Census-Guided Education Funds in Michigan
Michigan received over $1 billion in census-guided education funds in FY 2022. Accurate census data is essential to properly distribute funds across the state.
(Photos: Getty Images; Illustration: Leslie Garvey / POGO)
Educating the nation’s youth is a vital function, one that benefits all of society. However, access to quality education can be a challenge, particularly for households facing financial hardships. Michigan officials and residents have recognized the critical role of education by developing numerous government programs and initiatives to support students, provide equitable learning opportunities, and ensure that all communities have access to the resources needed to foster academic success and lifelong learning.
Many federal education programs use census data to help allocate funds to states and local communities based on the populations and needs of qualifying communities. The funds from these education programs go to state or local education agencies to serve students, including those with developmental or special needs. Typically, eligibility is determined by age group (birth to age 21), income level, and whether recipients receive other public assistance.
Census data helps inform federal programs that provide crucial support at the community level — but only if we get the census count right. Miscounts — under- or overcounts — can lead to communities not receiving their fair share of education assistance funding. And the amount of money from these programs can be significant.
The Project On Government Oversight tracked the spending for three census-guided programs focused on education down to the county level in Michigan in fiscal year (FY) 2022. The goal of the research is to quantify how important census accuracy is to each community, to underscore the impact of the census by putting its effect in real dollars directed toward critical issues such as education.
Accurate census counts not only determine the size of the pie Michigan receives from the federal government but often impact the amounts distributed to local jurisdictions as well. Under- or overcounts in qualifying populations can result in some communities receiving less than their fair share, while others may receive more. A significant local miscount could even result in a double penalty for a community, first reducing the amount of money allocated to the entire state of Michigan for an assistance program and then allocating a smaller percentage of that reduced total to the miscounted community.
Our Approach
The Programs
We researched the local distribution of funds from the following three federal census-guided education programs in Michigan:
- Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs)
- Title I is the largest educational assistance program. The program provides funding to school districts that enroll at least 40% of students from low-income families. (The Census Bureau uses low income as a criterion for certain education programs. It does not have a fixed definition; different formulas and measurements are used to determine low income.) The goal is to provide more and better resources for students to meet competitive state academic standards.1
- Head Start
- Head Start provides services to assist in children’s early development and learning from birth to age 5. The program is available to low-income families and those at or below the federal poverty threshold — in this context, income eligibility is determined by the Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines.2 Head Start also has alternative criteria where a recipient will qualify if they’re already receiving public assistance, or the children are in foster care or experiencing homelessness.3 Not every county receives funding for this program.
- Special Education Grants to States
- This is one of the largest federal education assistance programs (excluding financial aid and loans). States receive funding that then passes down to local education agencies to provide special education and related services to children with disabilities.4
The Regions
Our research identified spending totals in each of Michigan’s 83 counties, which we then grouped into seven state regions based on the regions used by the Michigan Department of Transportation.5
- Metro Region
- This region includes Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.
- Bay Region
- This region includes Arenac, Bay, Clare, Genesee, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Lapeer, Midland, Saginaw, St. Clair, Sanilac, Shiawassee, and Tuscola counties.
- Grand Region
- This region includes Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola, and Ottawa counties.
- University Region
- This region includes Clinton, Eaton, Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe, and Washtenaw counties.
- Southwest Region
- This region includes Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren counties.
- North Region
- This region includes Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Iosco, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon, and Wexford counties.
- Superior Region
- This region includes Alger, Baraga, Chippewa, Delta, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, Luce, Mackinac, Marquette, Menominee, Ontonagon, and Schoolcraft counties.
Overview: Regional Allocations of Census-Guided Education Funds
Local allocations of the three census-guided education programs resulted in the distribution of nearly $1.3 billion across the state of Michigan in FY 2022. A miscount in Michigan’s census numbers, especially within key subpopulations (like lower-income households or school-aged children), could result in the entire state receiving less education funding than it truly needs for its inhabitants. And a financial shortfall due to census miscounts would not only impact a single year of funding: It would affect state allocations until the next decennial census.
The regional distribution of the $1.3 billion in tracked education funds in FY 2022 shows geographic disparities in where funds went within the state. The Metro Region received more than 42.5% of the tracked federal education assistance funding for the state, approximately $553.02 million. The region’s sizable population includes a high number of school-age children and low-income households, both of which would draw increased funding to this area.
The Bay Region and Grand Region also received significant allocations of education funds, with $186.10 million and $179.05 million, respectively. Both regions include heavy urban populations in sizable cities such as Flint and Grand Rapids.
The North and Superior Regions, which are Michigan’s most rural and least populated areas, received the least education funding in the state: $79.15 million and $53.43 million, respectively.
Given that accurate census counts are critical to funding programs that support communities, advocates in Michigan should encourage officials at the local and state levels to prioritize preparation for a successful 2030 decennial census. Officials can work with the Census Bureau to update residential addresses through the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Program, which allows early participation by state, county, tribal, and city officials to ensure local address files are up to date and complete. As the decennial census approaches, advocates and community leaders can play a crucial role in educating the public about the process and its importance. Elected officials should allocate sufficient resources to conduct more targeted outreach to hard-to-count and historically undercounted populations, such as young children and Black Americans.6
Advocacy and local engagement can have significant impact in the census results both in terms of the completeness of the count and in the process of what exactly gets counted. Until recently, the Census Bureau defined people with origins in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) within the White racial category. Since Michigan is home to a large Arab American population, local advocates have been pressing for changes in the race and ethnicity categories to ensure better representation of those communities in the census results.7 The Census Bureau recently updated its standards and will include a Middle East or North Africa classification on the 2030 Census. The Census Bureau will also combine its race and ethnicity questions for the next decennial census, which the agency hopes “will produce more accurate race and ethnicity data for our nation.”8
Metro Region
Metro Region consists of three counties located in the southeastern part of the state. The region is Michigan’s most densely populated and highly urbanized area, encompassing the city of Detroit, along with its surrounding suburbs and towns. In addition to Detroit, the region includes cities such as Warren, Sterling Heights, and Dearborn. The region includes more children than other regions in the state.9
Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties received $392.37 million, $87.59 million, and $73.06 million in FY 2022 education funding, respectively. Out of the three, Wayne has the highest rate of families below the poverty threshold and receives more than the other two counties across all three education programs.10 Oakland received more than Macomb for Head Start and Special Education Grants, but Macomb received more funds for the Title I Grants program. All three counties in this region received Head Start funding, a unique composition that other regions do not share.
Concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the recent census population numbers in this region, specifically for Detroit. In 2022, and again in 2024, the City of Detroit sued the Census Bureau, claiming the bureau undercounted certain neighborhoods in the 2020 decennial Census. In the lawsuits, the city argued two points: First, the bureau’s uniform methodology for counting housing units was flawed, and second, the methodology discriminates against Black and Hispanic residents.11 This undercount likely deprived the residents of Detroit millions of dollars of support from federal education programs.
Bay Region
The Bay region in Michigan, also known as “the thumb,” covers a 15-county area in the east-central and southeastern part of the state, extending from the Saginaw Bay area along Lake Huron to the northern parts of the Detroit metropolitan area. The region is a mix of urban, suburban, and rural communities.
The largest cities in the region are Flint in Genesee County, Saginaw in Saginaw County, Midland in Midland County, and Bay City in Bay County. The region includes significant areas devoted to agriculture, particularly in the more rural counties like Tuscola, Sanilac, and Huron.
In FY 2022, the Bay Region received nearly $186.1 million in educational program funding. Of the 15 counties, Genesee has the highest number of student enrollment and county population by far, and the largest amount of funding, at $79.19 million. At the other extreme, Arenac County has the smallest population in the region and received $1.37 million. Interestingly, Arenac has about 3% of Genesee’s student and total population but received only 1.7% of Genesee’s funding amount for the fiscal year, indicating that there are factors other than population affecting county allocations.12
The majority of counties in this region each received less than $10 million in education funding. The relationship between spending and population does not seem to be consistently proportional. For example, Gladwin has approximately 60% of Gratiot’s population, but Gladwin received 85.6% of Gratiot’s total funding. This could be due to a variety of reasons, such as the possibility that Gladwin has more students in need of assistance or potentially a larger low-income population than Gratiot.
Grand Region
The Grand Region consists of 13 counties located in the western part of Michigan’s lower peninsula, bordering Lake Michigan. The region includes highly developed urban areas with sizable cities such as Grand Rapids (the second largest city in the state after Detroit), Wyoming and Kentwood in Kent County, Georgetown Township in Ottawa County, and Muskegon in Muskegon County. Those three counties and Allegan County are all classified as urban, and the other nine counties in the region are classified as rural.13
In FY 2022, the region received $179.05 million in census-guided education funds. Kent County had the largest student population and received $73.95 million. Interestingly, Ionia received almost as much funding as Allegan (approximately $1 million difference) despite Ionia only having 55% of the county population and 46% of the student population as Allegan. This could be due to the large amount of Head Start funding Ionia received compared to Allegan and to Ionia’s similar family poverty rate.14
University Region
The University Region consists of nine counties located in the southern and central parts of Michigan’s lower peninsula. The region includes a mix of urban and suburban areas, as well as rural communities. The area includes the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing, as well as the state capital, Lansing.
The three most populated counties in the region are Washtenaw, Ingham, and Livingston. Washtenaw has more than 350,000 residents, Ingham has around 280,000, and Livingston has almost 200,000. Collectively, the three counties are home to more than half of the region’s population. Three other counties — Jackson, Monroe, and Eaton — each have between 100,000 and about 150,000 residents, demonstrating the widely urbanized clusters in the region.
The largest cities in the region are Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County and Lansing in Ingham County, which are the fifth and sixth largest in the state, respectively.
In FY 2022, the region received $148.89 million across the three census-guided education programs. While Washtenaw, Ingham, and Livingston counties all received Head Start funding and have the highest total and student populations in the region, Clinton received the most funding at $29.58 million, nearly $20 million of which is from Head Start. Clinton County has the sixth lowest rate of families below poverty in the state at 5.2%, which is lower than Washtenaw, which has a families below poverty rate of 6.2%, and Ingham, which has a families below poverty rate of 9.1%. So, it’s not immediately clear why it received disproportionately high funding in comparison.15 It may be that a previous miscount is contributing to the funding results. Or, since these programs use data beyond census to make allocation decisions, there may be other factors leading to Clinton County’s high funding levels relative to other counties in the region.
Southwest Region
The Southwest Region consists of seven counties located in the southwestern corner of the state bordering Indiana. This region includes a mix of urban, suburban, and rural areas. Kalamazoo, Calhoun, and Berrien counties are the most populated counties of the region. Kalamazoo County is the most urbanized county in the region with more than a quarter of a million residents, while Berrien and Calhoun each have close to 150,000 residents.
Kalamazoo is home to Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College. The region also has Battle Creek in Calhoun County, which ranked 32nd in the state by population. Battle Creek, known as the Cereal City for its history with companies like Kellogg’s, has a strong industrial base but has faced economic challenges in recent years.
The Southwest Region received $100.11 million in census-guided education assistance funds from the three tracked programs in FY 2022. Kalamazoo County received the most funding in the region and has the largest county and student populations. Branch County received more funding than Cass County even though it has fewer students. A likely explanation is that Branch County received more Title I funding, and received Head Start funding, while Cass County did not.
North Region
The North Region consists of 21 counties in the northern portion of Michigan’s lower peninsula, extending from the shores of Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. This area is known for its natural beauty, including lakes, forests, and rolling hills, making it a popular tourist destination. The region is primarily rural and remote, with small towns, seasonal populations, and limited urban development. Its economy is largely driven by tourism, agriculture, and forestry.
This region received $79.15 million in census-guided federal funds for these three programs in FY 2022. Grand Traverse County is the most populated county in the region, with almost 100,000 residents. Most of the other counties have between about 10,000 and 35,000 residents. Traverse City, the largest city of the region, ranks 124th in the state by population.
Alpena received the most federal education funds at $30.17 million despite having the fourth largest total population. We believe this is driven by the number of families living below the poverty rate, which is higher than in Grand Traverse County.16 Other counties in this region demonstrate a lack of correlation between funding and student population, total population, and poverty rates. For example, Oscoda has a higher families below poverty rate than Benzie, but Benzie received $144,100 more funding. Iosco and Manistee County have similar population totals, but Iosco received a higher amount of Title I funding.
Superior Region
The Superior Region, also known as the Upper Peninsula (UP), consists of 15 counties located in Michigan’s northern peninsula and separated from the rest of the state by the Straits of Mackinac. The region is predominantly rural and remote, with small towns and few urban centers. Economic activities focus on tourism, mining, forestry, and some manufacturing.
Marquette is the most populated county in the region, with around 65,000 residents. Houghton, Delta, and Chippewa counties each have populations around 36,000 residents. The region includes several of the least populated counties in the state, including six counties with fewer than 10,000 residents each: Alger, Baraga, Schoolcraft, Luce, Ontonagon, and Keweenaw.
In FY 2022, the Superior Region received $53.43 million across the three census-guided federal education programs. Although Marquette is the most populated county, Chippewa received the most education funds.
Alger and Baraga Counties received similar funding amounts, which may reflect their comparable population sizes and student enrollment numbers. Delta, Dickinson, and Houghton also follow this trend. Keweenaw County is the only county that did not receive Title I Grants or Head Start funding; however, it has an extremely small student population.
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) (84.010)
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) produced FY 2022 county-specific estimates for the Title I Grants program based on Michigan allocation data posted by the Department of Education.17
POGO assigned county designations to each school based on the location listed for each in the Common Core of Data (CCD) directory from the National Center for Education Statistics. The grant amounts were then totaled for each county location.18
Head Start (93.600)
POGO produced FY 2022 county-specific estimates for the Head Start program based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS).19 POGO downloaded Head Start Program awards funded in FY 2020 to recipients in Michigan and then totaled them based on county location of the recipient.
Special Education Grants to States (84.027)
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) provided special education grant spending for the school year 2021 to 2022 by intermediate school districts (ISDs). ISDs are educational service agencies that provide administrative services to multiple local school districts and can span multiple counties.
To break up the ISD funding into estimates of county-level portions, POGO used student enrollment data to calculate the percent of each ISD composition in different counties. These county ISD percentages were then applied to the ISD allocations of Special Education Grants to States. Those county estimates of ISD allocations were then aggregated for each county to produce final county-wide estimates of funding from the program.
Population Data
The U.S. Census Bureau and Michigan Department of Management and Budget’s Office of the State Demographer provided the state’s population information broken down by county.20
Student Enrollment Data
POGO used Michigan’s official source for education data, MI School Data, to extract student population data for the 2021-2022 school year.21 Specifically, POGO filtered their Report Builder to the relevant school year, student information, ISD each school belonged to, county location of the schools, and student enrollment for each school.
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