David Hecker
President

Lois Lofton Doniver Secretary-Treasurer

Louise Somalski
Legislative Coordinator

April, 2006

Links to current Advocacy Campaigns
may be found in the Legislative Action Center

School Aid Budget FY 2006 - 2007
Higher Education FY 2006 - 2007
Community Colleges FY 2006 - 2007
School Employee Felony List - Public Act 84, 2006 (HB 5675)
Michigan Merit Curriculum
Board Approves English and Math Content Standards
New Teachers' Reading Training Requirements Enacted
Special Education Transportation

School Aid Budget FY 2006 - 2007

Senate Bill 1095, as passed the Senate, appropriates $13,116,590,700 for the 2006 - 2007 fiscal year, about 2.6% more than the current year's budget. Highlights include:

Foundation Allowance. The Senate increases the basic foundation allowance by $225 per pupil to $7,100. (Sec. 22a and 22b)

Reimbursement for Fingerprinting. The Senate adds $3.5 million to reimburse districts for cost of re-fingerprinting anyone previously fingerprinted between 1- 1-93 and 12-31-05. (NEW Sec. 11M)

Equity Payment. The Senate adds a per pupil payment of up to $60 to districts with FY 2006-07 foundation allowances below $7,160. (NEW Sec. 22c)

Placeholder. The Senate added ten $100 "place holders": deficit mills adjustments, ECIC collaborative grants, declining enrollment, elementary math/reading grants, middle school after-school program, health sciences middle college program, career/technical education curriculum alignment, and competitive grants to districts to enroll students in Michigan Virtual High School courses.

School Readiness. The Senate increases this line item by 10% and increases per pupil allocation to $3,400. (Sec. 32d)

ISD General Operations. The Senate concurs with the Governor and provides for a 3.3% increase to mirror the foundation allowance increase. (Sec. 81)

ISD 0-5 Program. The Senate and Governor increase this line item to $10 million to include learning opportunities promoting age-appropriate language, math, and early reading skills. (Sec. 32j)

Child and Adolescent Health Centers. The Senate adds $2.0 million to fund 11 centers that previously received planning grants, but no operational funding in 2005. (Sec. 31a(6))

Children of Incarcerated Parents. The Senate adds $1.87 million for a pilot program for children with incarcerated parents. Eligible districts must have a free breakfast or lunch eligibility rate of 60% or more and must use the funds to provide video and/or audio conferencing and academic or social support from qualified personnel. (NEW Sec. 31c)

Declining Enrollment. The Governor appropriates $50 million to address the problems of eligible declining enrollment districts. The Senate appropriates only $100 as a "place holder." (NEW Sec. 29)

Middle School Math Initiative. The Senate and Governor eliminate funding for this program.

Book-A-Month Program. The Senate appropriates $1,000,000 for a new line item for grants to provide children with a book each month from birth to age 5. (NEW Sec. 32m)

Automated External Defibrillators. The Senate adds $100,000 to provide grants for districts to purchase at least one AED. (NEW Sec. 99c)

Supplemental Foundation Allowance Payment for FY 2005-06. The Governor appropriates $41,500,000 to make an additional payment of $25 per pupil in FY 2005-06. The Senate does not include this supplemental payment; however, this Section is used as a place holder for adjusting the foundation allowances of districts with deficit operating budgets. (Sec. 22e)

Michigan Virtual High School. The Senate concurs with the Governor and adds language requiring the MVHS to provide online preparation resources for pupils that would be web- based tools for the ACT and the revised MEAP exam, and would include practice tests, test-taking strategies, diagnostic tools, self-paced online instructional tutorials, and electronic feedback reports for students and schools. (Sec. 98)

Math and Science Centers. The Senate concurs with the Governor and states that the additional $1,000,000 was earmarked for those centers determined by the Department of Education as able to provide curriculum and professional development support to assist districts in implementing the Michigan Merit core curriculum components for math and science. (Sec. 99)

Hours of Instruction. The Senate changes the number of professional development hours that can be used as hours of instruction from 51 to 38 after the expiration of current local bargaining agreements. (Sec. 101)

Schools of Choice. The Senate adds a provision stating that if a district enrolls and counts a nonresident pupil in membership under the schools of choice provisions, the district must continue to enroll that pupil regardless of whether the pupil has been suspended or expelled from another district prior to the pupil being enrolled and counted in membership in that nonresident district. (Sec. 105(10) and Sec. 105c(10))

Adult Education. The Governor changes the payment to be based on 75% for enrollment and 25% for completion. The Senate retains current law such that payment remains at 90% for enrollment and 10% for completion. The Senate adds language stating that the additional $4.0 million must first be used for new programs with any additional funds allocated equally among existing programs. (Sec. 107)

Retirement Rate. The Senate concurs with the Governor and proposes the rate to be increased by 1.4 percentage points to a total of 17.74% of payroll, compared to the FY 2005-06 rate of 16.34%. (Sec. 147)

Programs Transferred. The Senate and Governor appropriate $48,973,400 to the School Aid budget for transferred programs formerly funded in other department budgets with GF/GP in FY 2005-06. These included: Juvenile Detention Education, Youth Challenge Program, Vision and Hearing Screenings, School Breakfast Program, Pre-College Engineering Program, School Bus Safety Inspections and MEAP Assessments.

Community College Support. The Senate replaces $43.9 million of General Fund support to the Community College budget with the same amount from the School Aid Fund.

Higher Education FY 2006 - 2007

Senate Bill 1088, as passed by the Senate, appropriates a 2% increase over the current year's budget. The budget totals $1.777 billion. Highlights include:

State Competitive Scholarships. The Senate retains the FY 2005-06 scholarship programs but reduces $500,000 in Federal funds.

Tuition Grants. The Senate retains the current-year program with an application deadline of July 1, 2006. (Sec. 302)

Michigan Merit Awards. The Senate concurs with the Governor in projecting total FY 2006-07 expenditures of $127.7 million, with $55.9 million for the second payment for the class of 2005 and $55.4 million for the first payment for the class of 2006; no payments are included for class of 2006 out-of- state students. The FY 2005-06 appropriation is $126.4 million.

Tuition Incentive Program (TIP). The Governor recommends a $2.0 million GF/GP increase for TIP due to an increase in caseload; an FY 2006 - 2007 appropriation of $14.0 million will fund over 7,600 students, with $7.4 million GF/GP and $6.6 million from the Michigan Merit Award. (Sec. 310(3))

Michigan Leadership, Education and Development (MiLEAD) Initiative. The Senate concurs with the Governor to add a program to provide $5.0 million grants to higher education institutions for residential programs for at-risk youth to earn college credits while they perform conservation- based community service. The Senate adds eligibility for independent colleges and universities. (Sec. 313)

Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS). The Senate concurs with Governor to increase MPSERS rate to 17.74% for 2006 - 2007. (Sec. 437)

Reporting Requirement. The Senate adds requirement that all 15 public universities report to the Legislature on how much of their research is put into commercial use.

Education Degrees. The Senate adds requirement for reports on efforts to increase education degrees conferred for teaching of middle school and high school math, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain foreign languages. (Sec. 711)

Community Colleges FY 2006 - 2007

Senate Bill 1082, as passed by the Senate, appropriated $287.1 million to the Community College Budget. The General Fund total in the budget is $243 million, with the remainder largely coming from the state's School Aid Fund. List below are some the highlights:

• Operations. The Senate appropriates a 2.1% increase over the current years budget. (Sec. 102)
• Wayne County Community College receives an additional $225,000 which restores half of the funds that had been cut in 2003 - 2004 that was added to the totals of three other colleges that year.
• The balance of the funding is distributed through the model adopted by the Performance Indicator Task Force.
• In addition, the Senate replaces $43.9 million of General Fund support with the same amount from the School Aid Fund.

At Risk Funds. The Senate restores language eliminated by the Governor that allowed for At-Risk funds to be used for the purchase of equipment. (Sec. 401)

Allocations to AFT Michigan locals are listed below:

Renaissance Zone Reimbursements. The Governor recommends a 10.3% increase for this program to reflect anticipated need. The Senate concurs. (Sec. 404)

ITEM Funding. The Senate restores language eliminated by the Governor that states legislative intent to restore funding for infrastructure, technology, equipment, and maintenance. (Sec. 220)

Community College Increases. The Senate restores language eliminated by the Governor that states legislative intent to ensure community college funding increases are similar to university increases. (Sec. 239)

Economic Development Job Training. The Senate restores language eliminated by the Governor that states legislative intent that 70% of the economic development job training grant money be awarded to community colleges. (Sec. 240)

Employee Health Insurance. The Senate restores language eliminated by the Governor that prohibits the use of state funds to provide benefits to unmarried partners or for abortion services for college employees. (Sec. 230 & Sec. 231)

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School Employee Felony List - Public Act 84, 2006 (HB 5675)

House Bill 5675 was intended to increase the chances that future criminal history lists compiled under the Student Safety Initiative would be accurate - particularly by the time they get into the hands of the news media. By July 2008, lists should not be required as all school personnel will have gone through fingerprinting and background checks.

This "band-aid" legislation makes the following changes:

• The State Police and Department of Education are to take all reasonable and necessary measures using available technology to ensure the accuracy of school personnel conviction information.
• The conviction information shall include only individuals who are current school employees at the time of the comparison or who are regularly and continuously working under contract at the time of the comparison.
• The conviction list provided to the schools will contain all convictions for all crimes.
• The conviction list available to the public will allow the release of convictions for all felonies and physical and sexual abuse misdemeanors. However, the Department of Education can only disclose a list of the other misdemeanors without personally identifiable information sorted by district. The identifiable information will be given to the local school districts.
• The conviction list is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act for 15 business days after the date the record is received by a school district. If information is determined to be inaccurate during this exemption period, that information is exempt from disclosure.
• Before employing a student under the age of 19 (or under 26 and enrolled in special education program/services), a school shall perform a criminal history check on that person using the State Police's Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT).
• Contracted employees working more than intermittently or sporadically in schools to provide food, custodial, transportation, counseling, or administrative services, or to provide instructional services to pupils or related and auxiliary services to special education pupils are included in criminal history and background checks.
• Not later than May 1, 2006, the Department shall submit a report to the legislature that details the number of individuals working in schools who have been convicted of a sex offense or any felony as of January 1, 2006.

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Michigan Merit Curriculum Signed into Law

House Bill 5606 and Senate Bill 1124 have been signed as Public Acts 123 and 124 of 2006. This legislation establishes new requirements for high school graduation. A chart highlighting portions of these new requirements has been posted on our website at: http://www.aftmichigan.org/files/michiganmerit.pdf. Please refer to this chart for detailed information.

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Board Approves English and Math Content Standards

The State Board of Education has approved the grade level content expectations in mathematics and English language arts. Specific course requirements are expected to be completed by August.

The English Language Arts expectation portion contains four "strands" dealing with writing, speaking, and expressing; reading, listening, and viewing; literature and culture; and language. Each of the strands contains multiple standards.

The mathematics area also contains four "strands" - quantitative literacy; algebra and functions; geometry and trigonometry; and statistics and probability.

Though the standards were approved unanimously by the board, there were some outstanding concerns about how they would translate into course-level expectations and about what expansions might be provided in the future.

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New Teachers' Reading Training Requirements Enacted

Senate Bill 327 was signed to become Public Act 118, and establishes additional reading instruction requirements. All teachers holding provisional certification will be expected to show evidence of successful completion of a three-credit diagnostic and differentiated instruction reading course with field experience before applying for their professional certification as of July 1, 2007. This applies to any teacher applying for professional certification on or after July 1, 2007.

To meet this requirement, the course should include the following elements as determined by the Department of Education to be appropriate for the person's certification level and endorsements: interest inventories; English language learning screening; visual and auditory discrimination tools; language expression and processing screening; phonemics; phonics; vocabulary; fluency; comprehension; spelling and writing assessment tools; and instructional strategies.

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Special Education Transportation

Public Act 90 of 2006 (Senate Bill 866), allows an intermediate school district (ISD) that purchases a special education transportation service from a constituent district under specific conditions, to continue to report to the State for reimbursement. It also requires the Department of Education to remove that amount from the costs reported by the constituent district.

Previously, the state could reimburse the ISD for the special education transportation services when they were purchased from a private company, but it would not allow the ISD to be reimbursed for the same services when purchased from a local district even at a lower cost.

State law did not allow both the ISD and the local district to submit the costs for the same services. Neither did it allow the local district to isolate those costs associated with the contract and deduct them from its own submission for reimbursement.

Without a change in law, only the constituent district, which bears the actual cost of the service, could submit the costs for reimbursement. Senate Bill 866 changed the law to allow the ISD to be reimbursed for the cost of certain services provided by a constituent district.

Beginning with calculations for 2004-2005, if an ISD purchases a special education pupil transportation service from a constituent district at a lower cost than previously purchased from a private entity, the cost will be reimbursed by the Department. The cost shift from the ISD to the constituent district must not result in any net change in the revenue that the constituent district receives.

Bracelet found at Lobby Day. Call 517-371-4300 to claim.

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