Get smarter about funding schools
February 21, 2007
As Michigan wrestles with uncertain finances, schools are left vulnerable to dangerously flawed quick-fix strategies. From deciding whether to close schools, how to get students help or what the right funding level is, Michigan is having a hard time making its policies match its oft-stated priority of providing a top notch education for all. The consequences of that struggle are rapidly adding up.
Demand results for tutoring funds
February 21, 2007
The length of time it can take common sense to reach government is astounding.
The Michigan Board of Education made the right move in its recent call for tougher scrutiny of tutoring companies working with struggling low-income students. Requiring more accountability is a sensible fix that should have happened ages ago.
These companies play such a pivotal role in helping underachieving schools meet the demands of No Child Left Behind, it only makes sense to review their credentials and their ability to improve results for students.
And there is plenty of room for improvements, judging from a U.S. Government Accountability Office study last fall. It showed that few of the students in need of help are actually getting it. Only 19% of eligible students nationwide received tutoring.
More pathetic were the results for Michigan, with only 14%, or 11,044 of the 80,971 eligible students, actually receiving tutoring assistance.
Federal law requires Michigan to do better by students in need. Any school where students fail to show annual progress for three years must set aside a portion of its federal funding for tutoring.
Truthfully, the federal standard could be toughened further. It contains a bedeviling loophole allowing districts to use tutoring money in other areas if they are unable find enough students to use the service. The goal is supposed to be encouraging tutoring, not offering cash-starved schools a way around the need.
But until the feds are willing to fix the larger flaw, the Michigan board has taken probably the best available step to ensure that more students in need get the quality help to which they are entitled.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Reform district spending, or red ink will keep flowing
February 21, 2007
Expecting another mid-year cut in per-pupil state school aid, educators expressed a huge sigh of relief when Gov. Jennifer Granholm instead proposed raising taxes with her 2-cent solution.
The Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, appears to be reinvigorated after last year's defeat of Proposal 5 and is promising "an all-out lobbying effort" to support the governor's plan.
But the 2-cent solution won't solve the underlying problem for public schools. Shifting funds or raising taxes only provides a short-term fix, and we'll continue to face these tax increase debates until schools get spending under control.
Data from the state Center for Educational Performance and Information Web site. www.michigan.gov/cepi, shows that total revenue -- and total spending -- for schools in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties has increased more than the rate of inflation for over the past 10 years. And, these increases are despite the "spending cuts" that schools are quick to point out year after year.
See the facts for each county listed in the attached chart. These numbers are state, local, and federal revenue and do not include bond dollars. Note that inflation during this time period was 24.9%.
Michigan taxpayers and businesses attempting to survive in a horrible economy should feel insulted with a tax increase now, especially given that it serves in part to bail out local school boards that refuse to adapt.
But the alternative -- simply holding school boards accountable -- might result in our children paying the price.
So as the debate begins, legislators should make sure that any tax increases be directly coupled with requirements that school boards start spending wisely.
In the 2000-01 school year, schools spent 21.4% of their budgets on benefits, which totaled $2.8 billion. By 2004-05, benefit spending skyrocketed to $3.6 billion and represented 25% of spending. The Legislature bears some responsibility for maintaining an out-of-date retirement system, but school boards are the larger problem, because they continue to approve employee health benefits they cannot afford.
District organization also wastes money. There are scores of high-performing districts around the country with 30,000 to 50,000 pupils, but not in Michigan.
Following that sizing model in the tri-county area suggests 15-20 districts might be appropriate, but there are currently 83. Macomb County has 21, Wayne County has 34, and Oakland County has 28. Just a 1% savings through district consolidation would translate into $60 million more available every year to spend on teachers or programs -- or to avoid layoffs and cuts.
These ideas are nothing new; school boards simply ignore them.
While Granholm chose not to address the benefit problems, she did recognize the value of consolidation. Unfortunately, she wants to rely on incentives, which have been offered in the past without success. This time the governor said she'd consider penalties next year if the incentives don't work.
Under less dire circumstances, incentives would be appropriate, but this budget shortfall demands swift and effective action. School boards are known for neither -- with or without incentives.
Assertive leadership and a coordinated approach with Republican lawmakers could solve much of this now by requiring school finance reform rather than waiting for a definite "maybe" in the future.
Pull the concept of penalties forward a year. Include a similar plan to help drive reform on health benefits. Revamp the retirement system to match what the state does for the rest of its employees. And if there's time left, then finish the job of moving elections to November and return millions to the classroom.
MIKE RENO is an elected trustee of the Rochester Community Schools and president of a software manufacturing firm in Troy. Write him at reno@rcs-reno.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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