school funding

The State Board of Education appears ready to follow Governor Jennifer Granholm's and others' leads in developing a proposal for funding education.

The board discussed a variety of proposals for increasing revenue and reducing costs to school districts based in large part on proposals offered by a variety of school and policy groups that have testified before the board over the past couple of months.

But members appeared to agree that proper financing of education requires additional funding in addition to cost reductions.

"Even the business leaders said it: we cannot solve the problem by cuts alone," said board President Kathleen Straus (D-Detroit). "It seemed to me there was a consensus that we have to modernize our sales tax system."

Rep. Terry BROWN (D-Pigeon) said he doesn't want to do it, but as the chair of the House K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee, he's leaning toward quickly adopting a School Aid Fund budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 that cuts schools an extra $255-per pupil.

With revenue estimates projecting the School Aid Fund being down around $425 million and not enough federal stimulus money to plug the hole, Brown said he needs to be realistic about the fate schools will ultimately face since the Republican-led Senate is showing no willingness to raise revenues this year.

MASSP is a sponsor of: MI-SOS
Save Our Student, Save Our Schools, Save Our State, Coalition

Introduction
The primary goals of SOS are:
• Create a grassroots network of school personnel and community members to promote change via legislative action;
• Assist schools to operate more efficiently and effectively; and
• Create a reformed system for funding K-12 education that yields equitable, adequate and predictable funding.

By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director

East Lansing -- College students are expected to gather at Michigan State University on Wednesday in support of a state-funded scholarship that helps them pay tuition bills.

The Michigan Senate has voted to eliminate funding for the Michigan Promise scholarship in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration wants to save at least a portion of the program that now provides up to $4,000 per student to help offset tuition costs.

About 96,000 students heading into school this fall are expecting a portion of the scholarship money.

The scholarship is in danger because of Michigan's growing state budget problems.

The Michigan State University College Democrats are helping to organize Wednesday's rally.

If any single event triggered the creation of the school-funding ballot measure Proposal A in the mid-1990s, it was the boarding up of the tiny Kalkaska school system in Northern Michigan.

In 1993, unable to pass a local operating mileage, the district continued to operate until it ran out of money and then it produced nationwide headlines by closing.

Is there a Kalkaska II sitting out there today?

If you ask the lobbyist for the Middle Cities School Association (MCSA) the answer is a resounding yes. With the Senate Republicans passing a Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget that cuts districts by $100 per pupil, school officials are becoming increasingly concerned about their futures.

Last spring MASSP members were asked, "If you were King/Queen for a day, what would you do with the MME and MEAP?" This information was shared with Senators Swialski and Jelinek. They must have been impressed by what they learned. There is a significant section in the Senate version of the School Aid Act dealing with assessment.

2009-10 School Aid Budget Gets Senate Committee Nod
Significant Cuts Across the Board
[MI Association of School Boards - Capitol News]

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed House Bill 4447 to the Senate floor with $410 million in cuts to schools for this fall. These cuts include a $110 per pupil cut for all districts in the state amounting to $174 million for 2009-10. The additional cuts are coming from categorical funding with a complete elimination of early childhood funding. Here are most of the categorical cuts:

- Michigan School Readiness grants $103.5 million
- ISD special ed and voc ed equalization $45.9 million
- Declining enrollment $30.6 million
- At-risk funding for Dearborn $5.9 million

By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director

The state budget for fiscal year 2009 (the current budget) has an estimated $1.3 billion shortfall. Leaders from the House, the Senate and the governor's office are working on a resolution for that deficit. The governor is expected to release an Executive Order (EO) at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5 reducing general fund spending to address some of the deficit.

Any shortfalls in the School Aid budget will assumedly be made up by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars. This creates awareness that whatever money coming from the ARRA will be spread extremely thin. As more details are made available, we'll send them your way.

[From MASB "News from the Capitol"]