A new school funding report from a Michigan State University research group comes out while Lansing argues over a budget. (Bridge file photo)

(This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To visit the newsroom online, go to bridgemi.com.)

Michigan should spend more money on its schools, according to an education research group at Michigan State University.

Just how much more, and how the money should be spent, isn’t addressed in a report, released Monday by Education Policy Innovation Collaborative. And one of the suggestions to boost funding — raising taxes — could be a hard sell in Lansing, the researchers acknowledge.

The report comes as state leaders squabble over school funding for the 2025-26 budget year. The deadline is Sept. 30, and the state will shut down non-essential services if a deal isn’t struck by then.

The school budgets proposed by the House, Senate and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are similar in overall spending, at between $21 billion and $22 billion, but vary in how those dollars would be used.

The new report follows an ongoing investigation by Bridge Michigan that shows increased funding and staffing in recent years hasn’t improved the state’s dismal performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called The Nation’s Report Card.

A petition drive is underway to bring to the ballot a proposal to raise $1.5 billion more per year for schools by raising taxes on individuals making $500,000 and couples earning $1 million per year.

The EPIC report says that, while funding has increased in recent years, it is still below the inflation-adjusted, per-pupil high of the early 2000s. The report notes that research suggests extra spending improves student performance if the funding continues for at least four years.

“Increased educational spending produces a range of stronger student outcomes that includes achievement, educational attainment, and lower reliance on social services during adulthood, particularly if sustained over multiple years and directed toward instruction,” the report states.

Bridge has found that Michigan increased K-12 funding by an inflation-adjusted $2.1 billion since 2015, the ninth-largest increase among all states.

But advocates have pointed out that Michigan was a Top 10 state for per-pupil funding in 2000 and years of cuts before funding increased prompted an exodus of teachers that haunts classrooms today.

EPIC’s analysis argues the state’s total school aid budget overstates how much money is going into classrooms, because “mandatory benefits, especially legacy retirement costs, now consume a much larger share of budgets, meaning fewer dollars reach classrooms than headline figures suggest.”

Nearly a third of payroll for schools now funds pensions of retired teachers, compared to the national average of less than 20%.

The EPIC report offers several potential policy options to increase spending and improve efficiency. Those include:

— Ensuring funding for pupils, students with disabilities, transportation and rural districts is tied to inflation.

— Allowing districts to spread categorical funding over several years, which would allow districts to more adequately plan for hiring for things like at-risk and English as a second language students.

— Permitting traditional public school districts to raise money through additional voter-approved operating millages. Expanding the now-limited scope of local millages to include operating costs would require a three-fourths vote in the House and the Senate. It would also create the potential for uneven funding between wealthy and poor school districts.

— Increasing the state income tax or property tax. “This approach may be simpler on its face but may be more difficult politically,” the report states.

— Consolidating small districts, which would save money but remains unpopular. Residents like the identity of their local schools and there are logistical challenges, including increased transportation and managing joint debt. One compromise: empower intermediate school districts to run more of the operations now controlled by local districts to create cost efficiencies.