Republicans reject bill to reduce school funding cuts

Democrats in the Michigan legislature attempted yesterday to pass a bill that would reduce proposed cuts in funding for K-12 schools by $270 million but the Republican majority rejected the legislation. Rep. Brandon Dillon of Grand Rapids, sponsor of the bill, reacted in a press release:

“We need to restore education funding now instead of using it to finance Governor Snyder’s massive business tax cut next year. There is more than enough money in the balance sheet at the end of the fiscal year to restore these cuts that have hampered our students for the past two years; cuts which would never have passed had lawmakers expected such a surplus. An overwhelming majority of Michigan’s residents know that this vital school funding should go toward our children’s education, not to subsidize tax cuts for corporations. It’s too bad House Republicans don’t agree.”

The School Aid Fund is expected to run a surplus of more than half a billion dollars next year, but Gov. Snyder and the Republican-led legislature wants to move the state’s higher education funding into that fund, which would add more than a billion dollars in outlays and thus require steep cuts in K-12 funding, instead of using that surplus to boost Michigan’s elementary and secondary schools.