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Michigan
Alternative to Pro-Rata School Cuts Looks Less Likely
from Gongwer News
Service, January 21, 2003
For more articles visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
Legislative Republicans, who last week strongly suggested they
would seek an alternative to the school funding cuts announced
by Governor Jennifer Granholm, changed course Tuesday when
Senate Republicans said they backed Ms. Granholm's move.
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) said the
pro-rata cut in school aid ordered last week Ms. Granholm is
fair and that the reductions being felt by the school
community should be placed in perspective given the
larger-than-inflation increases schools have received in
recent years. Senate Republicans met privately Tuesday to
discuss the cuts.
Ms. Granholm was bound by statute to order a pro-rata
reduction to address a $134 million deficit in the current
2002-03 fiscal year, but has said she is willing to work with
the Republican-controlled Legislature on an alternative. The
back-and-forth between Democrat Granholm and the Legislature
is shaping up as their first real quarrel as each side vows to
cooperate in a bipartisan fashion while gently chiding the
other for not doing so.
The Legislature has until February 13 to pass an alternative
package. But the prospects for an alternative now look less
likely than last week. A spokesperson for House Speaker Rick
Johnson (R-LeRoy) also said the House GOP would not put forth
its own proposal.
"When you look at its impact on a variety of school districts,
generally I think it's pretty fair," Mr. Sikkema said of going
the pro-rata route. "I think it's very important to keep some
overall perspective on this. We have drastically increased aid
to public education, far above inflation. This cut represents
about 1 percent of what schools are getting this year. I think
it's doable."
The pro-rata approach, which trims the basic per pupil
foundation grant for operations by an average of $56 and cuts
so-called categoricals that provide additional funding for
at-risk and adult education programs, requires all districts
to share the pain. In the past, former Governor John Engler
and the GOP Legislature slashed categoricals and protected the
foundation grant. That shielded rural districts from the cuts
while concentrating the reductions on urban areas.
Mr. Sikkema said he has asked the Senate Appropriations
Committee to review the cuts, but said the challenge is to
stay within the school aid budget and the lower revenue
estimate for the school aid fund. Getting an infusion from the
general fund is not an option given its own deficit issues, he
added.
The Senate majority leader said the bigger concern is in
2003-04 when the budget will be under greater pressure with an
estimated $365 million shortfall.
Sikkema spokesperson Bill Nowling said last week that an
alternative was likely to the pro-rata reductions, but said
Tuesday that once the initial upset at the prospect of
education cuts wore off, pro-rata became more palatable in the
context of the large funding increases of recent years. Over
the past three fiscal years, the minimum per pupil grant has
increased by 17.5 percent compared to inflation of about 6
percent during that same period.
"It took a few days to look at that," he said.
Granholm spokesperson Mary Dettloff said the governor still
wants to work with the Legislature on an alternative, but
would not say if Ms. Granholm would offer her own plan.
"We'd like to come up with something that will soften the
blow," she said. "That's the endgame here."
Ms. Granholm wants to sit down with legislative leaders from
both parties to discuss an alternative, Ms. Dettloff said.
"Part of the situation we have now is that (legislative
Republicans) aren't used to having a governor wanting to do
that," she said.
But Matt Resch, a spokesperson for Mr. Johnson, said the House
speaker is always willing to meet with Ms. Granholm. The House
GOP will wait for Ms. Granholm to offer an alternative instead
of putting forth its own proposal. Offering a House Republican
alternative without knowing Ms. Granholm's point of view would
be "shooting in the dark," Mr. Resch said.
"At this point, the governor has not put forward any kind of
proposal to look at," he said.
One official from a school group said she thinks the
Legislature ultimately will opt for an approach different than
pro-rata. Nancy Stanley of the Michigan Association of School
Administrators said the pro-rata cuts disproportionately hit
rural districts that have received the largest increases in
recent years to make up for historic underfunding.
Ms. Stanley said she would like to see the Legislature, if it
cannot find any revenues to patch the current year deficit,
cut all districts by the same percentage of their state
funding. Under pro-rata, some districts get cut by up to 4
percent while others are well below 1 percent.
"Once the legislators look at the print-outs on these, they
may change their minds," she said. "It's by-and-large
Republican districts that were in catch-up (funding) areas
(getting cut)-Northern Michigan in particular."
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