Federal shutdown is pushing kids into hunger; partisan gridlock is failing students
Loss of SNAP and Head Start funding is directly harming Michigan kids
Lansing, Mich., Nov. 3, 2025 - With the federal shutdown entering a fifth week and a pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits now a reality for families across Michigan, the K-12 Alliance of Michigan warned today that partisan brinkmanship in Washington and Lansing is putting children at risk. District leaders are expanding school meal supports, but say schools cannot replace a fraying safety net created by failed leadership in Lansing and Washington, D.C.
“Michigan schools are taking on unprecedented challenges in the wake of Lansing’s failure to both fund our schools on time or provide the supports our students truly need, now coupled with the federal government shutdown impacting SNAP and Head Start programs. The well-being of our students is being put at risk by politics,” said Robert McCann, Executive Director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan. “It should anger every parent in Michigan that their kids are being caught up in partisan games that are impacting our schools’ ability to best help them. This is a crisis being created entirely by choices made in Lansing and Washington and it has to stop.”
Approximately 1.4 million Michiganders — including nearly 500,000 children — have lost monthly food support and superintendents report rising demand for breakfast, lunch, and weekend food programs as families cope with the loss of benefits.
At the same time, the shutdown threatens to halt services for an additional 3,000 Michigan children on December 1st who rely on Head Start for early learning, health screenings, and nutrition. Head Start — a federal program serving children from low-income families since 1965 — supports more than 29,800 Michigan children across Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms each year.
“Children should not go hungry because adults can’t pass budgets,” said Alan Latosz, Superintendent of Algonac Community Schools and President of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan. “Stability means on-time funding. Transparency means the public can see how decisions are made. Accountability means leaders fix problems instead of fighting about them. On all three, state and federal leaders are failing our students.”
While many school districts are preparing to make as many food options available to students being impacted by the federal shutdown by leveraging USDA after-school snacks and partnering with local food banks and backpack programs, donations and staff capacity are already stretched and the delay in the state budget being passed this year has only exacerbated the problems.
School leaders previously warned that late state budgets, earmarks, and policy surprises destabilize schools and erode trust. Today’s SNAP and Head Start crisis underscores those concerns.
“Head Start isn’t just preschool, it’s health care, meals, and stability for our youngest learners,” said Dr. Jennifer Martin-Green, Superintendent of Southfield Public Schools. “When those classrooms close, children lose their teachers, their routines, and the supports that help them succeed later in school.”
The K-12 Alliance of Michigan is calling on federal leaders to ensure this loss of SNAP and Head Start funding ends immediately and, in order for schools to be best prepared to support students next year, is calling on Lansing to fix its broken budgeting problem by treating the July 1 School Aid budget as a firm deadline, ending the secrecy in the budgeting process and protecting the integrity of the School Aid Fund to guarantee schools are receiving 100% of the funding where taxpayers expect their money to go.
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The K-12 Alliance of Michigan is a coalition of education leaders committed to fighting for strong K-12 schools across Michigan. Comprised of Superintendents from every district in Genesee, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne counties, they are collectively responsible for educating over half of Michigan’s students.