Seaholm Highlander

The news wasn’t very good to begin with: Birmingham School District was already staring in the face a loss they claimed was going to amount to $16M over the next two years.

But Monday night, when Governor Jennifer Granholm vetoed funding for the 20J fund (a veto that precludes 50 school districts, Birmingham included, from approximately $1M each), matters got much, much worse.

Needless to say, Granholm picked a highly inopportune time to deny Michigan public school districts significant amounts of money.

Though the 20J fund is not officially dead, whether or not it will make it through both the State House and Senate again with a twothirds vote in each chamber to overturn Granholm’s veto is highly questionable. In short, the future of the fund is doubtful.

It has been speculated that Granholm took this action in an attempt to force representatives from the 50 school districts—many of whom are heavily Republican—to vote for tax hikes that have recently been introduced.

It is true that the proposed raise in taxes that Granholm is fighting for would in some ways be a prudent option in the midst of the state’s current budget crisis. However, to hold public school students hostage in an attempt to get what she wants is a failure in leadership on the part of the governor.

Though Birmingham School District is considered to be one of the wealthier districts in the state, that does not necessarily mean we will be without a serious problem when the budget cut sets in. The amount of money that the district is losing has been described as ‘unprecedented’. Being without $4M--this year alone--is not a problem that can be solved easily, especially considering the board was not expecting such mammoth cuts to be made. Dealing with a deficit of $16M over the next two years will not be any easier. The lost money cannot be simply absorbed into the district. Cuts, unfortunately to something, will have to be made.

This cut is considered to be a mid-year cut, so the administration will attempt to reallocate the funds such that the loss will not affect students this year. The leadership of Birmingham School District has done an admirable job in preparing for such a crisis, banking nearly $20M dollars in a “rainy day fund”.

Clearly, this is a rainy day.

Comparatively, we are in better shape than other districts across the state.

This can, in part, be chalked up to good leadership on the part of our central administration. Though the cut is not what we expected, and hardly what we hoped for, we have the means to make it through this crisis.

This being said, it is doubtful we’ll be able to stay afloat that much longer at the rate the ship appears to be taking on water.

Especially considering Granholm is slowly adding more to the boat, bucket by bucket.