Mandates Likely to be Costly for School Districts (MI)
August 20, 2010
With just weeks left before school starts, there’s little discussion in Lansing about how to fund millions of dollars in new public school requirements, according to state Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Genoa Township.
The requirements are all tied to Michigan’s efforts to net $400 million in federal school funding through Race to the Top – a recurring, nationwide competition the state has lost twice, most recently in July.
Race to the Top is primarily aimed at bringing the country’s lowest-performing schools up to par.
State Public Acts 201-205 were approved last year in an effort to qualify for the funding, and include expanding the teacher-evaluation process and raising the state’s legal dropout rate from 16 to 18.
The laws were projected to cost the state a total $41.4 million last school year, and $23.1 million in the upcoming school year by the state Senate Fiscal Agency.
The agency projected it will cost $150 million to $250 million annually to fund raising the dropout age to 18 – keeping would-be drop-outs in school two more years – once that reform takes effect for the graduating Class of 2017.
The law allows students to drop out of school at age 16 with the written consent of a parent or guardian.
Rogers said it doesn’t appear there will be any action on the issue before the school year starts because lawmakers are either on their way out or campaigning for re-election on the November ballot.
Lawmakers are primarily focused on delivering the state’s 2010-2011 budget on or before the Sept. 30 deadline, he added.
He said the bills were passed in a hurried fashion to meet the first Race to the Top deadline.
The bills involving spending could have been passed contingent on receiving federal funds, Rogers said, but the consensus was that the application would be denied unless the reforms were permanent.
"Some things didn’t get fully vetted," Rogers conceded.
"You say, ‘We’ll take care of it later,’ and that later doesn’t come," he added.
Livingston Educational Service Agency Superintendent Scott Menzel maintains the reforms include unfunded mandates, and that the Legislature has violated the state constitution by approving them.
The Headlee amendment to the state constitution prohibits the Legislature from approving programs without coming up with the funding to pay for them.
Menzel called on the Legislature to rescind the mandates or produce the funding for them.
"Local districts are sitting in a position where there’s significant unfunded mandates that need to be addressed. We would hope the Legislature would move rather quickly to address this concern," he said.
"The Legislature needs to take ownership of the decisions they’ve made," Menzel added.
State Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Marion Township, said the final version of the state’s K-12 budget includes $26 million in school funds reserved in case Race to the Top funding was rejected.
That would more than offset the projected $23 million cost of the reforms for the new school year.
The reserved school funds would come from a projected surplus in the state’s school aid fund, some of which has been proposed to offset the state’s general fund deficit.
Garcia said the projected expense of raising the dropout age is just one of many potential costs the state faces from high school dropouts.
� A; He said many dropouts end up in the state’s juvenile or adult prison systems, or in need of welfare assistance or government-funded health benefits.
Since the Legislature found the reforms necessary, lawmakers should support them regardless of cost, Garcia said. He said he’d consider backing changes to the laws if necessary, however.
"It’s about setting priorities," Garcia said.
Michigan’s school districts face unique challenges in educating children, said Janet Sifferman, superintendent of Hartland Consolidated Schools.
Sifferman said her district would have received roughly $30,000 if Michigan won either phase of Race to the Top – an amount she said would pale in comparison to what mandated programs will cost the district.
She said a requirement to conduct annual teacher evaluations, regardless of classroom performance, could require more administrative staff to cover her district.
"They have forgotten the school districts, the demographics that we have in Livingston County. ‘One size fits all’ doesn’t work," Sifferman said.
The Michigan Department of Education will analyze the feedback from the federal grant reviewers before commenting on why Michigan’s application wasn’t chosen for a second time, said Mike Flanagan, Michigan’s superintendent of public instruction.
President Barack Obama has announced plans to continue the Race to the Top program, and has requested $1.35 billion for the program in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site.