Legislation & Regulation

Establishes a student's absence due to parent's being deployed or return from active duty as excused absence.
Public Act 141

View here or download pdf below.

Detroit News - Monday, June 2, 2008
Amber Arellano
Say no to core curriculum naysayers
The naysayers are having their turn.
"Not everyone can learn algebra skills," they say. "Not everyone should have to."
Don't let them fool you.
When the Michigan Legislature passed the state's heralded high school curriculum to prepare every Michigan child to compete in the global economy, everyone knew it was going to be challenging. The idea that all students must and can learn tough math skills challenges notions of class and what it takes to get a good job.

STATE FACES YET ANOTHER REVENUE SHORTAGE – Going into Friday’s Revenue Estimating Conference, both the House Fiscal Agency (HFA) and the Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) have predicted the state will face a deficit in the 2008-09 Fiscal Year that will approach $500 million. The numbers from the May Revenue Estimating Conference establish the income levels that legislators will use in both adjusting the current fiscal year’s spending and in developing the budget for the next fiscal year.

MASSP 2008 Spring Law Update Recap

Let's face it...graduation time is like a capstone project for the high school principal. On commencement day the school community sizes up the student graduates and also the work of the principal and staff.

State restructuring efforts for NCLB often take a back seat to the more comprehensive reforms. Look for State Superintendent Mike Flanagan’s remarks in the last paragraph of this Wall Street Journal article.  READ MORE

By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director

SB 1107, 2008-09 School Aid has passed the Senate and is now in discussion before the House Appropriations sub-committee for Education. I’d be surprised to see movement of the bill to the full Appropriations Committee until after the report to this committee by the legislative finance research staff as to how much money they think is in the state check book is completed. There are still some things kicking about.

Finding ways to fix Michigan’s dropout crisis is the focus of public hearings that began May 8 as part of a statewide initiative to increase the number of high school graduates to stabilize a weak economy.

Sen. Wayne, Kuipers, bill's sponsor

...That was the concept in the original SB 842. The bill has an entirely new look today, but still is causing some big concerns within the education community.

Michigan could try to curb dropout rate by raising legal age to leave school to 17 or 18
Posted by Beth Loechler | The Grand Rapids Press May 08, 2008 10:32AM
How do you get more kids to graduate from high school?
That is the focus of hearings to be conducted throughout the state during the next several months, starting with one today in Grand Rapids.
A sound policy to stem the crisis has eluded legislators and school officials for decades, but the problem is clear:
Download for rest of story...

Sen. Mickey SWITALSKI (D-Roseville) wants to amend the state constitution so 16-year-olds can vote for school board members, a proposal he admits probably won't go very far very fast, but is worth a shot in recognition of the efforts of his younger constituents.
If adopted by two-thirds of the House and Senate, Michigan voters could give more high school students the right to vote in school board elections. They could not vote for ballot initiatives, statewide office, federal office or bond issues.

Michigan and other states would have to ensure that schools required to restructure under the federal No Child Left Behind Act are making meaningful changes and local districts would have to be more clear to parents what tutoring and choice options are available under new regulations unveiled Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, also announced the creation of a National Technical Advisory Council to meet the requirements of the law.
And she said she was continuing to work with Congress to have the law renewed.

Michigan's major taxes netted nearly $1.2 billion in March, up by a whopping 22.3 percent over the same month a year ago, according to the figures released Thursday by the Senate Fiscal Agency.
For the 2007-08 fiscal year to date the state has collected $7.7 billion, up 5.9 percent from the same time a year ago.
The state saw major increases in income tax, sales tax and oil and gas severance tax collections, while dealing with declines in Single Business Tax, use tax and real estate transfer tax collections.

Hundreds of home schooling parents and their children descended on the Capitol today to defend what they contend is a lifestyle choice.
Rep. Jack HOOGENDYK (R-Kalamazoo) and Rep. Bill HUIZENGA (R-Zeeland) encouraged the crowd to let lawmakers know that efforts to extend the state's reach further into the home-schooled community just weren't going to fly.
"The constitution doesn't mandate that every child get an education," Hoogendyk said. "That's the job of the parents."

If Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM had her way, about the only thing drivers under 18 could do in their cars is drive them.
The Governor, a mother or two teenage girls, said she not only supports legislation that restricts the number of passengers a teen can have in the car with them, but wants to ban their ability to use cell phones while driving.

Do school district public safety officers or Student Resource Officers (SROs) have the right to search students under the “reasonable suspicion” standard that high school personnel use in conducting a search?