(Detroit) –  Yesterday, superintendents from across Michigan gave Lansing a report card on its work to pass a school budget—and it wasn’t pretty. Independent candidate for Governor and Mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan doesn’t think Michigan students and families should have to put up with the uncertainty of schools not having a state budget —-and shouldn’t suffer the impacts in their classrooms of politicians not doing their jobs.

One superintendent said that the legislature is using school children as “political pawns” and others are looking at taking out high interest loans to pay for operations if a government shutdown is triggered on October 1.

This is happening while Michigan kids are struggling to achieve basic literacy and schools need to hire additional teachers to help kids learn.

The Detroit News reported on August 27, 2025: “61.1% of third graders and 57.6% of fourth graders did not pass the annual state assessment, a poorer showing than last year.” Michigan kids need all the help they can get, and the Lansing budget battle is only going to hurt their chances of success.

“Nearly 20% of all Michigan students started class in September in classes larger than last year. Passing the budget in September doesn’t cure that,” said Duggan. “How much failure are we willing to take from Lansing before we ask whether we need to make some dramatic changes? And Lansing’s greatest failure may be just around the corner. If they don’t pass a budget by September 30, our entire state government will shut down—and that means schools won’t receive the state dollars our students need, and our taxpayers expected, to fund our classrooms. Our school children deserve better.”

Michigan’s Legislature is required by law to have a budget in place by July 1, and with that date long passed, and only 21 days remaining before the start of the new fiscal year, the Legislature has failed to put together a budget. Mayor Duggan has called on lawmakers to pass the Legislator Accountability Joint Resolution, which would freeze their paychecks when they miss critical deadlines like the budget – which has stalled.  

Michigan’s public schools are supposed to receive their first FY26 payments from the State on October 20, 2025. If those checks don’t show up, districts will be forced to make painful decisions.

“Let’s be clear: this deadline didn’t sneak up on anybody. State officials have known about this since January,” Duggan said. “But some folks in Lansing seem more interested in scoring political points than actually getting something done. I’ve sat down with the Detroit City Council every year for the past 12 years—and we’ve figured out how to get a budget passed. We don’t always agree, but we get it done, because that’s the job.”

“This kind of dysfunction is exactly what drives people away from Michigan and makes it harder to bring jobs to Michigan. It’s time to stop the delays and pass a budget—no more excuses.”