Data-informed budget priorities: the key to success for Michigan’s kids

A version of this column originally appeared in Michigan Advance.

Good decisions start with good data. These are the opening words of the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book released this month to give us a broad overview of how children are doing across the country. And right now, the data is telling us that we need to do more to meet the needs of kids in Michigan.

Each year, the Data Book ranks states along four domains — economic security, education, health, and family and community — using 16 indicators of child well-being from trusted state and federal data sources. This year’s data shows that progress is happening in Michigan. More children have access to health insurance, fewer children live in high-poverty areas and fewer children are being born to teens. But other areas highlight the need for urgent policy action.

By far the area of greatest concern in Michigan is in education. Michigan is ranked 44th nationally — in the bottom ten states and the lowest in the Midwest. Academic performance has worsened nationally, but Michigan’s outcomes are particularly concerning, as the vast majority of students are not proficient in basic skills. 

The poor ranking is driven primarily by the worsening trend in fourth-grade reading proficiency, where we outperform only three states. Just 1 in 4 students in Michigan is proficient in fourth-grade reading. This trend highlights the unprecedented learning loss during and after the pandemic and the extreme toll chronic absenteeism is taking on academic performance.

Some of this is a reflection of how we invest in students and schools. In a recent report, EdTrust-Midwest demonstrated how Michigan’s education revenue growth has not kept up with other states, leading to persistent underfunding for at-risk students for many years. Although Michigan’s new Opportunity Index provides a roadmap to addressing these inequities, legislators in Michigan have failed to provide adequate funding.

The challenges facing schools, teachers and students will only grow in the coming months as Michigan House leadership has willfully refused to lay out a budget proposal, threatening the ability of districts to plan for the upcoming school year. Meanwhile, both the Senate and governor have proposed a budget that fails to provide increased funding for weights for students at the highest risk: students who are economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities and English-language learners.

Addressing the needs of students also extends beyond the classroom, including ensuring children have access to a warm bed at night, healthy food to eat and a safe way to get to school. All children deserve to have their needs met, and policymakers have a responsibility to meet those needs by making smart policy choices guided by data and evidence. 

In 2023, 18% of children in Michigan — more than 365,000 young people — were living in poverty. One in 4 children (more than half a million in total) lived in a household where the family spent more than 30% of their income on housing, a financial burden that makes it difficult for families to afford other essentials.

Unfortunately, right now many of the most successful programs to meet the needs of children and young adults are being threatened in Congress. Access to health care, food assistance, and the Child Tax Credit are all under attack from lawmakers who care more about providing tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations than the well-being of the children living here in our state.

If we want to give our kids the best chance to thrive in adulthood and in the workforce, we need to position them for success now by supporting family economic security and access to programs and services that are essential for children’s healthy development. As our state and federal lawmakers work on passing their respective budgets this summer, we call on leaders to act boldly where needed and rely on what we know works.