Michigan lawmakers spent more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds on earmarks this session, sending state funds to specific communities. The giveaway includes $200,000 for a splash pad in the city of Novi, an affluent community in Southeast Michigan. Ann Arbor will also get $1 million for a splash pad, as CapCon previously reported.

The 2024 state budget has no formal process for granting funding to particular pork projects. Legislators typically request money for projects in their districts. There are no criteria for assessing if the grants are a good use of taxpayer funds.

Novi’s median household income was $100,311 in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is 59% more than the state average of $63,202. The city’s per capita income, $55,807, is 61% higher than the state average of $34,768. The city’s poverty rate of 4% is tiny when compared to the state rate of 13%.

DeWitt Public Schools, citing threats against staff members, canceled plans for a class session to teach what it called “gender identity and the use of pronouns.”

Officials had sent a letter to parents of students in Shavey Road Elementary, telling them that there would be a class on gender and pronouns. The school enrolls students from pre-kindergarten through second grade. “The lesson goals are to help students share and explore pronouns through discussion and literature to embrace differences and promote acceptance,” Liz Crouch, principal of Schavey Road Elementary, wrote to parents.

The lesson would include the following activities:

• Listen to the book, “They She He Me Free To Be!” and discuss it.
• Practice using the pronouns “they/them” and and discuss what to do if a student makes a mistake with an incorrect pronoun.
• Inform students “it’s not ok” to purposely change a person’s preferred pronouns.

“The purpose (of the class) is to promote greater understanding, compassion, and kindness regarding gender identity and the use of pronouns,” Superintendent Shanna Spickard said in an April 17 statement. Spickard added that the class was optional and not meant to change any family’s beliefs. The class, she said, came “in response to concerns brought to our attention, not as part of our general curriculum.”

After receiving public criticism, Spickard canceled the class on April 19, calling it a distraction from the district’s vision of providing a safe and nurturing environment to all students. Spickard said public reaction, much of it from outside the district, put employees in danger, as “several of our hard-working school staff members have received inappropriate, angry, and threatening phone calls, emails, and social media messages.”

Approximately one-third of the district’s students were not proficient in English at the end of third grade, according to the official website MI School Data.