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Governor Highlights Education
Workgroup on High School Graduation
Education Revenue Update
Report Gives State C+ for Education Quality
School Aid Supplemental Bill
Raising the Compulsory School Attendance to 18
Students with a Disability Bill Includes PSA Amendment
Lobby Day 2008
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Mark Your Calendar!
Lobby Day - April 22, 2008 |
Governor Highlights Education
In the Governor's sixth State of the State address, she focused largely on three general topics: the economy, energy and education. Once again, she called for the Legislative action on issues such as mandatory full-day kindergarten, raising the dropout age for high school students to 18 from the current 16 and the creation of "promise zones." "Promise zones" would combine property taxes and private contributions to pay for college tuition for graduating seniors in areas with large numbers of low-income families.
New to the Governor's education agenda is her proposal to encourage development of smaller high schools - with no more than 400 students - to replace larger high schools where student progress is lagging. If the entire "21st Century Schools Fund" is adopted, it is expected to impact 70 to 100 schools currently not making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) serving 28,000 to 40,000 students.
The plan would be funded through bonding issued against a $32 million payment now made for special education. The schools would have to be chartered by the local school district, but much of their operations would be independent of the district, with the principal of each school having more autonomous authority than principals in other schools.
The Governor also previewed her higher education budget proposal, which will offer colleges and universities more money for completing degrees, creating opportunities for low-income students and turning research into commercial projects. In her job creation proposals, the Governor included bonding money for new bricks and mortar construction projects, including higher education buildings.
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Workgroup on High School Graduation
In preparation for her State of the State Address on January 29, the Governor Granholm named a bipartisan workgroup to help come up with ideas to improve the percentage of students who graduate from high school in Michigan. The Superintendent of Public Instruction coordinated the workgroup.
Included in the workgroup were Senator Jelinek (R-Three Oaks), Senator Kuipers (R-Holland), Representative Cushingberry (D-Detroit), Representative Melton (D-Auburn Hills) and Jim Ballard, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Administrators; David Hecker, President of American Federation of Teachers-Michigan; Justin King, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of School Boards; William Mayes, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators; and Iris Salters, President of the Michigan Education Association.
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Education Revenue Update
Michigan has been struggling economically since 2000-01 while the national economy has seen growth. However, when the Revenue Estimating Conference met January 11, the fate of the national economy was a major worry.
Although revenues for the current fiscal year will likely be lower than anticipated last spring, some officials are hopeful the state can avoid budget cuts for the rest of the fiscal year, largely because of the $350 million surplus from the 2006-07 fiscal year. Even with slightly smaller general fund revenues for the upcoming 2008-09 fiscal year, officials expect the budget for that year to be nowhere near as difficult to complete as the budgets for the last several years.
The conference agreed to a total revenue estimate for the current fiscal year of $20.6 billion, down by $369.9 million from the May estimate. The general fund portion of the estimate will total $9.247 billion, down $234.1 million. School Aid Fund revenues will total $11.353 billion, down $135.8 million.
Even with the revenue reductions, the current 2007-08 fiscal year totals are $1 billion more than the final revenues for the 2006-07 fiscal year, aided largely by the income tax increase adopted at the start of the fiscal year and the surcharge to the Michigan Business Tax. This should allow the state to finish this fiscal year (ending September 30) with a general fund surplus of more than $200 million that can be applied to the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The School Aid Fund will be helped somewhat by a lower than anticipated pupil count. The school population in both K-12 and charter schools totals 1.653 million this year, down from the anticipated population of 1.665 million. The decrease is due to fewer children being born since the early 1990s. (The state is down more than 86,000 pupils since its peak in 2002-03 as students have graduated and smaller kindergarten classes have come in.) For the 2008-09 school year, the state now anticipates a pupil population of 1.628 million, down about 25,000 students from this year.
For the 2008-09 fiscal year, the conference agreed to total estimated revenues for the general fund and SAF of about $21.1 billion, up $464.6 million from the current year. The increase is due entirely to an anticipated $517.5 million increase in the SAF which the conference said would top $11.870 billion.
Governor Granholm must use the information provided by the January Revenue Estimating Conference in establishing her proposal for the next fiscal year. The Administration will present its 2008-09 budget recommendations at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 7 to a joint meeting of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees.
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Report Gives State C+ for Education Quality
In a recent report in Education Week Magazine, Michigan's overall education quality ranks just above the national average, earning a C+. State officials defend this by noting that the areas where the state ranks well in the report are areas that have been subjects of efforts by the Department of Education in recent years. Michigan's numeric score was 77.8.
Of the six general categories, Michigan rated best on standards, assessment and accountability (A-). The national average grade for accountability was a B. The state scored well on standards and assessments because it had most of the elements the review sought, like extended response items on all tests, alignment of the tests to state academic standards, and a system of accountability for schools outside the federal adequate yearly progress measure. Among the things missing, were having the tests designed to measure student growth consistently from third grade through eighth grade, but these measures are being worked on.
Michigan rated worst on K-12 achievement (D). Achievement was based on 2007 scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, where Michigan improved on all but 8th grade reading from the prior test, but was still behind the national average on all but 4th grade reading. The state also saw its graduation rate fall to below the national average for 2003-04. The national average was a D+.
The other area where Michigan was behind the rest of the nation was in the teaching profession, with a D+ to the nation's C. Among the state's failings were not making teacher education programs accountable for classroom performance (18 states do that), not linking student and teacher records (12 states do) and not tying teacher evaluations and student performance (12 states do). The Governor presented proposals in her State of the State speech that address many of these areas.
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School Aid Supplemental Bill
House Bill 5531 (Gillard, D-Alpena) is a school aid supplemental bill utilizing a portion of the surplus money from the 2006-07 fiscal year budget. House Bill 5531 has passed the House K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee. This bill must still pass the full House Appropriations Committee and the House, followed by negotiating its way through the Senate and on to the Governor. To date, there is no agreement between the two chambers or with the Governor on these expenditures.
Budget Changes from FY 2007-08 YTD Appropriations:
- Proposal A Obligation Payment (Sec. 22a) - The House provides a reduction to the current year appropriation of $61.0 million to reflect changes in taxable values and pupil membership blends.
- Discretionary Payment (Sec. 22b) - The House reduces the current appropriation by $38.7 million to reflect changes in pupil membership blends.
- Supplemental Funding to Small, Isolated Districts (Sec. 22d) - The House allocates $1,275,000 to a new subsection that appropriates an estimated $33 per pupil for school districts that have 5.0 or fewer pupils per square mile and a total square mileage greater than 200.
- Mercy Education Project. (Sec. 31h) - The House adds $100,000 to Wayne RESA for the Mercy Education Project.
- Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) Collaborative Grants (Sec. 32b) - The House increases funding by $750,000 for a total of $2.5 million.
- Early Childhood Grants (Sec. 32c) - The House increases funding by $375,000 for a total of $2.5 million for 0-3 abuse and neglect prevention grants.
- School Readiness Program District Grants (Sec. 32d) - The House increases funding by $18.5 million to fully fund all participating districts' slots. This would increase the slots available statewide by over 5,400 for a total of over 29,200. The bill also provides $2.9 million to increase the per pupil allotment from $3,400 to $3,500.
- School Readiness Program - Competitive Grants (Sec. 32l) - The House increases funding by $400,000 to increase the per pupil allotment from $3,400 to $3,500.
- Special Education Payment (Sec. 51a) - The House decreases funding by $16.0 million to $990.5 million to reflect changes in special education students and estimated special education costs.
- FIRST Robotics (Sec. 99h) - The House allocates $300,000 for competitive grants to districts that provide high school pupils with expanded opportunities to improve math, science, and technology skills by participating in the FIRST Robotics competition. Applicants must provide at least a 50% match from other private or local funds. (This program was funded in 2006-07 at $150,000.)
- Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy (Sec. 99m) - The House allocates $100,000 to Wayne State University for the SEMAA (science, engineering, mathematics, aerospace academy) program. SEMAA shall make available at no cost its program to all kindergarten through 12th graders.
- Assessment Testing Costs (Sec. 104) - The House increase funding by $600,000 to begin to make secondary credit prototype assessments available to districts.
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Raising the Compulsory School Attendance to 18
House Bill 4042 (Lemmons, Jr. - D-Detroit) would require students attend public school until their 18th birthday or graduation. Currently, students may drop out of school at age 16. Before reporting out House Bill 4042, the House Education Committee amended it to include phase-in language. Under the as amended bill, students currently in the 7th grade would have to be 18 years old to leave school.
House Education Committee Chair Tim Melton also appointed a subcommittee to look at the institutional issues surrounding the drop out rates. Representative Hopgood (D-Taylor) will Chair this subcommittee consisting of Representatives Lindberg (D-Marquette), Dean (D-Grand Rapids), Emmons (R-Sheridan), and Opsommer (R-DeWitt).
AFT Michigan supports House Bill 4042 with the addition of phase-in language and continues to work for an amendment to include access to alternative education programs.
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Students with a Disability Bill Includes PSA Amendment
Senate Bill 730, as signed to become Public Act 1, 2008, effective January 11, amends the Revised School Code to replace references to a "handicapped person" with "student with a disability," and to state that a section of the code concerning the expulsion or suspension of a pupil does not diminish "any" rights (rather than "due process rights") of a special education pupil under federal law.
This act replaced the terms "handicapped person," "handicapped pupil," and "handicapper" in certain definitions and other provisions throughout the code with the term "student with a disability."
"Student with a disability" is defined as follows: "A person who is determined by an individualized education program team or a hearing officer to have one or more of specified impairments that necessitate special education or related services, or both, who is not more than 25 years of age as of September 1 of the school year of enrollment, who has not completed a normal course of study, and who has not graduated from high school."
Public Act 1 was amended in the House to allow a one-year window for charter schools to transfer their pupils and property to another public school without having to disband the school or hold a lottery for its pupils. A pupil who is transferred is not required to actually enroll in the other school, but may exercise any educational choice allowed under law.
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