Talking Points

I received a copy of this letter. I believe it is quite informative and can offer some good talking point for contacting your legislator or even when talking with family and friends.

Disclaimer: This information is from SOS Michigan and is being distributed by MASB. With that said, the text is still pretty good.
Last year, when the legislature shifted $208 million from the School Aid Fund (SAF) to the General Fund for community colleges it was sold to the education community as a one-time transfer being used under a tight deadline and extreme circumstances. Now the proposal is coming from a different end of the Capitol. Gov. Snyder has proposed an unprecedented shift in School Aid resources from the K-12 schools of Michigan to universities and community colleges. Allowing the use of School Aid dollars for higher education, a $900 million transfer, will result in a minimum $470 per pupil cut for every district. Some districts will see much deeper cuts due to long-standing appropriations such as declining enrollment and special education payments to ISDs that the governor has proposed eliminating. These cuts are on top of the increase in state mandated costs for retirement, which will cost schools another $230 per pupil. Adding these together, the governor’s budget proposal would in essence reduce every school’s revenues by a minimum of $700 per pupil. Not many schools can absorb that type of reduction without devastating their educational programs.

In 1994 Michigan voters decided to set up a state funding model for schools. The promise to the people was that the state would shoulder the responsibility of funding the K-12 system in exchange for limiting the ability to levy local school operating millages. Since that promise was made, it’s been routinely broken. Since the passage of Proposal A, the SAF has seen an annual disinvestment by leaders in Lansing. General Fund contributions to the SAF have decreased from $664 million in 1995 to $18 million last year. Additionally, as money became tight in the state’s General Fund, programs from other departments have slowly become the very expensive obligation of the SAF. These transfers total $223 million annually. When you combine those two very large items with last year’s unprecedented shift of $208 million from schools to community colleges, the total in shifts, transfers and disinvestment creeps up over the billion-dollar mark.

Before last year the state had NEVER used School Aid funds for higher education. It was never even proposed. Now Lansing is preparing to use hundreds of millions of dollars from the SAF for non-K-12 programs. Enough is enough. It’s time we hold our elected officials accountable and demand that they keep the promise to the taxpayers, the children of Michigan and the future of our state. We can’t cut our way out of this problem, we need a solution that invests in education and seeks to prepare every child in Michigan for the 21st Century economy and workforce.

If the legislature would simply keep the promise of Proposal A and use the School Aid Fund for K-12, schools could see about a $260 per pupil increase next year. That’s right, if the legislature would reject the governor’s proposal to use School Aid Fund money for higher education our foundation allowances can go up rather than down.

What Can You Do??
With the very real threat of a $700 reduction facing our schools, it’s imperative that we let legislators know the importance of rejecting Gov. Snyder’s shift of community colleges and universities into the School Aid budget. Members of the legislature need to hear from education supporters not just in Lansing, but also in your district. Contact your state representatives and senators to find out when they’re available in the district to discuss the governor’s proposal. Tell them exactly what the proposed budget cuts will mean for your school and let them know you’ll be informing your community about the broken promises from Lansing.

The governor has talked about "shared sacrifices" but proposed a budget with nearly $2 billion in tax reductions for business paid for, in part, by huge reductions in education. SOS has supported sacrifices by school employees with reduced pensions and increase payments. We also support having all school employees share in the cost of their health care premiums. We absorbed reductions in various aspects of our school funding over the past several years. We’ve moved from being one of the highest funded K-12 systems in the country to being below average. Let’s be fair. We’ll make sacrifices but Lansing is going too far with this proposal.

When you talk with your legislators stress the importance of keeping the promise to the voters and children of Michigan. We’re asking superintendents and school boards to work on documents to help explain the budget scenario to the public. We’ll be providing you with templates and ideas over the coming weeks.

Keep this fact in mind, if the legislature rejects Gov. Snyder’s proposal to shift money away from schools, there’s enough in the School Aid Fund to avoid cuts this year. Lawmakers must work on a solution that stabilizes the General Fund and keeps the promise of Proposal A.
~ Michelle Thomas