I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
In her weekly radio address, Gov. Jennifer Granholm implored lawmakers to boost government revenue in order to restore deep cuts made in state funding for K-12 education, arguing that those cuts will cripple some school districts and force all schools to increase class size and reduce student choices. The governor said:
Throughout my tenure as Michigan’s governor, I have stressed how critical education is to our state’s economic health and its future. We’ve made it our goal to have the best educated workforce on the planet, and we’ve expanded opportunities for Michigan citizens of all ages to go to college or get the technical training that they need for good-paying jobs.
This week, I took two actions to defend all the progress we’ve made in education from a serious threat – the Legislature’s failure to fully fund the school aid budget.
On Monday, I signed that school aid budget so that our schools could keep operating. Because it was not a balanced budget as required by law, I also made over $54 million in line-item vetoes. But even cuts of that magnitude, didn’t solve the problem.
On Thursday, I announced that state law would require an approximately $127 per-pupil cut in school funding unless the Legislature acts within 30 days to find the revenue to restore this funding.
Why did I take these actions? Because in simple terms, the school aid budget that arrived on my desk was a bad check that bounced almost as soon as it was written. In fact, our state treasurer found that there was a gap between the amount the Legislature voted to spend on our schools and the amount they set aside to pay for it. Clearly, that is unacceptable, and it threatens our schools with deep cuts months into the new school year.
If these cuts aren’t restored over the next month, school districts across Michigan will begin making painful adjustments in their own spending. Teachers and support personnel will be laid off. Class sizes will increase, and the many programs that make our schools rich and rewarding experiences for our children will be lost.
We cannot afford to let that happen, and we won’t. Citizens across our state are speaking out loudly about the need for new revenues for our schools. And there are already signs that lawmakers in both parties are willing to do what’s right to fund our schools.
In fact, our state House has actually passed several measures to increase revenues to fund critical needs in our budget, and they are ready to do more. There’s no reason our state Senate can’t follow suit.
The key is hearing from you. If you share my belief that we need to provide our schools the critical funds they need, I hope you will speak out.
When our schools are hurting, Michigan’s future is in danger. So let us work together for stronger schools and a better Michigan.
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