Budgets include student loan forgiveness and mandatory DEI, dead-on arrival in House

State Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, on Tuesday expressed frustration with Senate Democrats for attempting to push unpopular Democrat policies through their higher education budget proposals. The budgets include $15 million to help wealthy college graduates pay off student loans and new requirements forcing universities and community colleges to violate federal policies regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming.

“Senate Democrats must be in some deep trouble if they’re trying to use the state budget process to pay off their student loan debt,” said Markkanen, who chairs the House committee responsible for the higher education budgets. “House Republicans are trying to find ways to cut spending while making college more affordable. Senate Democrats are hellbent on recycling old, failed policies from the Biden/Harris administration.”

The budget proposals also include language requiring colleges and universities to report changes to DEI programming, including the submission of a plan to mitigate ‘negative consequences’ associated with program reduction.

“President Trump is getting rid of DEI at the federal level, and I’m going to do the same here in Michigan,” Markkanen said. “We’re not going to let Senate Democrats create a backdoor where colleges and universities can cut DEI at the front end only to recreate it under another name. We should be focused on preparing students for the workforce, not pushing hidden political agendas.”

The Senate proposed growing the High Education budget from $2.3 billion to more than $2.4 billion and the Community Colleges budget from $462 million to more than $500 million. The overall Senate budget proposal is $84.6 billion, more than $2 billion over the 2025 budget.

“The next thing they’ll ask for is a tax increase to pay for all this,” Markkanen said.

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