Action alert: More games with the school budget

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 — Steven Norton
TAKE ACTION!

Time to stop playing games with school funding - budget options range from bad to worse

Let's play

Fibbing or Funding

The only game show where your school always gets less than your children deserve!

Pick a door to reveal your "prize"!

Door #1 - Snyder PlanDoor #2 - House plan

Door #3 - Senate plan

Districts LOSE between $2 and $32 per pupil

Claimed 2% increase is mostly money taken from a "cookie jar" which had been diverted earlier when cuts were even bigger

Sneaks in parts of the "Oxford report" by forcing districts to pay for up to two online courses per semester with no say over the provider, what "successful completion" means, or what kind of credit to award.

Commits an extra $10 million to Michigan Virtual University, and basically makes an $8 million "gift" to the EAA to support "student centered learning"

Districts LOSE between $18 and $52 per pupil

Eliminates best practices grants, which went to most districts

Gives more money for performance and tech grants, which serve many fewer districts

Penalizes districts which recently opened their contracts

Cuts the increase to Great Start, making 4,200 fewer openings

Also sneaks in the "Oxford report" provisions

Districts LOSE between $18 and $102 per pupil, on average

Eliminates help to local districts with their pension system costs, and uses a smaller amount to give a foundation increase to all districts - which is a windfall for charter schools, which mostly are not in the pension system (they'll get an increase)

Puts $22 million in an "education reserve fund" instead of giving it to our students

Eliminates both best practices and technology grants

Also sneaks in the "Oxford report" provisions

Total spending even less than the Governor!

We need to stop playing games with the schools that serve our children and our communities. Shifting money around to make cuts look like tiny increases is simply disrespectful to the people of Michigan.

Here are some facts they want us to forget:

  • Spending on K-12 education has fallen 18% over the last twelve years, once you factor in inflation
  • Even after taking a smaller number of students into account, it has fallen 9% over twelve years
  • It's not all the recession - we're spending a shrinking share of our state's economy on education, in good times or bad.

Tell your legislators and the Governor that we need to stop playing games and do right by our children and our state! We need to give school the resources they need to do what we ask them to do.

Speak out today!


Steven Norton
Executive Director
Michigan Parents for Schools

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