School officials say Snyder agenda will decimate academics

Proposed school funding cuts and legislation to make it easier for state officials to take over fiscally troubled school districts will throw Michigan’s schools into poverty and uncertainty, education officials say.

“We are concerned as an association that the administration is taking almost a billion out of the school aid fund and giving it to college and universities,” said Michigan Association of School Administrators spokesman Brad Biladeau.

“If this proposal succeeds we’ll see cuts in excess of $700 per pupil. … There will be programmatic cuts. Many school districts will go into deficit, many will be forced to implement deficit elimination plans … a $700 cut is going to decimate academics in most school districts. No amount of restructuring can prepare you for a cut this severe this soon.”

Schools districts will be forced into state receivership and local school boards will lose control due to budget problems that were not their fault, Biladeau said.

“The revenue estimating conference in January showed funding for school districts was up in excess of $600 million,“ he said. “The funding structure is being changed out from underneath them.”

The rest of Michigan is about to learn what it is like to be Detroit, said Detroit Public Schools Board of Education member Elena Herrada.

The state-appointed emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, recently got approval to eliminate half of the city’s schools.

“What that means is that they are selling off schools to the charters,” Herrada said.

Herrada said that she was amazed that other educational institutions did not react to the plan to eliminate Detroit’s public schools

“People don’t believe it’s going to happen,“ she said. “As long as it is just Detroit I think the rest of the state doesn’t care because Detroit is just black people and Latinos, who are invisible.”

It’s hard to imagine what the Snyder administration’s additional funding cuts will do to Detroit schools, Herrada said.

“Anyone who can get on their feet and get out of here is going to,“ she said, the schools that will be left will serve kids living with “foster parents, grandparents, crack heads … they will be for the absolutely most limited.”

Herrada said that she is OK with the proposed legislation to make it easier for the state to takeover school districts because she thinks it will raise awareness of the injustice experienced in Detroit.

“When school boards are removed, when city councils are removed … People will realize they are just like Detroit,” she said.

“It is unfortunate that they would cut education funding that is critical to the survival of the state in order balance the budget,” DPS board chairman Anthony Adams said. “The surplus in the state school aid fund should be used to defer cuts in K-12 funding.”

Adams said the emergency financial management plan imposed on Detroit has not solved the system’s fiscal problems.

“The deficit has continued to grow because how we budget for schools, how we structure the finances for schools, makes it hard for a district to get ahead once it is behind.”

The plan to close half the city schools has created deep uncertainty for everyone involved with the school system, Adams said.

“The students need to know that the system is going to be there next year,“ he said. “Parents need to know what schools are going to be open. We don’t know yet which schools are going to close next year or when.”

The emerging crisis for Michigan schools shows a problem with the priorities of American society, said Maureen Taylor who advocates for poor people as director of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

“We can’t afford for children to be educated, for teachers to have pensions, can’t afford to build housing for poor people. Where the hell is all the money going?” she said. “There is money to fund wars in the Middle East — we got the 6th fleet on their way to Libya now. There seems to be money for everything — banks got bailed out, corporations got bailed out but the well is dry when it comes to funding things people need.”