Michigan’s school aid fund will spend $125 million in 2024 on electric school buses. A recent round of federal funding for electric school buses indicates school districts might not get many vehicles out of the expenditure.

In November 2022, the state announced $54 million in clean school bus rebates, covering 138 buses at 25 school districts.

That averages out to $391,304 per bus.

If Michigan were to buy $125 million worth of school buses at the same cost, it would equate to about 319 buses.

The budget bill was passed in such a way that charging infrastructure is a qualified cost. Depending on how much infrastructure is needed, there could be fewer than 319 buses bought.

The funds for all the buses mentioned come from the same source: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, which will spend $5 billion over five years, 2022 through 2026.

So far, the program has spent about $1.84 billion to replace 5,103 school buses at a cost of $360,572 per bus.

Over the next five years, Michigan will spend $50 million on mentoring new teachers, school counselors and administrators.

Michael Rice, state superintendent for Michigan, announced the plan in his 2024 letter to lawmakers. According to Rice, Michigan has patched up a weakness that causes teachers to flee the profession.

“We know that a leading cause of educator turnover at all levels is a relative lack of mentoring. For years, the only mandatory mentoring in the state was for new teachers, and it was unfunded at the state level,” Rice wrote. “There was no mandatory mentoring of new principals and new superintendents, and no mandatory training of new school board members.”

That will change this year, at least for new principals, who were added last year to the law requiring mentorship for new teachers.

Still left outside the law’s scope are new school superintendents, Rice noted.

“Mentoring of educators in new roles must be structured and strengthened so that educators are more likely to continue in the profession, to the benefit of children,” Rice wrote.

In addition to the $50 million, another $150,000 was budgeted to train new school board members.

Michigan still has no training requirement for new school board members, Rice wrote. He encouraged lawmakers to create one.

Later in the letter, Rice made the case for a homeschool registry in Michigan.

Read it for yourself: Superintendent Michael Rice’s 2024 letter to Michigan lawmakers