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Engler rebuffs Education Department's call for
more workers
By Judy Putnam, MLive & Booth
Newspapers, Lansing Bureau, September 24, 2002
For more articles on disabilities and special ed visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
Michigan will lose federal dollars because too few state
workers are available to oversee grants to local districts,
state education officials warn.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins, hired
by a Democrat-controlled state Board of Education, is butting
heads with the GOP Engler administration over adding new
positions.
Watkins asked for 45 new positions, to be funded by federal
programs, six weeks ago. Officials say those positions are
critical, and won't affect the ailing state budget.
"I don't believe the most arch-conservative, free-market
person would say the Department of Education is overstaffed,''
Watkins said. "I just want the ability to do the job for the
children of the state of Michigan.''
But Engler hasn't approved the new hires because he wants to
make sure dollars go to the classrooms, said Susan Shafer,
Engler's spokeswoman. The proposal is under review, but it's
unlikely all the positions will be granted, she said.
"Do we spend more money building up bureaucrats in Lansing or
do we send more money back to the classroom?'' Shafer said
"We're looking at it from a different perspective.''
Early retirements and executive orders have dropped the
department work force down to 256, including 80 at the
Michigan Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Flint.
A decade ago, there were nearly 2,000 workers in the
department. By 1999 there were 417, dropping to 344 last year,
according to Department of Education officials.
In the most recent round of retirements, only eight of 48
retirees in the central office of the Education Department
were replaced, while all 18 workers at the state schools who
work directly with children were replaced.
Engler officials have approved 26 new employees for the fiscal
year that starts Oct. 1. Those include 15 new positions to
administer the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That would
inch the work force back up to 283.
In addition, Watkins wants the 45 new positions plus eight to
replace recent retirees, all of which would push the total to
335 workers."I don't think we're being unreasonable, but we
have got to have people in key positions so we can flow money
through to schools,'' said T.J. Bucholz, spokesman for the
Department of Education. "The administration has chipped away
at this department and has limited our ability to disseminate
dollars to local school districts.''
Shafer said Watkins is free to shift employees around to cover
priorities.
Already, the department says money has lapsed, or is in danger
of lapsing back to the federal government because it was
unspent. The department lapsed $179,000 in unspent special
education funds last year and $1.3 million for technical
assistance to charter schools this year. Only 10 percent of a
$1 million grant to expand Advanced Placement programs has
been used, and the money may have to be returned, Bucholz
said.
Deputy Superintendent Carol Wolenberg says the department may
have to hire consultants, which is more costly than hiring
employees.
"It's an incredible burden on existing staff. They are all
working 100 to 150 percent. They're either going to leave us
for private sector jobs or go out on sick leave,'' she said.
Contact Judy Putnam at (517) 487-8888 or e-mail her at (517)
487-8888.
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