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 ISDs
Face Budget Cuts Amid Oakland Scandal
by Judy Putnam, Booth Newspapers, April 08, 2004
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LANSING --
Spurred by scandals at one of the largest of the 57 intermediate
school districts, lawmakers are turning their attention to the
agencies that have operated under the radar for 40 years.
Fiscal problems at Oakland County's intermediate school district
have made ISDs an unfair target for budget cuts, said Mike
Flanagan, executive director of the Michigan Association of
Intermediate School Districts. The Senate is proposing to chop
$12.5 million of the $91.7 million in state funds for ISDs in
the coming budget year.
ISDs serve groups of school districts located in a county or in
multiple counties. They provide services across school lines
such as special education, transportation and vocational
education.
State Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said ISDs aren't being
punished by the cuts. Jelinek said he supports ISDs and the job
they do but It's a tough budget year and ISDs have been spared
in the past.
"It's their turn,'' said Jelinek, the chair of the subcommittee
on higher education spending. "They've kind of skated in the
budget reductions.''
Flanagan disagrees. "Even if it's our turn, that's an excessive
turn,'' he said.
He said ISD officials across the state are angry at Oakland
Schools for tainting the ISDs' reputation.
A long-brewing investigation at Oakland Schools culminated last
week with three charges filed by state Attorney General Mike Cox
against former Oakland School Superintendent James Redmond. The
most serious accusation is a 10-year felony for embezzlement.
Oakland Schools has been under fire for months for reports of
excessive spending on travel, gifts and meals and for using
special education dollars to help build an executive office.
"I think Oakland screwed up and it brought attention. I think
it's unfortunate,'' Flanagan said.
Cutting funds to the ISDs also puts the GOP-controlled
Legislature at odds with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She
wants the intermediate districts to use $7.6 million of their
existing budgets to improve early childhood education and create
new options for dropouts.
But the Senate last month voted to cut ISDs by13.6 percent,
taking away money for those initiatives. The budget goes to the
House when lawmakers return April 20.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the governor doesn't want to
punish all ISDs for problems in Oakland, but was still angry
over the reports of lavish spending and lack of oversight.
"We certainly have seen a situation we don't want repeated in
any way, shape or form,'' she said.
Boyd said the administration is willing to fight for ISD money.
This year, $3.3 million of ISD money was channeled to a "Great
Parents, Great Start" project to make sure parents of small
children understand how they learn and know the importance of
reading and talking to their kids. Granholm wanted to double
that in the fiscal year starting Oct.1.
"We're working on a very tight budget, but obviously we're
interested in keeping that part of the governor's budget in
place,'' Boyd said.
Lawmakers have also been working on making ISDs more
accountable. Rep. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, the chair of a special
subcommittee on ISD operations, has pushed for what she calls
transparency in ISD operations.
The House voted last month to make public the selection of ISD
board members, elected by the school boards within the ISD, and
to provide ways to recall those members.
Also, a majority of school districts will have to approve the
ISD budget annually. Those changes now go to the Senate.
Johnson so far has failed to get one reform she wanted: allowing
voters to decide whether ISD board members are popularly
elected.
Flanagan said school groups supported making elections public
but opposed the popular election of ISD board members because
they were created to work for the districts, not directly for
the public.
Other bills still to be pursued, Johnson said, are efforts to
publicize salaries and other economic information of the ISD
employees.
"They are a little-known layer of government that just happens
to have $1.5 billion,'' with local millages, state support and
federal dollars, Johnson said.
"People deserve transparency. With public money, you should be
accountable to the citizens, to the taxpayers and the parents of
these kids," she said.
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