In the 2011-12 budget year, advocates for more spending on higher education were upset that then-Gov. Rick Snyder reduced state funding to Michigan's 30 community colleges. At the time, the state was still recovering from the previous decade's one-state recession and the nation’s Great Recession.
In that year, total funding for Michigan’s community colleges fell to $283.9 million, a $12 million reduction from 2010-11.
Since then, community college spending has increased every year. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, appropriations to Michigan community colleges set a record at $438.4 million. After adjusting for inflation, this is equivalent to $110.8 million more than the 2011-12 level.
In the current (2021-22) fiscal year, $431.4 million has been appropriated for Michigan’s community colleges. The data comes from the Senate Fiscal Agency.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.