LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) said the recently released 2025-26 K-12 budget lacks funding to address areas where there are teacher shortages.

“Addressing the teacher shortage is vitally important to improving student achievement,” said State Superintendent Michael Rice in a June 12 press release. “There is nothing more important to student success than the quality of the classroom teacher. We continue to make strides to chip away at the teacher shortage but have a long way to go. Dedicated funding is important to expand the recruitment and retention of teachers in a host of ways. Removing that dedicated funding from the budget is misguided.”

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Michigan currently has more teachers working in K-12 schools than they’ve had since 2009-10, according to data provided by the state of Michigan.

The state has 100,948 full-time teaching positions filled in 2024-25. That’s the most since 2009-10, when the state had 103,961 full-time teaching positions. But Michigan had 1.61 million public school students in 2009-10 compared to 1.42 million in 2024-25.

The state has more teachers teaching fewer students.