Local Lawmakers Debate School Funding in Light of Proposed Cuts

How should Michigan’s public school districts do more with less, what do per-pupil cuts actually mean and does Michigan have the money it needs to rescue districts in trouble? More than 100 parents, teachers, students and administrators turned out Monday night to discuss these questions at a at l hosted by .

At the forum were state Reps. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham), Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) and Rudy Hobbs (D-Lathrup Village), as well as state Sens. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) and John Pappageorge (R-Troy).

The panel discussion was hosted in response to Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed cuts to public schools, as presented in his . Schools across the state, including Birmingham, are facing a $470 per-pupil cut under Snyder's plan, with many districts facing even steeper cuts with the loss of additional funding.

In total, ; before Snyder’s budget plan was released, the district’s projected deficit was $5 million. Since 2002, Birmingham says it has cut $28 million in expenses and there is little else to cut without impacting classrooms.

During Monday's session, legislators were posed two main questions: 1) Will you alter Proposal A to reflect Michigan’s current economic challenges? and 2) Will you stop the transfer of $900 million from the school aid fund to community colleges and higher education, the result of which leaves districts with the $470 per-pupil cut?

Concern over Proposal A

This isn’t the first time Birmingham has rallied teachers and parents against Snyder’s budget plans. , administrators asked parents to send letters to Lansing and urge lawmakers to consider alternate methods of funding education.

In nearly every meeting or communication on school funding, Birmingham administrators have spent most of their time critiquing Proposal A, the funding mechanism approved by Michigan voters in 1994 that disconnects school funding from local property taxes, basing it instead on sales taxes.

“Proposal A has been very challenging for Birmingham,” Superintendent David Larson said Monday night. “We have worked very hard as a district contending with a funding system that is not in our favor.”

While most of the legislators were in agreement that Proposal A is flawed, the discussion by the end of the night left the panel split on one question: Do we have the money for education?

Where's the money?

Brown was insistent the money for K-12 education is in the school aid fund and that it’s absolutely unfair to divert it to higher education. “We have to define what we’re going to use those dollars for and that should be local school districts,” she said.

However, under fire from several audience members who critiqued lawmakers for taking money away from teachers, Pappageorge assured the crowd the state doesn't have the money. “Stop saying we have money, we don’t … There is no money,” he said. Instead, the Troy Republican stressed the need for shared sacrifice and for public workers, including teachers, to consider similar private sector cuts to compensation and increased contributions to health care costs.

“Teachers have a terribly tough job,” he said. “But these teachers, as parents and citizens, want to make sure they don’t load their kids down with debt.”

Moss agreed, saying more money isn’t the answer and labor costs are consistently the biggest expense for districts like Birmingham. “Teachers are where your spending is,” he said. “We can only afford to pay them what we can afford.”

According to Gregory and Hobbs, though, that completely misses the point. Teachers should be the priority, they contended, with Hobbs pointing out that cutting back on teacher compensation isn’t enough. “Our school districts are running deficits across the state,” Hobbs said. “They need this money to educate our kids.”

Doing what's best for Michigan

Ultimately, the discussion devolved into an argument of what’s best for the future of Michigan.

School districts tie communities together, Hobbs said, and the strength of those communities depend on the strength of the schools.

Moss and Pappageorge, on the other hand, argued in favor of the governor’s proposed $1.8 billion in tax cuts, though a vocal segment of the crowd made their displeasure about that known. However, Moss contended that if businesses can’t make money in Michigan, they’ll leave. “If you keep adding on overhead, you’ll drive (businesses) out,” he said.

Brown and Gregory argued that education is as big an attraction as a favorable business climate. “No one will want to come to the state with a poor school system,” Gregory said.

One of those worried parents considering public schools is Amy Margolis, a Birmingham resident and mother of two, including a kindergartener at Detroit Country Day. Her daughter is enrolled in Birmingham schools for next fall, but the future of public education could change her mind. “I’m very concerned,” she said at the forum Monday. “She’s enrolled at , but I could be swayed back to Country Day.”

For Diana McShane, a Birmingham parent of a Groves High School junior, Michigan lawmakers simply aren’t giving quality districts like Birmingham — and its teachers — enough credit.

“Look at how Birmingham has made concessions after concessions,” she said. “When did teachers become the enemy?”