SCHOOL AID SUPPLEMENTAL S.B. 842: SUMMARY AS ENACTED
Senate Bill 842 (as enacted) PUBLIC ACT 212 of 2022
Sponsor: Senator Kimberly LaSata
CONTENT
The bill would amend the State School Aid Act to provide supplemental appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2022-23. Specifically, the bill would add $12.2 million in General Fund (GF/GP) money, for a gross supplemental appropriation of $12.2 million. The bill also would create two new scholarship programs in Article III (Universities and Financial Aid) of the School Aid Act.
K-12 Appropriations
The bill would appropriate $12.0 million GF/GP for FY 2023-23 to an eligible vendor to provide literacy tutoring services and enrichment programs to districts or intermediate districts (ISDs). The eligible vendor must use the funding over three fiscal years to implement a pilot program in at least three geographically diverse districts. The literacy tutoring services and enrichment programs provided by the eligible vendor would need to meet minimum requirements specified in the bill.
The bill also would appropriate $200,000 GF/GP for a grant to Square One to host robotics programs and competitions for students in public schools and nonpublic schools who are enrolled in grades K through 12.
Finally, the bill would make technical changes to various sections to ensure that the formula for special education funding adopted with the FY 2022-23 budget works as intended.
Michigan Achievement Scholarship
The bill would create a new scholarship program that would be available for Michigan high school graduates or those who achieve a high school equivalency certificate in the class of 2023 or after, whose expected family contribution (EFC) as determined through the Federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is $25,000 or less, beginning in the 2023-24 academic year. Applicants would have to be a Michigan resident for at least one year before application, be a full-time student, maintain satisfactory academic progress, and apply for all available gift aid each year that the student applies for the scholarship. The bill also specifies that a scholarship recipient attending a public community college, public university, or tribal college would not be eligible to receive a Michigan Competitive Scholarship.
Awards under the program could be used to attend a Michigan public community college or university, a private not-for-profit university, or a Federally recognized tribal college. For community colleges and tribal colleges, the maximum grant award would be $2,750 per year, of which $1,750 would be applied on a "first dollar" basis, and $1,000 would be applied on a "last dollar" basis. In the context of the bill, "first dollar" means that the award would be applied to a student s account before other aid is applied, and "last dollar" means that the award is applied after other aid. For public universities the awards would be a maximum of $5,500 per year; $2,500 first dollar and $3,000 last dollar. For private not-for-profit universities the maximum award would be $4,000 per year; $1,000 first dollar and $3,000 last dollar.
Scholarship awards would apply to a student's account at the institution he or she attends and would be used cover the cost of tuition and fees the student owes. First-dollar awards would be applied to those costs first, and if that first-dollar award plus any other gift aid received by the student exceeded the total amount of tuition and fees owed, the student would be able to apply any other gift aid in excess of that amount to other costs, provided the other gift aid was allowed to be used for those costs. Last-dollar awards would be applied to tuition and fee costs last, and if the amount owed by the student after all other gift aid was applied to the student s tuition and fees were lower than the student s last dollar award under the program, the last dollar award would be reduced to that amount.
The bill would allow a student to receive a Michigan Achievement Scholarship for up to five years, not more than three of which could be while attending a community college or tribal college.