David Hecker
President

Lois Lofton Doniver Secretary-Treasurer

Louise Somalski
Legislative Coordinator

May 2008

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

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Revenue Estimates Leave $400m Hole in '09 Budget

The recent Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference projected the state collecting $472.3 million less revenue than estimated in January ($309.1 General Fund and $163.2 million School Aid Fund). Fiscal experts predict that the state can finish the 2007-08 year without budget cuts, and still provide some funds to carry into the new fiscal year.

Now lawmakers must focus on how to balance the 2008-09 budget which could be as much as $393 million in the red. The budget deficit for 2008-09 is estimated at $207 million for the General Fund, and $186 million in the School Aid.

The School Aid Fund is faring better than the general fund, but financial experts agree that it is not likely that school districts will see the foundation grant increases that the governor recommended of $108-$216 per pupil, or even the Senate-passed increases of $71-$142. Senate Fiscal Agency Director Olson suggested the school aid shortfall means the foundation grant would have to be trimmed.

House Fiscal Agency Director, Mitch Bean, said policy decisions at the state and federal levels were two-thirds of the problem. The sputtering national economy can be blamed for the rest. In the new fiscal year, most of the lowered estimates were blamed not on the economy but the new film credit and the federal stimulus package as well as the reduction of casino revenues as permanent facilities open.

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2007 - 2008 School Aid Supplemental

House Bill 5531 (Gillard, D-Alpena) was signed by the Governor to become Public Act 112 of 2008, providing School Aid supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2007- 2008. In addition to some technical cost adjustments, the bill contains several other positive supplemental adjustments, totaling $11.9 million in State funds.

Specifically, the bill appropriates:

• $4.7 million to ensure that districts receive at least their prior-year funding amounts for the School Readiness Program (Sec. 32e).
  
  
• $2.0 million in additional School Bond Loan Fund debt service (Sec. 11j).
  
  
• $1.3 million for grants to sparsely populated, rural districts (Sec. 22d). (Districts with five or fewer pupils per square mile, 200 or more square miles or has consolidated transportation with combined 200 or more square miles.) Funds will be distributed on equal per pupil basis - approximately $32 per pupil. AFT Michigan districts qualifying for this payment include:

Rudyard Area Schools $31,000
Whitefish Schools $ 1,707
Crawford AuSable Schools $60,118
Lake City Area School District $38,020
Fairview Area Schools District $10,984
Onaway Area Community School District $25,227


• $0.6 million for end-of course prototype assessments (Sec. 104).

The bill also transfers $3.3 million in Federal assessment funding to the Department of Education to support more assessment functions performed in-house rather than under contract.

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House Panel Reduces Higher Education Across-the-Board Increases

The House Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee approved Senate Bill 1099 with equal across-the-board 2.7 percent increases, compared to 3 percent in the Senate-passed version. The subcommittee continues the current-year structure of dividing the budget into four articles, including a separate one for the three largest research universities.

Their $1,799.4 million higher education budget provides more money to offset Indian tuition waiver costs which vary from campus to campus, and to boost funding for state competitive scholarships. The $2.4 million for Indian tuition waiver payments explain the differences in total appropriation for each university, which range from four getting the minimum 2.7 percent increase to high end of 4.4 percent for Lake Superior State University.

The bill adds another $2.4 million to the competitive scholarship program, which would bring its total to $37.9 million. The extra money allows the maximum award to be boosted to $1,400 from $1,300. In the separate tuition grant program for students at private colleges, the bill deletes Senate- approved language expressing intent that the maximum grant be increased 3 percent.

Senate Bill 1099 now moves to the full House Appropriations Committee for their consideration.

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House and Senate Volley College Projects in Capital Outlay Budget

The Senate and House have passed Senate Bill 511 back and forth seven times since last September, with the Senate stripping college and university projects from the bill and the House putting them back. On May 15, the House transferred the airport construction funds from the Capitol Outlay Budget to the Department of Transportation Budget.

The bill is currently in the Senate, with the college and university projects once again restored. Senate Bill 511 (Sub. H-9) contains $1,060,970,500 ($494,837,500 state's share) for university projects and $408,835,800 ($204,417,900 state's share) for community colleges.

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HPV Information in Schools

House Bill 5322 (Clack, D-Flint) has been signed to by the Governor to become Public Act 121 of 2008. Schools are now required to include information about human papillomavirus (HPV), with information they provide on other health issues to parents of pupils in at least grades 6, 9, and 12. Under this law, if at the beginning of a school year, a school district provides information on immunizations, infectious disease, medications, or other school health issues to parents and guardians of pupils in at least grades 6, 9, and 12, the school must include information about HPV and the vaccine for HPV. That information must consist of at least the following:

• The risks associated with HPV.
• The availability, effectiveness, and potential risks of immunization for HPV.
• Sources where parents and guardians can obtain additional information about HPV and can obtain vaccination of a child against HPV.

The Department of Education, in cooperation with the Department of Community Health, must develop and make available information concerning HPV to school districts, public school academies, and nonpublic schools, the same as they already do for meningococcal meningitis.

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Mandatory Full-day Kindergarten by 2011

House Bill 4662 was introduced by Representative Virgil Smith (D - Detroit) on April 25, 2007. This bill has been amended and approved by the House Education Committee and now awaits action by the full House. House Bill 4662 would take effect January 1, 2009. This legislation would:

• Require school districts and charter schools to provide kindergarten if they provide first grade. (Districts are not currently required to provide kindergarten, although all do.)
  
  
• Phase-in a requirement that by school years 2011-12 children who reach the age of five after September 1 each year be enrolled in school. (Currently, parents must send children to school for the school year in which they become six years old before December 1. A child who becomes six after December 1 must be enrolled by the following year.)
  
  
• Allow parents to sign a waiver form to exempt from public school attendance a child who is younger than age six on December 1 of the school year. (This would be in addition to current public school attendance exemptions, such as attendance at private school or home schooling.)
  
  
• Continue to grant students the right to attend school if they are (1) at least five years of age on December 1 and less than 20 years of age on September 1 of the school year; or ( 2) for special education students who are less than 26 years of age, on September 1 of the school year. (Currently, children who are five years old on the first day of enrollment of the school year have the right to attend school.)

House Bill 4662 was amended in the House Education Committee to require full-day kindergarten, as of the 2011-2012 school-year, only in schools that fail to meet adequate yearly progress for the most recent two consecutive years under the federal No Child Left Behind law. (This stipulation would exclude most kindergartens and create a haphazard approach to this sound education policy.)

AFT Michigan supports House Bill 4662 without the restriction on requiring full-day kindergarten only to schools that fail to meet adequate yearly progress for the two consecutive years. We believe all schools must be required to provide full-day kindergarten.

ACTION NEEDED: Contact your State Representatives and urge their support of House Bill 4662 without the restriction of only full-day Kindergarten in schools that fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress.

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Literacy Skills Training and Curriculum

Senate Bill 842(Kuipers, R-Holland) would require training on diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities and differentiated instruction in the continuing education requirements for all superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and teachers. Senate Bill 842 is currently on the Senate floor.

Senate Bill 842 would require all teachers, superintendents, principals, and assistant principals to complete five professional development days of training that cover reading disabilities as part of their continuing education requirements before July 1, 2011. AFT Michigan lobbied to change this bill from the original version which required a three-credit course on reading disabilities or face losing certification. The change from college credit to professional development allows teachers more flexibility.

Most teachers who have graduated within the last six years have already received reading disability education and would not need the additional training.

Senate Bill 842 would also require the Department of Education to do the following:

• Develop and make available a model summer English language arts program that schools could adopt for students entering grades 1 through 4 who had shown the need for additional literacy skills training.
  
  
• Develop or adopt a model early intervention program meeting the requirements of an intervention program under Senate Bill 1275, that schools could use to improve students' reading skills during the academic year.
  
  
• Develop and make available a statewide resource guide on public and private supplemental service providers that could help parents improve their child's literacy skills.

Senate Bill 1275(Kuipers, R-Holland) would add several literacy requirements for pupils in grades K-3. Action on this bill was delayed because the Department of Education is work on language changes. Senate Bill 1275 is tie-barred to Senate Bill 842.

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NCLB - School Restructuring

Senator Kuipers also introduced Senate Bill 1013 as part of the above package. Under this bill, a school that does not meet No Child Left Behind's Adequate Yearly Progress for five or more consecutive years would be subject to one or more this the following measures.

• The Superintendent of Public Instruction must appoint an administrator to the school, at the school's expense, until the school makes adequate yearly progress under NCLB for two consecutive years.
  
  
• A parent of a child who attends the school may send his or her child to any public school within the school district that is making adequate yearly progress under NCLB.
  
  
• The school, with the Superintendent's approval, must align itself with an existing research-based school improvement model or establish an affiliation for providing assistance to the school with a college or university located in the State.
  
  
• The school must be closed.

Senate Bill 1013 is also undergoing major revisions in the Senate Education Committee.

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State Suspends Student Loan Program

Due to the ongoing turmoil in the capital market the Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority (MHESLA) was forced to suspend its participation in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) on April 21, 2008. MHESLA made loan purchases for this month on a single date, April 17; funded on Friday, April 18. Loans that are originated by MHESLA were disbursed by the close of business Thursday, April 17.

This action follows the February 15, 2008 suspension of the MI-LOAN alternative loan program. When financial market conditions warrant and funds become available, MHESLA will resume originations and acquisitions of both FFELP and MI-LOAN loans. This temporary suspension will not affect any of the approximately 570,000 FFELP loans currently in MHESLA's $2 billion plus portfolio.

The MI-LOAN program was suspended in February, also because of lack of access to capital. Suspension of the program and the state's inability to borrow money to operate them is not tied to the state's credit rating. The program does not directly lend to students, but rather purchase loans issued by banks under the FFELP.

The MI-LOAN program provided loans to students who might not otherwise qualify for federal student loans. The state loan program provides a number of benefits for students including covering the costs of origination fees and elimination of interest for certain programs.

For your reference a Question and Answer document is posted at the following Web site: www.michigan.gov/studentaid. If you have additional questions contact MHESLA at (888) 643-7521.

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Applicant & Employee Rights and Employer Prohibitions

The House has approved a packaged of bills aimed at protecting applicant and employee rights. These bills will now be sent to the Senate for committee action.

House Bill 4532 (Gonzales, D-Flint) would create the "Employee Privacy Protection Act" prohibiting an employer from taking certain adverse actions against an individual who is engaging in, or is regarded as engaging in, a lawful activity both (1) off the employer's premises and (2) during non-work hours. This bill was amended on the House floor to exclude employers with less than fifty workers a year.

House Bill 4887 (Miller, D-Mt. Clemens) would create the "Job Applicant Credit Privacy Act" under which an employer could not (1) fail or refuse to hire an individual because of that individual's credit history; or (2) inquire about a job applicant's or potential job applicant's credit history. This bill was amended on the House floor to exclude casinos, banks, credit unions and other places where the work entails dealing with money.

House Bill 4926 (Hopgood, D-Taylor) would create the "Respect for Physical Differences Act" prohibiting an employer from discriminating against an employee or prospective employee based on body type, degree of physical fitness, or other physical characteristics.

House Bill 4927 (K. Law, D-Gibraltar) would create the "Employee Family Health Privacy Act" prohibiting an employer from discriminating against an employee based on a known or believed illness or health condition of a member of the employee's family.

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