Charter schools rally at Whitmer's office to protest state funding cuts

Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA) will read the names of thousands of students that are being effected by Governor Whitmer's line-item veto to cut funding for charter schools in Michigan.

MASPA will be outside the Governor's office at 3 p.m. in Lansing.

Charter school teachers, principals, students and parents from across the state are coming together to advocate for charter schools and the student resources that funding pays for.

For the second month in a row, Michigan's charter schools were denied a portion of the monthly stipend allocated to traditional public schools.

In the 2020 budget, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used a line-item veto to eliminate an increase for over 150,000 charter schools, many of which are in Detroit and Flint.

Instead those schools will get the same funding as last year, while traditional schools get more money.

According to MASPA, that increase would account for $240-per-pupil. Public schools have already received two state-aid payments that equals $6.3 million. Charter schools did not receive those payments and will miss out on a third payment on Dec. 20.

Many charter schools are already feeling the impacts.

Some have dipped into their reserves or scaled back some of the projects they had planned.

That includes putting a hold on things like building improvements and adding new programs to the curriculum.

About 50 charter school boards have signed resolutions to send to the governor to advocate for more money.