Flint Community Schools Superintendent Kevelin Jones testified before the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee on December 16 to argue for restoration of approximately $8 million in previously approved funding that supported Flint kids recovering from the impact of the Flint water crisis.
Those cuts were part of a larger, and unprecedented, move by Republicans on the State House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. Last week, they used a rarely invoked process to claw back nearly $650 million in funding for programs around the state that had previously been approved in FY 2025. They were able to do that because those programs hadn’t spent all of the funding allocated to them by the end of the year. Typically, extensions are granted so that organizations don’t lose those funds.
In the case of Flint Community Schools, funding supported a wide range of post-water crisis initiatives, including health, education, nutrition programs, social workers, early childhood programs, and other services for families dealing with the effects of lead exposure during the crisis.
“These dollars were not used for buildings or programs or short-term-initiatives,” Jones told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “They were used for people, adults placed directly in front of children who need consistent, skilled support. Through this funding, we staffed MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports), social workers, and student success technicians. These are not abstract roles. These are the professionals who intervene when attendance drops, who respond to trauma, who monitor health concerns, who stabilize behavior, and who connect families to care when life overwhelms learning.”
Jones pointed out that part of the reason there are funds that haven’t yet been spent is because some of those funds are for specialized roles in professions that are dealing with shortages all over the state.
“I want to be very, very clear,” he said. “The reason some funds remain unspent is not because the need disappeared. The reason is the workforce disappeared. Flint is experiencing the same statewide and national shortage of licensed social workers impacting districts everywhere. Only, our students carry deeper crisis-related needs. When positions become vacant midyear, they can’t be filled overnight and position-based funding cannot be spent without people attached to it. If these funds are reclaimed (by the state), the consequences will be immediate and measurable. That means weaker MTSS interventions, increased absenteeism, unmet mental health and health needs, and greater strain on systems already stretched thin.”
Matt Hall, the Republican Speaker of the House, cited Flint specifically when championing these cuts.
“The Flint drinking water emergency is over,” Hall said, according to ABC 12. “Even Gov. Whitmer has acknowledged that, but yet they continue to want to fund it and squirrel away money for it. That isn’t happening.”
While the “crisis” may be over in terms of fixes to the city’s water system being largely complete, the aftermath of the crisis is clearly not over. Jones testified alongside Dr. Mona Hanna, a Flint pediatrician who was among the first to raise alarm bells that increased lead levels in the city’s water, as a result of a cost-saving decision to switch water sources made by a Republican governor, was impacting children. Their full remarks begin at about the 1:01:03 mark in the video of the Senate Appropriations Meeting.
A question from Sen. John Cherry, who represents Flint, explains why Hall’s justification is incorrect.
“When somebody, particularly a young child, deals with lead poisoning, is that like the flu, where you can stay in bed for a week and get better?” Cherry asked.
“No,” Hanna said. “Lead exposure has lifelong consequences. All of our work in Flint has been about the long-term recovery. This cut is shortsighted. It disregards the science of lead and trauma that recognizes that the consequences, the manifestation of exposure, will take years if not decades to present.”
Among the more controversial aspects of these cuts is the fact that there was no discussion or testimony from any of the impacted organizations the funding was taken from before the decision was made. In the aftermath, Republicans in the House then began trying to justify cuts to programs such as Wigs 4 Kids, an organization that provides wigs to children with cancer.
“House Republicans’ actions are cruel and downright shameful for the harmful consequences they will have on not just my community, but on people across the state,” Cherry said in a statement. “My constituents deserve better. Michiganders deserve better. And that starts with holding House Republicans accountable for their actions, to which I invite every Michigander to join me by calling their offices and asking them why they ripped away funds from new moms, kids with cancer, and children with lead poisoning, while continuing to shovel money to businesses.”
The Michigan Senate voted after the testimony to restore nearly all of the funding that was slashed, but the Republican-controlled House would still have to approve that. One hopeful sign is that five Republicans in the Senate voted in support of restoring it, but it is unclear if Hall will bring it to the House floor for a vote. Senate Democrats also asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to review whether or not the cuts the House Appropriations Committee made were legal.
Jones reiterated in his testimony that the work of supporting Flint kids in the recovery from the Flint water crisis is unfinished, and as a government-created catastrophe, the state has a responsibility to see its promises made to Flint through.
“These positions prevent crises,” Jones said. “They keep children in school. I ask that all will see this funding not as leftover dollars, but as unfinished work. Michigan acknowledged its responsibility to Flint kids when Section 11 (funding) was created, that responsibility is not complete. Flint’s children did not choose this crisis, but we can choose whether we finish the recovery. We promised them. I urge you to protect these funds, not because they are easy to spend, because they’re not, but because they are essential to healing, to stability, and to justice for Flint’s children.”
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