Flint Community Schools is requesting the state of Michigan relieve roughly $60 million in debt and operating deficit, according to a statement from the school’s superintendent.
Flint’s budgets have long been in the red as the school district has seen thousands of students leave since 2015, but staffing and infrastructure reductions have not kept pace.
Flint owes about $56 million in bond debt, and it’s on track to spend $14 million more in the 2024-25 fiscal year than it will receive, which the school calls an operational or structural deficit.
Its leaders are now asking the state to ask taxpayers from across the state help it get a “fresh start.”
“First and foremost, debt relief would alleviate the financial burden on Flint Community Schools, enabling us to allocate more resources towards providing quality education and essential services to the scholars we serve,” Kevelin Jones, superintendent of Flint Community Schools, said in a statement last week.
Jones said the district has not received adequate funds to serve students.
“We have a challenging mix of scholars to educate, and for many years, the state inadequately and inequitably funded school districts, particularly those with populations with disproportionate percentages of poor children, students with disabilities, and English learners,” Jones said. “To permit the district to get a fresh start, the debt should be eliminated.”
A 2020 white paper from the Center for Local Government Finance and Policy Michigan State University Extension said Flint’s financial woes began in 2011 and have continued ever since. Between 2011 and 2020, the district only had one year of operating at a surplus.
That white paper also found that student spending had been flat at $7,500 since 2011, while the district’s debt-per-student ratio ballooned to over $35,000 per student. That debt “includes the general obligation debt and the pension and retiree health care debt.”
“The overall financial story of the Flint School District was one of foregoing payments in the period 2009-2012, leading to a major buildup of general debt, including unemployment insurance and pension payments,” the white paper found.
The district has, since 1994, received a foundational allowance of state funding per pupil. In 2023, that foundation was $9,150 per student, per an education budget signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Whitmer’s office did not respond to requests for comment concerning Jones’ request for the state to provide debt relief.
But the number of students in the district decreased by 57% between 2015 and 2023, according to publicly available school data, and as students have left the district, so has the state funding tied to them. That’s made the district increasingly dependent on federal funds to fill the gap.
Flint’s funding has recently been higher than many other districts in Michigan because of the influx of that federal funding.
Reporting from The Center Square (which, like Chalkboard News, is also owned and operated by the Franklin News Foundation) last year shows Flint was one of the best-funded districts in the state thanks to relief related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That reporting shows the district directed federal funding toward teacher bonuses.
A slide created by the school district’s business office showing the structural deficit says the “currently operating budget is heavily dependent on ESSER funding,” which must be spent by the end of September.
In 2015, there were 6,533 students enrolled in the district. In 2023, there were 2,841. The number of staff has not kept pace with the decline in enrollment. According to MI School Data, there were about 732 full-time employees in the district in 2015 and 628 staff in 2023. While student enrollment declined by 57%, the number of full-time staff only declined by 14%.
In an open letter to the school board last year, teachers union officials said it was imperative that the district close some schools to divert funds elsewhere. The union leaders estimated there were 40 properties owned by the school, while about 20 were “actively maintained” and only 12 were “active” and “open.”
The Michigan State white paper corroborated that 20 district-owned buildings were standing vacant.
Last October, the school board of education voted to close four school buildings. But Jones said it doesn’t have the money to demolish the remaining vacant buildings and is planning to keep them.
“We no longer want to contribute to the blight in our city, however, we do not have the funding sources currently to demolish over 20 vacant and abandoned school buildings that sit in our city,” Jones said. “In an effort to not add to the blight as we begin school closures, the district decided to find ways to partner or lease our buildings out. We no longer want buildings to sit abandoned in our community. This will take continuous strategic planning.”
Jones said a bailout from taxpayers statewide would signal the state’s “commitment” and “solidarity” to Flint.
“It is worth noting that the potential relief of this debt by the state of Michigan demonstrates a commitment to the welfare of Flint Community Schools,” Jones said. “It sends a powerful message of support and solidarity to the scholars, teachers, and parents, instilling a sense of hope and confidence in the future of the school district.”
