Mich. Senate bill aims to reduce school districts’ administrative costs

If one Michigan senator gets her way, school districts with over 1,000 students and an administrative overhead above 28 percent of the district’s budget will see a five percent cut in state school aid funds.

State Sen. Patty Birkholz, a Saugatuck Republican, is pushing the measure to “challenge” local districts to “make better spending decisions,” reports the Grand Rapids Press. The newspaper, using Birkholz’s formula found that of the 14 Grand Rapids area schools districts could lose funding under the plan. Twenty-one area districts, meanwhile, would not be affected by Berkholz’s proposed formula for cutting.

The formula is unfair, say school officials.

“With all due respect for Senator Birkholz, her legislation unfairly lumps all school districts together and judges them on a one-size-fits-all approach that does not take into account the size, demographics, or scope of support services that districts offer and, in some cases, are mandated to provide,” [Grand Rapids Public Schools] district spokesman John Helmholdt said.

The plan would result in a $6 million cut to the Grand Rapids schools, the Press notes.

Caledonia Superintendent Jerry Phillips said his district’s ranking — the 10th-highest in the state — is the result of a $1.2 million rebate paid to Steelcase Inc. after a tax tribunal ruling that for state accounting purposes is counted as an administrative expense.

“But even when you take that out, we have a 100-square-mile district with high transportation costs,” he said. “And the expenses we’re talking about are heat, fuel, electricity — all those things are lumped into that category.”

The Michigan Association of School Administrators says the 28 percent figure is arbitrary, and Birkholz says it is just a starting point.

Watch for this issue to heat up as lawmakers begin budget negotiations and the battle to pass the state budget by Oct. 1. That budget will have address an estimated $1.6 to $1.8 billion deficit.