Schools Get Break From Budget Ax (MI)
July 8, 2010
M ichigan’s new school aid budget will put a few more dollars into the budgets of Livingston County school districts.
Local superintendents, however, are not impressed, considering how much state aid to schools was already cut.
The state Legislature approved a new, $12.8 billion spending plan for schools Thursday that boosts state aid by $11 per pupil immediately and through the 2010-2011 school year.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign the budget bill, which passed on the first day of school districts’ fiscal years. Districts generally have already put in place their new budget plans by July 1 each year.
The state school budget, which takes effect Oct. 1, gives back $11 per pupil of a $165-per-pupil cut that affected schools for their recently concluded school year.
“I believe it comes to about $60,000 for us; it’s not a major amount and not really significant, considering what was taken away from us last year,” said Hartland Consolidated Schools Superintendent Janet Sifferman, whose district lost about $1 million last year when Michigan cut state aid by $165 per pupil.
“We’re grateful for it, for sure,” Sifferman said. “But we’re still way down.”
Scott Menzel, superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency intermediate school district, said the state’s reasoning for the move was based on necessity. It had to increase its per-pupil funding — and did so by the minimum monetary amount necessary, Menzel said — to receive federal stimulus funds.
“It’s nice, not a bad thing,” Menzel said. “But it isn’t a major swing in the budget.”
Lawmakers are not expected to finish t he remaining elements of the 2010-2011 state budget until after the Aug. 3 primary elections. The House and Senate recessed until July 21, although conference committees could meet to hammer out budget differences.
House Democrats and Senate Republicans agreed, for now, not to spend a $236 million surplus in the School Aid Fund. Key lawmakers say they’ll continue negotiations on whether to divert some of the surplus to the state general fund, which faces a $300 million deficit this fiscal year.
Michigan’s deficit could balloon to $900 million next year if Congress does not approve extra Medicaid funding many states have requested.
Menzel said the outlook on school funding in the next few years still depends on Michigan’s economic outlook.
“We continue to hear elected officials talk about the desire to ensure stable and reliable school funding, so that we know it’s going to be there and can base on budgets on something that’s known,” Menzel said. “That being said, given the state of Michigan, unless our economy turns around … we need to see economic recovery.”
A stalemate over school funding was broken Wednesday when House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, promised Sen-ate Republicans that he would try to push through incentives geared to get state employees to accept early retirement. The proposal is similar to one recently offered to school employees statewide.
Dillon said he still must reach a compromise with state employee unions, which have opposed a retirement-incentive plan first proposed by Granholm.
The plan would require employees who don’t retire by Oct. 1 to contribute 3 percent of their wages toward retirement health insurance.