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Whitmer seeks boost in tuition, child care

LANSING (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday proposed a $67 billion state budget that she said would aid Michigan’s pandemic recovery by solidifying new programs to expand eligibility for free community college tuition, bolster child care assistance and boosting local bridge repairs.

The Democratic governor’s third annual spending blueprint, unveiled to the Republican-led Legislature, also calls for $570 million to address learning loss and K-12 enrollment declines on top of a $162-per-student, or 2%, increase in base aid for most traditional districts in the fiscal year that starts in October. Better-funded districts would get $82 more per student, or roughly 1%.

More immediate coronavirus-related needs, such as vaccine distribution, would be funded with multibillion-dollar supplemental spending bills — primarily through the release of federal COVID-19 relief aid that Whitmer has been urging lawmakers to pass soon.

The governor said she focused on three priorities: economic reengagement that “drives everything,” a return to in-person instruction at schools and vaccine dissemination.

She wants to double spending on Futures for Frontliners, which covers community college tuition for essential workers who worked in the early months of the pandemic, to include those who lost their jobs when her administration reinstated business restrictions to curb surging infections in the late fall. She hopes to quadruple spending on Michigan Reconnect, which launched last week with bipartisan support and helps adults age 25 and older without a college degree to obtain an associate’s degree or postsecondary certificate at a community college or private training school.

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