The Crisis of Michigan’s Public School Funding and Its Influence on Human Resources Management

Human resource management (HRM), particularly within urban public school districts, cannot generate adequate resources to compensate for inflation and cannot offer adequate instructional programs similar to those found in larger districts, resulting in inequity in educational opportunities. Studies have emphasized the importance of staffing schools with quality teachers, as this has the greatest effect on student achievement. School district HRM units with high-percentage Black and under-resourced (free and reduced-priced lunch) students are challenged with recruiting, retaining, and compensating highly effective and diverse educators. The challenge is reflected in outcomes such as teacher turnover rates in Michigan’s under-resourced districts and districts serving high percentages of Black students. This study sought to explain Michigan’s historical and current public school funding structures that exasperate Black and under-resourced districts’ HRM pressures, utilizing the integrated tenets of critical race theory (CRT) and critical policy analysis (CPA) to understand how history has affected policy creation and implementation of funding. This study applied select tenets of CRT and CPA through quantitative analysis of school funding to determine the extent of the impact on HRM seeking to staff schools.