To: Sen. Mike Shirkey, Majority Leader Rep. , Speaker of the House Sen. , Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee Rep. Thomas Albert, Chair, House Appropriations Committee Sen. , Chair, Senate K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee Rep. Brad Paquette, Chair, House K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee

From: Association of School Boards Michigan Association of Superintendents & Administrators Michigan Association Intermediate School Administrators Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals

Date: Jan. 27, 2021

Re: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds

As organizations representing school boards, superintendents, administrators and principals across Michigan, we write to you today regarding the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.

As you know, at the end of last year, Congress passed, and the President signed, a bi-partisan relief package that included more than $1.6 billion in ESSER funds for schools in Michigan. Ninety percent of this money is required to be distributed through the federal Title IA formula with the remaining 10% of funds left to the state’s discretion. The money is expected to be released from the federal government by the end of the month and we urge a quick release of those funds from the state thereafter.

Distributing the funds through the Title IA formula addresses the needs of districts with high numbers of at-risk students. This will help those districts enhance services to reach all students, engage them in learning and help to offset delayed learning as a result of the pandemic.

We propose appropriating the remaining $160 million without restrictions and in recognition of baseline costs associated with the pandemic response that are unrelated to the characteristics of the district or student. These are meaningful dollars and will give vital funding to all districts, regardless of their at-risk population.

It is imperative that the funding be appropriated as soon as it is received from the federal government. This will give districts the maximum amount of time to plan for the rest of the school year, as well as to determine what programs will be needed over the summer to address learning loss.

We strongly urge you to consider our request and get these much-needed funds into our classrooms and districts as quickly and easily as possible.

Please contact us with any questions you may have. We look forward to working with you to support our students and schools across the state.