The Michigan House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday heard testimony on HB 4,060, a bill that would allow intermediate school districts (ISDs) to use career and technical education (CTE) millage revenue to enter contracts with other ISDs for CTE services, Representative Vanderwall told the committee.

The measure, a reintroduction of last session’s HB 4,279 (which passed the full House 100-6), is intended to remove a statutory ‘‘glitch’’ that prevents ISDs from using millage revenue to reimburse themselves when students attend CTE programs outside their home ISD, Vanderwall said. "The current rules make it difficult for the ISDs and I want to encourage their students to participate in career oriented education and put a financial burden on them," Vanderwall said.

Why it matters: Representatives and ISD officials said the change would affect mostly rural districts that lack local CTE centers and now must use general fund dollars to send students to other ISDs, sometimes requiring long bus rides. David Cox, superintendent of the Manistee Intermediate School District, testified that five districts in Manistee County rely on neighboring ISDs for CTE programming and currently pay out-of-service-area tuition and transportation costs from general fund dollars. "This glitch is pretty fixable by just adding the word intermediate school district to that language," Cox said, describing the change as necessary so a future CTE millage could reimburse those costs.

Details and scope: Vanderwall and Cox described the bill as statewide in scope — it would affect any ISD that chooses to seek a CTE millage — but they emphasized the immediate need in rural counties such as Manistee and Wexford. Cox said students from his county currently travel 45 minutes to an hour to access CTE programs in neighboring ISDs and that the ISD would like to pursue a millage to reimburse those transportation and tuition costs.

Committee members pressed for additional data. Representative Jimmy Wilson asked how many districts statewide would be affected; Cox said five districts in Manistee County would be affected and offered to provide a broader statewide count. Representative ***** asked whether invoicing and reimbursement would be on a per‑student actual‑cost basis; Cox confirmed services would be billed at actual charges. Vanderwall noted the bill streamlines contracting rather than altering per‑student accounting.

Support: Several education organizations submitted support without speaking, including the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, the Michigan Association of School Administrators, the Michigan Association of School Boards, the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, ABC of Michigan, and the Home Builders Association of Michigan.

Process: Committee members did not take a vote on the bill during the hearing. The committee transitioned to the next agenda item, a presentation on the Michigan teacher shortage by Ed Trust Midwest.

Ending: Committee members said they were optimistic about the bill as a bipartisan fix for a technical limitation in current millage law and asked staff and presenters for follow‑up data on statewide districts affected and implementation details such as invoicing procedures.