Students in the region’s largest district, the Traverse City Area Public Schools, returned to class today.
Public schools around Michigan are starting this school year with little idea how much money they’ll get from the state, because of a budget impasse in Lansing.
State lawmakers blew past the usual July 1 deadline to set the education budget. They have until Oct. 1 to pass the whole state budget or risk a partial government shutdown.
At TCAPS, lots of programs are up in the air, Superintendent John VanWagoner told IPR's Morning Edition.
"We've had universal breakfast and lunch for all of our kids for a few years," he said. "We don't know if that's the case (this year). We're imploring parents to fill those forms out still — all parents. We get grant dollars for that. That's the kind of thing you sit and wonder about: if kids will have meals when you have this kind of budget impasse going into September and, maybe, all the way until October 1st."
VanWagoner says he’s hopeful there will be some sort of progress in Lansing in the next couple weeks.
Hear the entire conversation with IPR using the audio player above.
