Michigan's ESSER Funding Cliff
About the Research
In August 2024, MSU's Office of K-12 Outreach received a Michigan Applied Public Policy Research (MAPPR) grant from the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) to study how school districts in Michigan were navigating the September 2024 expiration of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. During the 2024-25 academic year, the project team explored the extent to which Michigan K-12 districts faced an ESSER fiscal cliff, how they navigated perceived resource scarcity, and what structural and grant-related factors influenced whether they felt that cliff.
Using surveys of K-12 administrators from every region in Michigan, along with follow-up interviews of representative district leaders and the Michigan Department of Education, the researchers generated a collection of insights on these timely budgetary questions. They also developed policy recommendations for K-12 administrators, state policymakers in Michigan, and the federal government on the design, use, and evaluation of grant funds, along with K-12 education funding writ large.