|
 State
Board of Education Launches Study to Improve School
Infrastructure
Michigan State Board of Education, March 30, 2004
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The State Board
of Education is partnering with education financing experts to
study and make recommendations on how the state can best meet
critical funding needs to repair crumbling school buildings and
invest in school infrastructure.
This effort, working with the Citizens Research Council and the
Michigan State University Education Policy Center and Institute
for Public Policy and Social Research, coincides with the
10-year anniversary of passage of Proposal A that redesigned the
way public education is funded in Michigan.
“It is widely recognized that along with all of the positive
things that Proposal A provided the residents of Michigan, one
of the glaring deficiencies was that it failed to address school
capital financing,” said State Board of Education Treasurer John
C. Austin.
The State Board is authorizing former State Treasurer Doug
Roberts, currently the Interim Director of Institute for Public
Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) at Michigan State University,
and David Olmstead, attorney and former Detroit School Board
member to study and fashion a set of recommendations for the
State Board to forward to the Governor and state Legislature
regarding school capital financing.
“Although Proposal A helped close the gap in classroom funding
between wealthy and poor school districts, we still see an
alarming disparity in school facilities and technology,” said
state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins. “Some of
our schools are state-of-the-art and some are in a
state-of-disgrace.”
State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus related
that Michigan is one of only eight states that has no state tax,
grant, or subsidy supporting construction funding and is
expecting the report to offer the Board a set of recommendations
to address the problem.
“The state Constitution entrusts with the State Board of
Education the duty to advise the legislature as to the financial
requirements of public education,” Straus said. “We see this as
an urgent requirement of public education, while still
recognizing the fiscal constraints facing the state and its
taxpayers.”
The State Board of Education is asking that the set of
recommendations be organized around
• what can be done to assist schools within existing parameters;
• what could be changed in the next four years to address the
issue; and
• what are long-range issues that need to be addressed to create
21st Century learning environments for all of Michigan’s
children.
“Enlisting the assistance of highly-respected school financing
experts like Doug Roberts and David Olmstead will provide an
objective and honest review of these issues with solid,
non-partisan recommendations that the state legislature will
trust,” Straus added.
Roberts called school capital financing “the unfinished business
of Proposal A” and said that it is time now to write that
chapter in the book of school financing.
“I believe that many of us who worked on Proposal A knew that
this issue was not addressed. It is clear to me that the
inequity in operational funding which Proposal A reduced,
continues to exist in the funding of capital outlay. I am
pleased to be part of this effort to try and resolve the unfair
situation which currently exists" Roberts said.
The State Board expects the report with recommendations to be
presented by the end of summer.
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