SOS Updates

 

NEW Candidate Forum Guide now available

We are pleased to announce that the SOS Candidate Forum Guide is now posted at www.SOSMichigan.org.  We strongly encourage all school districts to consider sponsoring or co-sponsoring such an event before the primary election in August. 

Candidate Forums provide a meaningful way to reach out to our communities and our supporters and get them involved in understanding candidate positions on issues of vital concern to our schools and state.  In these times of frequent turnover of legislators it is crucial that schools make connections early with candidates; and assure that our voice is heard and our issues understood. 

As we mentioned previously, some schools are holding these types of forums and inviting only educators and human service personnel, others are opening the forum to their broader community. Do what works for you, but it is a good opportunity to reach out to senior citizens and your local business leaders if that makes sense in your community.

Also consider who can/should co-sponsor this type of event in your district. It may make sense for the local PTSA to work with their school leaders.  In many parts of the state it will make most sense to conduct a forum through the ISD.

Please review the materials at www.SOSMichigan.org. If you need something beyond what’s there, let us know. We are happy to help fill in the blanks, or otherwise help make this work for you. If you have questions or suggestions contact: Nancy Hawkins at nhawkins@msbo.org; or Tom White at tomwhite@masb.org; or Bob Kefgen at rkefgen@gomasa.org.

Summer messaging

As you know, the legislature is finishing up work on the budgets and hopes to have them done by June 30. They are currently considering using money from the School Aid Fund (SAF) to help balance other portions of the budget. This is wrong because:

• They haven’t fully restored the cuts they made for 2009-10. All schools are still looking at cuts of at least $100 per pupil over what they received in 2008-09, a number are looking at significantly more.
• They would be using one-time money (surplus funds from the SAF) to help support other budgets (Community Colleges/Higher Ed) when they haven’t, “kept their promise” to the K-12 community.  It is a short term fix that will cause long term issues.
• Lansing just added requirements for annual evaluations and other programs associated with the Race To The Top (RTTT) legislation, and cut our funding at a time when they are increasing our costs on the local level.
• Schools have reformed, now it’s time for revenue. Many in the legislature have said, “Reforms first, revenues to follow.” We have done the RTTT reforms; we have done reforms in the MPSERS.  We are asking for reforms in health insurance. How about getting us back to 2008-09 funding levels.
• The School Aid Fund is not a cookie jar. Lansing has been reducing what the state pays from its General Fund (GF) dollars to K-12 for many years. The GF contribution to schools was $420 million in 1998-99;  it’s estimated at $30 million for 2010-11. They’ve also raided the SAF by spending millions on programs that were previously paid from other parts of the budget. If K-12 education IS a priority they should stop using it as a cookie jar for other programs. We have many needs in Michigan’s public schools and thousands of employees are being laid off.  The dollars should stay with K-12 for needed K-12 purposes.

Schools are being shortchanged for 2010-11, and we haven’t addressed the fundamental issues of stable, equitable funding for the future. We have a record number of districts in bankruptcy, and many more on the edge. Lansing’s job on school funding is far from over.  Stay tuned and please stay involved.