Michigan’s new education department aims to expand access to preschool and postsecondary programs. Yet many of Michigan’s students don’t have access to quality K-12 schooling. That’s the job of the state’s first education department.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, or MiLEAP, to oversee taxpayer-funded programs that serve citizens before and after their K-12 schooling years. It will do this in partnership with the existing Michigan Department of Education. This effort may divert attention from the state’s neediest students in elementary and secondary classrooms.

The newly signed school aid budget expands eligibility for government preschool to families who likely won’t need it. Programs like Head Start and Great Start already provide free early learning to low-income families. The expansion of government preschool, with MiLEAP’s guidance, will target wealthier families and parents who may prefer to wait until kindergarten to enroll their children in school.

The budget also broadens eligibility for the Michigan Reconnect program. High school graduates 21 and over can now attend community college tuition-free through this postsecondary credentialing program.

But the state lacks evidence of the program’s success – it does not even track whether graduates of the program land jobs, for instance. MiLEAP will work to increase participation in Michigan Reconnect, despite the lack of accountability metrics for the program.

These efforts to expand access to preschool and postsecondary credentials are unlikely to produce the results touted by the governor. They are likely, however, to divert resources from K-12 students who desperately need a quality education.

The new school aid budget does too little to improve academics for K-12 students. Whitmer said at the bill signing in Suttons Bay on Thursday that her goal is to “[invest] in education at every level,” The Detroit News reported. But by spreading record-level funding too thin among low-impact programs, the budget will do little to improve learning for students who need it most.

At-risk students who attend online charter schools will receive less funding than those enrolled in conventional district schools. A 5% increase in the per-pupil foundation allowance, or $458 per student, was awarded to all public districts except online charter schools. Many students enroll in online schools due to chronic illness, bullying or homelessness. They will be at a greater disadvantage because of this policy change. And charter schools, unlike conventional districts, cannot raise extra funds through local property taxes, meaning there is already less money available for these students.

The new school aid budget allocates state funding to programs typically covered by local property taxes, such as capital costs and facility upgrades. It also subsidizes many short-term, low-impact projects for select districts and schools. Some schools will receive funding for wellness centers, auditoriums, pools, roofs, track and field facilities, and career and technical training centers. Others will not.

No student, however, will be left out of the universal free school meal program. But this larger ticket budget item won’t do much to help the poor. That’s because the National School Lunch Program already exists to provide the state’s at-risk students free meals. Spending more on school meals means taxpayers are subsidizing increasingly wealthier households.

Together, creating MiLEAP and constructing the school aid budget the way lawmakers did reflects a trend that lowers the quality of education available to Michigan’s neediest students

These initiatives come in the wake of recent legislation that will decrease school accountability and teacher quality. The adoption of House bills 4354, 4166, 4820 and Senate Bill 12 will make it harder to identify and keep effective teachers in the classroom.

The state ought to focus more on allocating its resources to programs that will improve outcomes for K-12 students. Inefficient spending, reduced accountability and overextending financial and other resources will place Michigan’s neediest students at greater risk.

Molly Macek is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center. Email her at macek@mackinac.org.

Michigan has a new energy regulator. Filling the third and final spot on the Michigan Public Service Commission is Alessandra Carreon, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office announced this week.

Members of the Michigan Public Service Commission are appointed by the governor. Carreon’s past should be worrying to the 10 million Michiganders who prefer reliable energy.

“Prior to her appointment,” the governor’s office said in announcing the appointment, “Ms. Carreon was a manager for Carbon-Free Transportation at RMI.”

Normally an obscure initialism such as RMI would be spelled out. But given recent history, it’s no wonder Whitmer’s office played coy.

RMI is the Rocky Mountain Institute. It’s a left-wing green energy concern. That part is not surprising.

But the Rocky Mountain Institute earned notoriety recently for its role in a discredited study that blamed gas stoves for elevated asthma rates and other health maladies. RMI blamed the gas stove, singlehandedly, for 13% of childhood asthma cases in America.

Say it out loud. Let the ridiculousness of the idea breathe air: Their study found that a single type of appliance was “linked” to 13% of childhood asthma in America.

The study broke down under scrutiny, noted Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center’s director of energy and environmental policy, in a February op-ed for The Hill. The Washington Examiner challenged the study in great detail.

“With other academics and experts critiquing the study for effectively ignoring a host of other environmental factors that could have caused the asthma issues — ‘mold, traffic pollution, habits of individual families’ — the authors appeared to backtrack,” Hayes wrote.

“One author said the study ‘does not assume or estimate a causal relationship’ between childhood asthma and natural gas stoves but instead ‘only reports on a population-level reflection of the relative risk given what we know about exposure to the risk factor.’”

This is politics. Not science, and certainly not public health. And yet it was the Rocky Mountain study formed the basis of the Biden administration’s push against the gas stove.

At a personal level, it was Carreon’s work with electric vehicles that likely drew Whitmer’s attention.

“She was a leader for electric vehicle (EV) battery circularity projects that focus on equitable fleet electrification and accessible EV charging infrastructure,” the governor’s announcement read. “She draws from her experience in environmental, social, and corporate governance and sustainability within the automotive industry to consider EV life-cycle impacts when accelerating electrification.”

Whitmer wants 2 million electric vehicles on Michigan roads by 2030, a goal the public service commission has signed onto. When the commission directed DTE Energy to make peak-hour pricing mandatory from 3 to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, electric vehicle chargers were exempt.

After every effort to favor the EV, their ownership numbers in Michigan doubled — to 37,000.

Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center’s director of energy and environmental policy, said the Carreon appointment continues a troubling pattern for Whitmer.

“The governor appears to have doubled down on her habit of selecting commissioners with a history of activism and/or experience in the environmental movement, including ‘climate action,’ environmental consulting, the energy transition, electrification, and ESG,” Hayes told CapCon.

James David Dickson is managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email him at dickson@mackinac.org.