The state’s proposed funding decrease of $218 per student across the state has been shot down, but negotiations over education budget cuts continue.
The proposal was rejected 106-2 in the House, late last week, but work still remains on a budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The government is currently running on a continuation budget that expires midnight, October 31.
“They are going to renegotiate,” State Representative Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) said. “But they will have to [agree on a budget] soon.”
Moss told The Highlander a 21 percent decrease in state revenue forced the need for budget cuts. The auto industry’s domestic decline, Moss said, has been a cause of this decrease.
Last week, the Michigan Education Association told the Detroit Free Press, the killed $218 per pupil proposal would have resulted in 10,000 teacher layoffs across the state.
Locally, the proposed cut would have created a $1.75 million budget shortfall for the Birmingham Public Schools District. The school district’s budget was written last June.
“We have already made a budget for this school year,” said BPS Director of Community Relations Marcia Wilkinson, last week before the move was shot down, “and this will be another burden that we have to deal with.”
According to Wilkinson, to make up for this possible loss, the Birmingham Public Schools would have had to take out money from their equity funds. This would only be possible if the Board of Education votes in favor of such withdrawal.
The proposed cuts were seen as too deep, but schools will still likely see decreased funding.
“They shot down the $218 per student proposal,” said Moss, “but they will be renegotiating a new one.”
Wilkinson said that she is encouraging everyone to contact their state representative to try to lower the budget cut proposal.
“We are trying to at least make the budget cut more reasonable like around $100 per student,” said Wilkinson.
Moss said the state still has $600 million available from the federal stimulus bill, but the legislators are unwilling to use it all in the first year, in case the state’s economy worsens.
“Down the road, there may be cuts as much as $300 or $500 per student if we use it all this year,” Moss said.
Seaholm parent Kristen Getschman opposes future cuts to education spending.
“We always say that we want to prepare our kids for the future,” said Getschman, mother of former student Emily Getschman, and current senior Bill Getschman, “but we cut K-12 students first before anything else.”
Getschman also added that because Birmingham Public Schools has already cut staff to consolidate with budget cuts, she doesn’t know where else they can cut to stay afloat.
Seaholm junior Griffin Korner agrees.
“They already take a lot from us,” said Korner, “so I don’t get why they need to take more.”
Wilkinson said that the state legislature has proposed other ideas to replace this cut, but they have fallen short.
“We have pitched ideas like increasing the tobacco and alcohol taxes,” said Wilkinson, “but they turned down both of those ideas.”
Moss said that the legislature does not want to cut education, and there have been talks about other possible tax ideas. They could be anything from bottled water, to sporting event tickets.
