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Michigan Fiscal Woes, Minimal Funding Hike May Pressure Schools

Schools in economically troubled Michigan will have to make do with a bare increase in state funding this year after lawmakers sacrificed a larger boost to settling a protracted budget battle.

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, proposed a 2.5 percent hike for schools last winter, but legislators cut that to 1 percent as they sought to keep the state from veering into a second government shutdown this fall. The governor approved the school aid bill early this month.

“There is no way of making the [economic] picture a pretty one,” said Tom White, the executive director of Michigan School Business Officials, noting that Michigan has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, at 7.7 percent, and is losing population....