Dive Brief:
- Michigan lawmakers are mulling huge cuts — over 60% of operational funding — for the state's two largest universities, according to a legislative analysis of a measure that advanced in the Republican-led House on Wednesday.
- An appropriations bill originally passed by the House’s higher education subcommittee last week would gut funding for Michigan State University by $208.9 million and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor by $233.4 million.
- The House’s appropriations committee on Wednesday included the plan in a larger budget bill that it sent for floor consideration.
Dive Insight:
The committee bill targets Michigan's flagship public universities for massive cuts as they are already facing increased economic pressure. However, the proposal could face a tough road ahead in a state where Democrats control the Senate and the governor’s office.
Both universities decried the proposed cuts.
“The drastic cuts proposed by the Michigan House are a direct hit to the thousands of students and families that choose MSU as their path and value the resources and opportunity afforded by a public university,” a Michigan State spokesperson said in an emailed statement Wednesday.
U-M also came out in strong opposition. Chris Kolb, university vice president for government relations, called the proposal “shortsighted and harmful” at a time when the state needs to step up its investment.
“Cuts of this magnitude would have real consequences for tens of thousands of students, including making it harder to keep U-M tuition affordable," and they could impact about 68,000 jobs, Kolb said in an emailed statement.
Funding for smaller regional universities would remain largely level under the proposal. Lake Superior State University would receive the largest funding hike, with an 1.1% increase in appropriations.
Also, while the plan would slash appropriations for the state’s large universities, it would increase scholarship program funding. The Michigan Achievement Scholarship program would get an extra $232 million, for a 77.3% funding bump. The need-based scholarships help recent in-state high school graduates pay for college.
Overall, however, state funding for higher education would drop by $175 million, or 7.5%.
Some state Republican leaders used political barbs to defend the cuts.
“We want them to be focused on outcomes, focused on preparing people for jobs of the future and not necessarily indoctrination,” Rep. Tim Kelly, a Republican on the House appropriations committee, told local station WILX.
Meanwhile, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, also a Republican, justified Michigan State’s nearly 63% funding cut by invoking its sponsorship of Rx Kids, a financial support program for families with pregnant mothers and infants. Hall claimed without evidence, according to the news site, that the program enables beneficiaries to purchase drugs and alcohol.
Michigan State’s budget is already under pressure. Last fall, the institution said it was laying off nearly 100 faculty, staff and executives as it navigated rising operating costs. That was on top of 83 layoffs from earlier in 2025 that the university made amid the Trump administration’s disruptions to federal research funding.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget called for flat funding for public universities and community colleges — a disappointment to public education advocates but a far cry from the cuts contemplated by the House.
Republicans in other states have likewise toyed with significantly shrinking funds for their public flagships.
The University of Wyoming escaped cuts as high as $61 million to its state appropriations amid state lawmakers’ broad partisan attacks on what some deemed ideological instruction. The university emerged from the budget session with its funding intact, but lawmakers enacted a measure directing it to review its programs and staffing for potential cuts.
