The House Education Committee is looking for ways to encourage local and intermediate districts to share more services and potentially save more money. But members argued a report the Department of Education had been required to produce did not provide those ideas.

The committee Thursday received the report on intermediate school district consolidation of services required under PA 63, 2007. The report, created in May 2008, was based on a survey of ISDs to determine what services they were sharing or considering sharing and what might be blocking those efforts.

"Part of the goal of this report was to have a recommendation," said committee chair Rep. Tim Melton (D-Auburn Hills). "We would like a top 10 practices that came out of (the survey), something that's creative that other people aren't thinking about."
Mr. Melton and others also asked for guidelines on when sharing services makes sense, what optimal sizes are for districts and ISDs and what legislative measures could create incentives to make those changes.

Elaine Madigan, director of the Department of Education School Law and School Finance Division, said many of the things the committee requested were not in the legislation outlining the contents of the report. "There's a lot of things going on that weren't in this report because they weren't requested," she said.

Ms. Hansknecht said Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan was a supporter of consolidation of services and she expected the department would be working with the committee to develop those programs where appropriate. The State Board of Education is working on recommendations it will forward to the Legislature this year on consolidation of services.

Source: Gongwer Michigan Report, 2.26.09