The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Senate cuts funding
Governor vows to veto reductions in state per-pupil spending
By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: March 29, 2007
While the Republican-led Senate rejected Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan for a 2 percent sales tax on services, the governor fired right back on Friday saying she would never approve the Senate's budget plan, which would trim $377 million from the School Aid Fund and $255 million from the state general fund.
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the end result most likely will be a combination of cuts and some kind of revenue-enhancement plan.
The Senate Republican plan called for reducing funding to public schools by $34 per pupil from its current $7,085 minimum per student.
School officials in Manchester and throughout the area were glad to see the governor quickly dismiss cutting $377 million from the schools.
The Republicans argued that the $34 is much less than previous numbers recommended and that most districts have enough revenue to deal with the reduction without the cuts reaching the classrooms.
But that already has happened in Manchester, with the Board of Education on March 19 approving $317,000 in cuts affecting teachers, transportation and support services.
Liz Wingfield, finance director for Manchester Community Schools, said further cuts may be necessary because of the recent reduction.
"We've been very proactive, but we're getting to the point where we're really going to take a hit," she said. "We should be cutting more, but that was the decision the board made. It probably wasn't enough, but we'll do our best."
Wingfield said the state had initially promised a $210 increase in per-pupil aid this year, but she prepared a much more conservative spending plan just in case.
"I based our 2006-07 budget on an increase of only $150 per student, and the actual increase was $176 per student."
Wingfield said increases in the district's personnel costs of negotiated salaries, insurance premiums and retirement contributions added up to $272 this year.
"We've already spent that increase and then some on fixed costs that we have very little control over," she said.
Other local districts are facing worse consequences because they have more students.
"A $34 per-student cut for Chelsea would be about a $95,000 hit," said Teresa Zigman, executive director of business and operations for the Chelsea School District, which has 2,799 students.
"What concerns me is that from what I have read so far it sounds like the $34 per student is just one part of the equation," Zigman said. "There is a $377 million cut required and the $34 per student only reflects $54 million of that total cut. I haven't seen anything yet on where the rest is coming from."
Evelynn Shirk, superintendent of Dexter Community Schools, agrees that the proposed cuts would cause serious problems for most school districts, saying the proposal was a "call to action."
"Any money taken away midyear is a problem," she said. "Because the school year is almost over, the money will probably come from reserves. This is a call to action. We must all contact our legislators and let them know that they need to fix the structural problem which exists in school funding."
A $34 cut in Dexter's budget in 2006-07 would translate into a $121,000 cut this school year for the district's 3,596 students.
The $34-per-student reduction means a loss of about $45,000 to the Manchester district with just over 1,300 students, and results in the district going into deficit spending this year.
The district likely will have to dip into its $1.67 million fund balance, or "savings account," to make up the difference.
"Obviously this is going to put us in a more difficult position," Wingfield said.
Granholm and the Legislature are close to an agreement on trimming only the first $310 million of the $940 million needed to be cut from the current fiscal year budget.
State Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-District 52, said the Republican's plan would have drastically hurt Michigan schools.
"It's just not realistic," she said. "It would have hurt our cities, our schools and our public safety. The cuts would have been devastating."
--Heritage Newspapers Editor Terry Jacoby contributed to this story.
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