By State Rep. Beth Griffin

On Sept. 30, Gov. Whitmer slashed millions of dollars from critical government services in an attempt to chastise the Legislature for refusing to include her unrealistic 45-cent gas tax increase in the budget. Instead, she’s hurt some of our most vulnerable citizens with her vindictive actions.

One of her cuts targeted school safety grants intended to help keep our students and teachers safe. I’m truly surprised our governor didn’t see the magnitude of the need for these grants. As a parent and a teacher, I understand just how important it is that every child feel safe going to school each day and that every parent have peace of mind sending them there. This funding could have been used for much-needed panic alert systems, intercom systems, secure locks and doorways, security cameras, shatter-resistant windows, and two-way radios, among other security upgrades. Schools would also have had the option to utilize a statewide panic button app.

This cut was a significant misstep by the governor and I’ve introduced a plan to fully restore the funding she eliminated. The legislation is currently under consideration by the House Appropriations Committee as we try to work with the Governor to ensure she will not funnel this and other important funding into her own personal priorities, which she did with over $600 million originally intended to go toward programs such as Jobs for Michigan Graduates and local bridge repairs.

I urge the governor to reconsider her decision to cut this program and support school safety when the legislation crosses her desk.

Other essential programs and services she cut include PFAS remediation, county veteran services, sheriff road patrols, career technical education equipment, resources for children with autism, critical access hospitals, rural access hospitals, newborn health care, summer school reading programs, and Michigan tuition grants.

She calls these funding measures “pork projects,” implying they are unnecessary and frivolous. I couldn’t disagree more.

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