LANSING (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm hopes to give school districts $175 more per student when the new fiscal year begins in October, a spokeswoman for the governor said yesterday.

The proposed increase, included in the Democratic governor’s spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, would boost the minimum per-student foundation grant in the new budget year from $6,700 to $6,875, Granholm communications director Genna Gent told The Associated Press.

The increase would boost state spending on public education by $280 million, to close to $12.8 billion, she said.

Granholm also will propose giving districts an additional $50 for high school students on top of the $175 per-student increase so schools can better prepare high school students to meet higher standards laid out in a report by the Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth headed by Lt. Gov. John Cherry, Gent said.

The governor wants a $33 million increase in state funding for at-risk students, which covers a wide variety of programs, including counseling. If lawmakers sign off on the proposed boost, total funding for at-risk students would increase to $347 million.

“K-12 education _ education in general — is the governor’s highest priority,” Gent said. “She is proud and pleased that we can increase education funding this year.”

The state can afford to spend more on K-12 education in the new fiscal year because the school aid budget is expected to take in $11.3 billion then, up from an estimated $10.9 billion this year.

The spending hike was welcome news to Margaret Trimmer-Hartley, spokeswoman for Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union. But she said per-pupil funding in recent years has not kept pace with school districts’ rising costs.

“It’s not enough to keep education moving in the direction we need it,” she said of the increase.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema of Wyoming wants more money to go to K-12 education, but he is worried higher pension and health care costs will keep new dollars from getting to the classroom, spokesman Ari Adler said.

State budget director Mary Lannoye will lay out the governor’s spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year at noon Thursday at the Capitol. She also will present Granholm’s executive order proposing a plan for dealing with an estimated $382 million shortfall in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

While the school aid budget is expected to be in the black this year and next, the state’s $8.8 billion general fund budget continues to struggle with shortfalls.

The general fund budget — which covers most areas of state spending, including prisons, health care, higher education and state departments — is short this year and next partly because of rising Medicaid costs. Medicaid currently provides health benefits to more than 1.4 million low-income residents, the highest number ever in Michigan.

To deal with that, Granholm is proposing a 2-percent tax increase on doctors in an effort to bring in additional federal dollars for the $7 billion Medicaid program, two sources familiar with the governor’s proposal said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The proposal is similar to a 2002 law that required nursing homes to pay the state $2.77 a day for each bed in their facilities. That money was used to bring in more federal dollars.

The proposed increase would generate about $250 million and bring in about $460 million from the federal government, one source said.

Most of the new federal funding would go toward boosting the reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers, but $40 million would go to the general fund.