan is working on a fair, student-centered model for funding special education in Michigan.