Governor Gretchen Whitmer wants to invest more money in mental health support for students.
Whitmer’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year would spend over 360-million-dollars on mental health support in schools. Whitmer says she expects the budget to be finished before lawmakers leave for their 4th of July break. “This is an opportunity right in front of us. The Legislature’s still doing their piece. We’ll get to negotiations pretty quickly here. But we’ve shown that we can find common ground on important, big things and get them done and I remain committed to that.” A Senate proposal that recently advanced to the chamber’s full appropriations committee comes in millions of dollars lower than the governor’s recommendation. Lawmakers have said more money will likely come after negotiations.