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While awaiting remaining budgets from the House, below are uplifts for the released 2025-2026 budget proposals from Michigan Legislature.
The following is a statement by Onjila Odeneal, Associate Vice President, Michigan and Community Outreach for The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS):
“TICAS applauds the Michigan House and Senate’s commitment to investing in Michigan’s students and doubling down on simplifying processes, improving student outcomes, and increasing college affordability. Specifically, we appreciate the proposed investments that would:
- Increase college affordability through increased funding to the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, Tuition Incentive Program, and Michigan Promise Zones,
- Continue simplification of the state’s financial aid programs, and
- Continue investments in the state’s education data systems.
“These proposals represent a bipartisan interest in making postsecondary education more affordable, making the education system easier to navigate, and increasing transparency for how state investments impact students and families. We additionally applaud the Senate’s proposed investments to expand college and career preparation opportunities and reduce access gaps in state financial aid programs. Altogether, these investments will help create a more streamlined system, helping more Michigan students and families access the resources needed to earn credentials.
“We look forward to working with policymakers as they seek to finalize the best budget for Michiganders. The state has made significant progress in making it easier for Michigan’s students and families to pursue an education and access necessary resources. The state, however, must continue addressing the gaps that prevent students from accessing, affording, or completing their postsecondary goals for the state to achieve its goals of credential attainment contributing to a prosperous economy.”
To maximize the impact of these and other investments for students and the state, we recommend that the state:
- Ensure efforts to streamline programs and administrative processes do not come at the expense of the support needed for student success. While removing onerous requirements can be helpful, it is also critical that there is balance in investments equipping institutions and schools with the funding for tools, opportunities, and resources students need to succeed.
- Maintain designated funding for supports necessary for students to thrive such as student support services/personnel, mental and physical health resources, college and career preparation, and out of school programming. While schools are pillars in their communities, they are not always equipped (nor should they be required) to meet all needs present. Reallocating dollars that external partners have used to fill critical support gaps to schools without increasing their capacity may lead to the loss of opportunities and support for students and their families.
- Ensure state departments, including MiLEAP, have the staffing and support needed to meet state goals. Even in its short period of operating, MiLEAP has drastically improved statewide communication and outreach and is developing systems to better facilitate student success, monitoring the impact of state investments and gaps, and increasing transparency and accessibility of data to improve outcomes. The department has proven that state investments require capacity and expertise to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Please be on the lookout for our MI FY26 Budget Fact Sheet, with side-by-side comparisons of the MI Executive, Senate, and House proposed budgets impacting students. The fact sheet will include any considerations and recommendations from the TICAS MI team that could maximize investments proposed, once all budgets are made available.
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