Too Soon to Celebrate?

 

Budget news coming from Lansing is improving, but not the end of the story. This op-ed by Executive Director, William Mayes, urges caution.

The following story was submitted to the Detroit Free Press editors for publication. Feel free to use it to craft similar messages for your members.
Sunshine, gardens, and a summer holiday. After a long, bleak winter, life in Michigan feels good again.

In Michigan’s schools, a first glance makes life seem brighter, too. Students and families are sliding into summer break on a stream of awards, picnics and graduations.

On the education funding front, a boost to the School Aid Fund due largely to improvement in sales and use tax revenues means that schools will not see additional cuts to their 2010-11 per-pupil grants. This, combined with landmark retirement benefit reforms, would seem to signal a return of hope after a long and steep decline.

Or does it?

As a consummate “glass-is-half-full” sort of optimist, it troubles me to burst the bubble of hope generated by the apparent good news coming out of Lansing. But there are plenty of reasons to worry still about Michigan’s K12 schools. Here are just a few.

• While the May budget projections might be optimistic, they are subject to a wide range of variables. Legislators also have the power to tap the School Aid Fund to fill still-gaping holes in the General Fund. Smart school leaders will—and should—be cautious about spending money that legislators are likely to cut again in January.

• While sweeping in its implication for thousands of school employees, the recently signed retirement reform bill creates winners and losers, actually increasing costs for many local districts. Despite the new law, it appears retirement expenses for all schools will rise by $140–$150 per pupil for 2010-11. Schools with few retirees will see little or no savings, but must pay for the cost of the legislation, estimated at more than $2 billion over the next five years. Schools might not see meaningful savings for years.

• Neither of these reforms address the underlying structural issues of school funding—stability, equity and adequacy. Nor do they address the skyrocketing health care costs to districts. These problems will continue to haunt us until they are addressed. Michigan still has approximately 30 districts in deficit (bankruptcy) and many more teetering on the edge.

Like most Michiganians, I plan to head outdoors this weekend to plant, play and celebrate a return to summer. I encourage you to do the same. I also will allow myself a tiny high-five at the glimmer of hope May has brought for our future.
Afterwards, I hope you will join me in picking up the banner once again for meaningful reform to Michigan school funding. Contact your legislators and tell them lasting economic recovery requires a strategic investment in children, from birth through college.