House votes to reduce K-12 cuts

The Michigan House of Representatives voted today to restore a large portion of the cuts in per-pupil spending on K-12 education by using $184 million in federal stimulus funds that were set aside to help balance next year’s budget. In a press release from the House Democrats, Rep. Terry Brown (D-Pigeon) said:

“While this plan will help ease the pain felt by schools across the state, districts are still going to see significant cuts. Investing in our children is the best decision we can make right now. With tough economic times ahead, we must do all we can to protect their future and find ways to avoid even deeper cuts to funding next year.”

The problem is that this only kicks the can down the road, leaving next year’s school budget in even worse shape. What is needed here is serious action to put school funding on a stable and permanent foundation, not one-time bandaids that only put off a real solution.

Indeed, the bill even contains a provision calling for an additional $52 million to restore half the cuts made by Gov. Granholm by line-item veto to the state’s highest spending school districts and also supplement funding for the state’s poorest school districts. The problem is that the money would come out of the Michigan Future Fund – which, for all practical purposes, does not exist. It has no funding source and the House didn’t bother giving it one. They might as well pledge to fund the schools with monopoly money.

There was one item in that bill that does help in that regard, however, and that is a provision that requires the legislature to finalize the next fiscal year’s school aid budget on June 1 instead of October 1 each year. This is a very good idea and one that is long overdue.

As it stands, the local school districts have to set their budgets for the next school year in July but they don’t have any idea what the state funding package is going to look like until October, nor do they begin to get any state aid until October. They’re left guessing at what the legislature is going to do and it forces school districts to borrow money every year to cover their expenses between July and October. And every dime spent on interest is a dime that can’t be spent on the education of students.

The legislature needs to set the school aid budget before the local schools set their budgets. That’s the only rational way to do things — which probably explains why we don’t do it that way.

In order to become law, this bill would have to be passed by the Republican-led Senate. The chances of that happening would appear to be slim and none.