Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel
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Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel
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Capitol Report Archives March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 Go to current Capitol Report for links to complete archive. Voting Records 2003-04 |
Record Number Attend Lobby Day-Thank You! Early Education Bills Move with Some Opposition Suspended Students' Enrollment in Strict Discipline Academies Steroid Use and Athletic Eligibility Service Credit for Teaching on a Miliary Base Removal of Community College Trustees WCCC Penalized For Ignoring The Process K-16 Rally-June 21, 2005
Links to current Legislative Action Alerts
may be found on the Legislative Hotline page of this website.  Return to Top Record Number Attend Lobby Day-Thank You! We want to thank our members for attending Lobby Day 2005. We had 220 MFT&SRP members and 107 Legislators registered to attend. We regret that some of the Legislators failed to show up even after calls were made to their offices and commitments were obtained for at least a staff member to join us. Lieutenant Governor Cherry's address regarding increasing high school requirements and the necessity of at least two years of college in today's job market was very interesting and informative. He thanked our members for their dedication and hard work in educating Michigan's students. Everyone seemed to enjoy Tim Skubick's lively audience-driven discussion with our legislative panel. And of course we want to thank our members for their generous MFT&SRP PAC contributions totaling $1200. PAC money is vital to support strong education candidates. We greatly appreciate your suggestions for improving Lobby Day and will try to incorporate as many of them as possible into next year's agenda. A majority of the members in attendance indicated that they would like to have an optional session at 10:00 a.m. for those who can make it here earlier and suggested various topic they would like to discuss. We are already working on some changes for next year's event to give more time for our members to become familiar with legislative issues and convey their opinions to their state legislators. Return to Top Early Education Bills Move with Some Opposition The Senate Education Committee reported part of a package of bills designed to improve and encourage early childhood education in the state. School organizations, including the MFT&SRP, are concerned that the package would move funds away from other vital at-risk programs. Also, the change in the kindergarten eligibility date would mean significant funding cuts for districts, not to mention lack of pre-kindergarten programs available for these children caught in the change. Senate Bill 324 requires a child to be five years old by November 1 (instead of December 1) in the 2007-2008 school year, by October 1 in 2008, and by September 1 in 2009. A school district could adopt an exemption policy allowing a child who is four years old by September 1 to attend kindergarten. Senate Bill 325 amends the State School Aid Act so it would comply with Senate Bill 324. This bill also prevents school districts from enrolling a child if another school district determined that he or she is not eligible to enroll early. Senate 328 allows settlement money under the Durant rulings to be used for early intervention programs. The settlement provided additional funds for special education costs. The bill as reported allows some of the funds to also be used for reading programs targeted to grades K-3. Senate Bill 329 allows $1 million already in school aid funding to be used for early intervention grants in three model school districts and 15 approval sites. Senate Bill 330 expands the use of existing at-risk funds to be used for early intervention programs. This package has been amended due to MFT&SRP and other school organizations' concerns. We will continue to monitor these bills as they move through the legislature. The following two bills remain in committee for further negotiations: Senate Bill 326 requires a school district to devote at least one of the required five professional development days a year to training about pupil learning, if the district had an above-average percentage of pupils in special education. Senate Bill 327 increases the number of reading credits a teaching major needs in elementary-level reading from six to nine and secondary majors to at least six reading credits. Also, future teachers would need to do field work at schools with above-average numbers of special education students. And, the teaching major would need to be trained in one-on-one early intervention to reduce the need for special education placement. Return to Top Suspended Students' Enrollment in Strict Discipline Academies Senate Bill 69 (Birkholz, R-Saugatuck) would include suspended students among those permitted to attend strict discipline academies. Currently, expelled students can be enrolled in strict discipline academies for offenses including possession of a dangerous weapon, arson, criminal sexual conduct, assault against a school employee, a bomb threat, by a court, or by the student's parent or legal guardian. Since many students are suspended rather than expelled, Senate Bill 69 would add to this list suspended students who are referred to an academy by the school and placed there by the student's parent or guardian. However, a suspended student would be allowed to attend the strict discipline academy only for the duration of the suspension. Senate Bill 69 has been approved by the Senate House Education Committees and was referred for second reading on the House Floor. Return to Top Steroid Use and Athletic Eligibility House Bill 4118 (Acciavatti, R-New Baltimore) would require the board of a school district or a public school academy (charter school) to ensure that its athletic eligibility policies make the use of a performance-enhancing substance a violation that will affect a student's eligibility. Under the bill, the Department of Community Health would be required to develop, periodically update, and make a list of performance-enhancing substances available to school districts, charter schools, and nonpublic schools, following the bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. House Bill 4118 has been approved by the House Education Committee and referred for second reading on the House floor. House Bill 4594 (Mortimer, R-Horton) banning possession of anabolic steroids in school drug free zones; House Bill 4595 (Ball, R-Laingsburg) banning possession of anabolic steroids in park drug free zones; and House Bill 4596 (Caul, R-Mt. Pleasant) setting sentencing guidelines for violation of park steroid fee zone law have been approved by the House Health Policy Committee and referred for second reading on the House Floor. Return to Top Service Credit for Teaching on a Miliary Base Senate Bill 180 (Stamas, R-Midland) would amend the Public School Employees Retirement Act's definition of "out of system public education service" to include, beginning October 1, 2005, service performed as an elementary or secondary teacher at a United States armed forces military base in the United States or a foreign country, if the service were performed before January 31, 1991. Public Act 194 of 1989, however, amended the Public School Employee Retirement Act to set a deadline of January 31, 1991, on the purchase of service credit for teaching at a military base and in other situations, and repealed sections that allowed the purchase of service credit for other specific types of employment. Public Act 194 also established what is called a "universal buy-in", which allows a member of the retirement system to purchase up to five years of service credit for any reason. The bill simply would reinstate one service credit buy-in for people who qualified for it when the service credit was allowed, but were unable to purchase it at that time. Senate Bill 180 has been passed by the Senate and referred to the House Education Committee. Return to Top Removal of Community College Trustees House Bill 4360 (Bieda, D-Warren) would amend the Community College Act to allow for the removal of a member of board of trustees of a community college who fails to attend six consecutive regularly scheduled meetings of the board without a valid excuse. In such circumstances, the remaining members of the board could vote to remove the member by majority vote and could declare the office vacant, as of the date of the removal resolution. The bill would take effect January 1, 2007. A "valid excuse" would be defined as medical incapacity, an out-of-state work commitment, or military service. Currently under the law, the office of a member of a community college board of trustees becomes vacant immediately when an incumbent dies; is adjudicated insane or found mentally incompetent; resigns; is removed from office; is convicted of a felony; has the election or appointment declared void; refuses or neglects to file the acceptance of office, or to take and subscribe to the constitutional oath of office; and ceases to possess the legal qualifications. Under the bill, all of these provisions would be eliminated. Recently a Macomb County Community College trustee, elected to a six-year term, repeatedly failed to attend board meetings-missing 11 of 13 meetings scheduled in the year 2000, and all meetings in the following two years. The officers of the college depend on the elected seven-member lay board to conduct business. The chronic absence of one trustee hindered the operation of the college. At times a quorum was difficult to achieve, while at other times board votes were tied. The customary way to remove a college trustee who flagrantly violates his duty is to circulate recall petitions and schedule a recall election. An alternative way would be to amend the Community College Act to provide for removal of a trustee under particularly egregious violations of attendance rules. House Bill 4360 has been approved by the House Committee on Higher Education and Career Preparation and is currently on second reading on the House floor. Return to Top WCCC Penalized for Ignoring the Process The Joint Capital Outlay Committee decided on April 21 that the Wayne County Community College will be barred from receiving state capital outlay dollars for the next two years, and barred for one year from using any money, period, on capital improvement projects. Last April the community college entered into a $14 million dollar deal to purchase the former University of Detroit-Mercy campus, without prior approval of the legislature's Joint Capital Outlay Subcommittee. The Senate Appropriations Committee sent out numerous notices in the last year to all the state's universities and community colleges informing them of the need to obtain prior approval for capital outlay projects and of how the Legislature's Capitol Outlay process works. Members of the Joint Capital Outlay Committee have been working to restore the panel's traditional role and authority in the approval and oversight of capital expenditures at the state's colleges and universities. It's a role that some believe had been largely ignored in the past. According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Wayne County Community College was notified on six occasions of the requirement to submit a finance and use statement to the panel since the purchase occurred a year ago. The panel finalized an agreement in February of this year that the process would be changed to force universities and colleges to obtain prior approval rather than moving ahead on their own and considering the Joint Capital Outlay process as an afterthought. Under the new process, if an institution goes ahead with a project without prior approval, that institution is barred for two years from obtaining the state's 50 percent match for any capital outlay project. In addition, that institution is barred from using any of its own funds on a capital improvement project for one year, unless a capital expenditure must be made for safety purposes. Under the rules of the panel, Wayne County Community College will not have to sell the land, but for essentially two years, will not be able to get a state match on any improvements to the campus. We will continue to monitor this situation with the hope that a solution can be found. Return to Top K-16 Rally-June 21, 2005 Speak Up for Michigan's students, the economy and the future! Attend the "K-16 Rally" on June 21 at the Lansing Center. Register for the K-16 Rally online at www.michigank16.org. Download the K-16 Rally Flyer. [.pdf 184k] You will need the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader to download .pdf files. If you don't have the Reader installed on your computer, you can download it by clicking here. Return to Top |
