Legislative Advocacy
Spread the Word on Reconnect and Frontliners: As many of you know, the FY 2021-2022 budgets moving right now in the Michigan House and Senate do not provide the needed resources for students to continue in the Futures for Frontliners and Michigan Reconnect programs. MCCA has added a new landing page to our website (https://www.mcca.org/Michigan-Reconnect) that allows students to enter their address and generate a letter in support of the programs to their legislators. In addition, our team at Resch Strategies has developed a short social media toolkit that may be helpful for colleges. Although MCCA is sharing these messages from our social media accounts, it is critical that colleges share this resource as well so that we can reach more students to tell Legislators about the importance of funding these two programs!
SHEEO Report Finds Strong Support for Michigan Community Colleges: Michigan's state support for its public universities trends below the national average, coming in 40th for per student support according to data published in a State Higher Education Finance report Monday. Yet, while higher education has been underfunded, the report notes Michigan's funding of community colleges has been generous with the state spending $8,833 per FTE student – 10 percent higher than the national average of $8,173 for two-year institutions. This also comes in at $3,887 per student more than what the state allocates to its four-year institutions. SHEEO also finds that Michigan is last in the nation for state funding of financial aid per FTE student, having allocated just $15 in state-funded financial aid per full-time public university student in 2020 compared to the national average of $830. At two-year institutions, that dollar amount drops to just $4.
MDHHS Seeking Input on MI Lighthouse: MI Lighthouse is a tool focused on providing community level vaccine coverage data to local public health departments, built by the University of Michigan and MDHHS. The current version has been helpful for local public health departments, but contains identifiable level information. MDHHS is now looking to expand access to information by building a non-identifiable version of this tool for vaccine providers, municipalities, and other partners to inform more focused vaccine clinic planning and outreach. The Department hopes to meet with organizations who have a need for statistics on vaccination coverage to inform our planning for building the next version of the MI Lighthouse tool. Organizations volunteering would be asked to participate in user research interviews and potentially be the initial testers for the tool. Please contact kirtana@umich.edu and CC lyoncallos@michigan.gov if interested.”
Redistricting Webinar on June 21: Gongwer News Service and the multiclient lobbying firm Kelley Cawthorne will host a webinar titled Redistricting Rundown, detailing where Michigan’s redistricting process stands as the new Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission prepares to draw the state’s political maps for the first time. The webinar will take place via Zoom from 2:00 - 3:00pm on Monday, June 21. Persons interested in viewing the webinar can register here. This will be the first in a series of webinars Gongwer and Kelley Cawthorne will co-host on redistricting in Michigan as the process continues.
HELPFUL LINKS
Michigan Legislature’s website (bill tracking and committee meetings)
Michigan House of Representatives
Community College Legal Authority (Michigan Constitution)
For the map of the community college districts, click here.