Dearest reader,
Lady B has been following the business built around Michigan's public education system.
Earlier, we examined the Michigan School Business Officials (MSBO) and identified $25,990 in payments from just eight Michigan public education entities.
But the ledger led us somewhere else.
Conferences. Hotels. Registration fees. Professional development.
And two names kept appearing.
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids and Edge Partnerships.
Edge Partnerships is identified as the host organization for the Michigan Career Education Conference, held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.
So Lady B started searching school district payment records.
And here is what we found.
AMWAY GRAND PLAZA HOTEL
Grosse Ile Township Schools: $22,109.56
Saginaw Public Schools: $12,322.32
Utica Community Schools: $10,987.20
Saginaw Intermediate School District: $7,712.42
Trenton Public Schools: $2,083.32
TOTAL: $55,214.82
EDGE PARTNERSHIPS
Utica Community Schools: $6,650.00
Saginaw Public Schools: $1,000.00
Lansing School District: $950.00
Saginaw Intermediate School District: $700.00
TOTAL: $9,300.00
COMBINED IDENTIFIED PAYMENTS: $64,514.82
And these figures come from only a handful of Michigan school districts and an intermediate school district.
Think about that for a moment.
We haven't examined every district in Michigan. Not even close.
And these are only two vendors.
They do not include the full range of conference-related spending, such as mileage, meals, other hotels, employee reimbursements, or payments to additional conference organizers.
Now, Lady B has a few questions.
How much are Michigan's public schools spending statewide on conferences, registrations, lodging, and professional development?
How many employees are attending?
How much of that spending is paid from local operating funds, state funding, or federal grants?
And perhaps most importantly, how do districts evaluate whether these expenses produce meaningful benefits for their teachers, support staff, and students?
Professional development can absolutely be valuable.
But value should be something districts can explain, not something taxpayers are simply expected to assume.
Lady B is not suggesting every payment to Amway Grand Plaza was connected to the Michigan Career Education Conference. The hotel hosts numerous events, and these payments span multiple fiscal years.
The figures represent identified vendor payments and, where noted in the underlying registers, purchasing-card spending. They are not a complete accounting of conference costs.
But they do illustrate something worth examining.
Public education is not a business.
Yet there is an entire business built around public education.
And every dollar flowing through that business began somewhere.
Lady B would simply like to know how much of it ultimately makes its way back to the classroom.
The ledger remains open.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown 🪶
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