Yesterday the Michigan legislature sent up to Governor Snyder’s office the much discussed Emergency Financial Manager’s bill. Drawing parallels with what has happened in Wisconsin, and now Ohio, Michigan is starting to get similar national attention.
The Free Press lead editorial today played the Chip Diller role from Animal House declaring “Remain calm. All is well.” I don’t think all is well with this, but not just because of what the EFM bill does on its own – including reserving the right to override the vote of the people, but rather the bigger picture.
As I wrote last week, the EFM bill marks one more move down the road to further loss of local control in various forms of government. Let’s look at the history just for school districts:
- Want to make local financial decisions with options whether to raise operating revenue? No, sorry. Proposal A disallows that.
- Want to set your own graduation standards? Nope, State of Michigan Board of Education did that for us.
- Want to establish your own curricular goals? Nope, the state signed us up for the Common Core Standards movement.
- Want to establish your own means for how you evaluate student performance? Nope, state says we have to use MEAP and MME.
- Want select your own principal to lead your school in its turnaround effort? Nope, the state’s Race to the Top application, which failed to win, drove the adoption of hastily written laws that don’t allow the locals this option.
- Want to determine in your own manner whether your local school is “making progress”? Sorry, national No Child Left Behind law makes that determination.
With this kind of momentum, look now locally at some of the other state legislation efforts of late:
- State senator Jack Brandenberg from Macomb County wants to decide for you how much fund equity we should retain. His reasoning? He’s tired of school districts complaining while he and his buddies slash education spending. Nice logic.
- Tim Melton, a state representative from Pontiac, who tried and failed on the issue above a couple of years ago, wants to make it a law that district superintendents can’t earn more than the governor – even though the governor himself hires people who earn more salary than he does.
- Governor Snyder has hinted around about laws requiring school district employees to contribute 20% toward their health insurance premiums.
- A proposal is being discussed today that would require that all non-instructional services be bid out for privatization.
Indeed we acknowledge financial change is necessary. Some of these actions MAY be neceesary, but why does the state feel the need to pass laws requiring they be done? Because they’ve done such a perfect job in Lansing? Because they don’t trust our ability to govern ourselves locally?
These proposed laws amount to disingenuous efforts by state and national lawmakers to rationalize their budget cutting decisions. Isn’t it enough for them to cut their budgets and leave it to the locals to sort it out?
News flash, Lansing: That’s been going on for the last several years and despite significant financial pressure, out of 550 traditional public school districts across the state, a mere 30 are in deficit. One of them, Detroit Public Schools, accounts for 76% of the aggregate of ALL of that deficit. (By the way, that’s a whole topic in itself – the leveraging of DPS’ problems to make laws that affect all of us.)
Memo to Senator Brandenberg: Why do you think these districts protect that fund equity? Because they don’t hold the cards for their revenue. You do – and you’ve been cutting. We don’t know when and how deeply you will cut. Fund equity protects against YOUR vagaries.
In 2009 317 of those 550 districts ended the year with a lower fund balance than the year before. Nearly a quarter billion of fund equity was appropriated. Does that make you happier, Sen. Brandenberg? In Wayne County alone the total estimated year over year change of Gov. Snyder’s budget bill, plus changes in health care and retirement, will yield an average cost to districts of $1,044. After designations and obligations, do you know how much fund equity remains on a per pupil basis across the state? $649. Your proposed one time fix, something Gov. Snyder has opposed, won’t even cover the cut you will approve.
Senator Brandenberg, spare us all your rationalizations. We’re not as slow on the local level as you might think. And if we relied strictly on fund equity to cover your $1,044 cut down here in Wayne County we’d all go into deficit and be beholden to the EFM bill you voted for.
Or it that what you want?
My message to you is the same as the Delta house’s float.