U.P. schools challenge state shift of School Aid Fund money to general fund

At least two school districts in Michigan’s upper peninsula are not happy with a move by state lawmakers to shift a “surplus” of funds from the state’s School Aid Fund to the General Fund in a move to balance the budget, reports the Escanaba Daily Press.

The move happened earlier this month when lawmakers approved, and Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a measure to shift $208 million from the SAF to the General Fund. The money, lawmakers argue is necessary for the budgeting process. Lawmakers also felt the move was acceptable because the federal government had just approved $26 billion Education, Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. Michigan is expected to receive $300 million from the Act for education.

Education funding has taken hits over the last several budget cycles because of declining revenues from sales tax and lottery sales.

The issue, school officials in the U.P. argue, is that no one has a time frame for when that money will be available, what rules will govern it’s use and how it will be distributed across the state.

So those officials say that lawmakers have “robbed” the education fund to balance the budget. In the meantime, as schools attempt to balance out their annual budgets, most of which began July 1 without any real concrete knowledge of state income, are left reading budgetary tea leafs to figure if, or when, they will receive a per pupil funding increase.