Good Morning Colleagues,

Personal Property Tax repeal was the big story for last week, but a deal that has been cut on the MPSERS reform bill and upcoming Tuesday hearing on the compromise language may be the bigger headline for most school employees. As reported by MASSP last week, the revised bill drops both the age 60 requirement for receiving retiree health coverage and retroactive application of graded health care subsidies.

The NASSP Board of Directors visited Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, May 3. As Past President of MASSP and a retired principal from Stevensville Lakeshore, it was an honor to serve as the NASSP Representative from Region 4. The Board met initially with Congressional Staff for the House Education and the Workforce Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor Pensions Committee. Following this briefing, individual members met with Congressional Staff from their respective States.

A host of education bills that have been at a standstill in the House for months moved on to Governor Snyder’s desk this week. Chief among them were a package of dual enrollment eligibility changes and a raising of the cyber school cap. MHSAA was in the legislative and media spotlight as a Senate committee adopted a resolution urging a waiver to that association’s age limit rule.

An education policy bill had not passed the House for all of February or March and most of April, but that all changed this week. The House this week passed a whole host of legislation including its omnibus version of the K-12 budget for next year, a package of dual enrollment legislation, and a bill to raise the cap on cyber schools.