LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan’s public schools have a higher number of full-time employees in at least 16 years despite a drop in student enrollment.

Michigan’s K-12 public school district had a combined 225,700 full-time employees in 2024-25, the highest going back to at least 2008-09. That’s as far back as state records go online.

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Michigan’s K-12 schools had 201,607 full-time employees in 2018-19, the year before the pandemic. The state has seen a drop in enrollment from 2018-19 to 2024-25 despite the additional hires.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts hired additional employees, such as school counselors and psychologists using the $6 billion the state received for public K-12 schools in federal emergency funding.

Now that the federal pandemic funding is drying up, schools are seeing a drop in revenues.

For example, Grand Rapids Public Schools has a $50 million reduction in its General Operating Budget in 2025-26. The district’s federal dollars are expected to drop from $70.7 million in 2023-24 to $21.8 million in 2025-26.